Ebb Wren sings "The Forbes Flood" filmed by John Meredith
Channel: Rob Willis
Date: 2016-09-24

Ebb Wren (1914 - 1992)  was a traditional singer and musician from Forbes NSW.  The song is an excerpt from a film (not video) made by John Meredith and myself in 1990 a month after serious flood inundated the town and Ebb's house (see clip). It is a good example of how a 'folk song' develops. Ebb  heard a version of an American song, The Mississippi Flood as a child and simply changed the words to suit the local situation in the 1990s.  I uploaded this clip in September 2016 when my hometown of Forbes was threatened by the same flood levels as in 1990.
John Meredith shot many films for his 'Real Folk ' series on super 8 film and I was fortunate in being involved with many of them, a great lesson in technique and decision making.  There were no second chances as with video.