Jason performs with Catgut and Air, a contemporary Melbourne-based multi-instrumental folk group comprising Sue Ferguson, Jason Goroncy, Jonathan Hicks, and David Rackham.
https://catgutandair.com/
Songs
Fred Williams
Music and lyrics by Jason Goroncy
© 2025 Jason Goroncy
APRA Work ID: GW75052280
With high horizon lines and dabs of grey
The ‘hostile’ scrub stands tall
The ochre speaks of ancient lands
That watched the empires fall
The Dandenongs and Upwey hills
Through your eyes, I see them new
Strange patterns, unregulated stumps
In amber, rust, and blue
The You Yangs rise in silhouette
Against an empty sky
Your acknowledgement in ink and oil
A call to hue and cry
Wadawurrung Country through different eyes
In scratchings, lines, and hue
The bushland’s voice, its hallowed speech
In strokes of gold sing through
Fred Williams, with your gentle eyes
You showed me what I couldn’t see
The vastness of the Australian bush
Its pregnant profundity
The land abstracted, reimagined
Through your steady hand
When I was 8, you taught me how to read
This wide and sunbaked land
Granite knolls rise up from the grassy plains
Ancient boulders flayed back to bone
Our presence in absentia
In gouache, a timeless home
Those rocky formations standing tall
By Geelong’s limestone shore
You etched them hard in aquatint
Like no gubba had before
And in your studio as the colours dried
New visions formed within your mind
As the sun went down, there rose an easterly breeze
‘In the end, there were the trees’
Between nineteen sixty-three and sixty-six
You returned there day by day
The acacias grew beneath your brush
In your own distinctive way
Bird’s-eye views and close-up rocks
Each series telling more
Of light and spirit of old Country
That most squatters would ignore
Fred Williams, with your gentle eyes
You showed me what I couldn’t see
The vastness of the Australian bush
Its pregnant profundity
The land abstracted, reimagined
Through your steady hand
When I was 8, you taught me how to read
This wide and sunbaked land
When I was 8, you taught me how to read
This wide and sunbaked land
The Briar
Music and lyrics by Jason Goroncy
© 2024 Jason Goroncy
APRA Work ID: GW74499525
I don’t love you because your joy soaks up the grief.
I don’t love you because your fire makes me whole.
I love you as one who is drawn to dark things,
secretly, between the shadow, the grain, and the soul.
So close, your hand upon my chest consign.
So close, your eyes arose and closed with mine.
I love you as the briar, the briar that never blooms,
and hides the waters of life strange and deep within.
I give thanks for your scars, etched memories on my skin.
From the earth you live, in my body become my kin.
So close, your hand upon my chest consign.
So close, your eyes arose and closed with mine.
Entangled in your own wounds, I discover who I am.
Your canes keep reaching out – Do they ever tire?
The clime exposes your grit, the briar tells of the cost.
Yours is a life undestroyed by drought, flood, or fire.
So close, your hand upon my chest consign.
So close, your eyes arose and closed with mine.
Things I Hate About You
Music and lyrics by Jason Goroncy
© 2024 Jason Goroncy
APRA Work ID: GW74499526
I hate the way you silence me.
The way you stop me with a stare.
I hate the way your touch leaves me cold.
I don’t exist when you are near.
I hate the ways I can’t explain it.
I hate the way you’re always right.
I hate the way you spurn the gifts I bring.
The ways you send me into flight.
But I like it when you’re not around
And the fact you didn’t call.
I know that I’m still cut off
Trapped watching my own downfall.
I hate the way you’ve made me ugly. (‘I’m so ugly’)
I hate the way that breathing’s rough. (‘It’s hard to breathe’)
I hate the way you always laugh at me. (‘What’s that about?’)
I hate the way you strut your stuff. (‘Fuck off’)
I hate the way you’ve shrunk my world. (‘I can’t see anymore’)
I hate the way you’ve robbed delight. (‘You bastard’)
I hate the way you’ve birthed my self-blame. (‘I’m so sorry’)
’though I’m trying, I can’t imagine a green light.
But I love it now you’re not around
And the fact you never call.
The ghosts are here, they’ll never go away
But I’m clambering up that wall.
And I love it now you’re not around
And the fact you never call.
The ghosts are here, they’ll never go away
But I’m clambering up that wall.
I’m clambering up that wall.
I’m clambering up that wall.
I’m clambering up that wall.
I’m clambering up that wall.