Scott’s songs make top 100

Stanthorpe performers Penny Davies and Roger Ilott have had three songs included on ABC Music’s latest release, ‘Macca’s Top 100’.
‘Where the Cane Fires Burn’, ‘Hey Rain!’, and the song that put Stanthorpe on the map for many Australians – ‘The Monkeys Sing Soprano (Around Stanthorpe in July)’ all feature along with songs from The Waifs, Ganggajang, Neil Murray, The Basics, Ted Egan, The Pigrams, Digger Revell, Gary Shearston and many others.
The lyrics for all three songs were written by former Warwick resident, the late Bill Scott.
In 1986, when ‘Macca’ first heard Penny and Roger’s version of Bill Scott’s ‘Hey Rain!’, he commented, “That’s the kind of song I can build a show around”, and ever since then Bill’s songs, as performed by Penny and Roger, have been part of his national weekly program ‘Australia All Over’.
“Working on songs with Bill was one of the most rewarding creative experiences I’ve had in 45 years of being a professional musician,” Roger said.
“He was a gifted lyricist and poet and also came up with brilliant melodies for ‘Hey Rain!’ and ‘Where The Cane Fires Burn’. It’s wonderful that his work has been heard by millions of people around the world.”
Penny and Roger have released 20 albums since their first in 1983 – including the very popular ‘Opal Miner – The Songs Of Bill Scott’ in 1999.
They are working on a new album, ‘Boomerang Bay’, due for release in 2012.