Just me and my guitar

In November 2022, on the way home from Queensland after buying a caravan, I stopped at Cunnamulla and while I was there I thought: "Why not make a video of me doing Cunnamulla Fella in front of the town's iconic statue?"

I had no proper microphone, no camera tripod and no idea what I was doing but I mucked around with a table and some chocks to get the camera facing the right way and after waiting for some religious fool across the road to stop busking with his shitty amplifier, (what are the odds?), I pressed record and did 3 takes.

I had no video editing software so I did no editing but simply picked the best take and uploaded it to my "RedPlanetIndustriesAustralia" YouTube account. I told the lady who owned the caravan park what I had done and in 2 days I had more views from this throwaway job that took just 2 hours than I had for all trouble, time and money that I spent on masterpiece that is "The Death Of Franz Schubert".

So I decided to make a thing of it and Martian Country Live was born!

So now, wherever I go around Australia I make videos of myself performing songs relevant to the place I'm at. I keep it simple: just me and my guitar, one camera, one stereo mic, no editing, no overdubs, no audio mixing. What you see is what you get: mistakes and all! I usually do 3 or 4 takes, pick the best one and upload it then and there.

I am steeped in Australian folk music like few others. I reckon I know nearly all of the many wonderful old Australian folk songs as I grew up listening to Alex Hood, Marion Henderson, Leonard Teale, The Bushwackers and many others. When I stop somewhere that has a song attached to it I do it! I also write my own songs about Australian places and of course I do them! Finally, I often adapt other people's songs to suit Australian conditions and when I'm in the right spot I do them!

It sounds like a simple idea right? But no one else seems to be doing it. In fact hardly anyone is recording Australian folk songs these days. They seem to be forgotten, which is TRAGIC! Also: Solo, self-accompanied singing live without amplification isn't something many people do these days either. You'd think it would be easy but if you watch clips of other people attempting this they are usually pretty BAD. If they sound and look perfect and polished you can be pretty sure that it's a professional production with all the cheats available.

Doing it the way I do is a great discipline: There's no cheats and nowhere to hide. You have to know the song well and you have to be able to sing and play at the same time. If you miss a note, people will hear it. If you miss a chord, people will hear it. If your voice is too weak it will be drowned out. If you forget the words you'll have to start again. It's harder than it looks! That's why there are mistakes. But it's REAL!

So go ahead people: Check out these songs and enjoy them BUT don't compare them to the polished professionally recorded pieces that you will hear elsewhere. This is just one man with one guitar, one camera and one mic. I do EVERYTHING! I don't even have an off-sider to hold the camera or check levels.

- Warren Mars 2024

These clips are only available on YouTube. You can find them in the "Martian Country Live" playlist on my RedPlanetIndustriesAustralia channel.

I have no intention to release these clips on other streaming sites as they are not the kind of polished professional pieces that are expected on those sites. Ideally I would like to record them properly in a studio but that would involve time, money and other musicians and I have no plans to do that at the moment.

Go to the YouTube videos playlist