2 songmen - New "Live in Darwin" CD Released

A couple of years ago I was driving back from Adelaide with Shane and Neil. A federal election was underway and there were lots of John Howard posters and there was what my dear old mother would call little Johnny and the big words: John Howard For A Stronger Australia. We were coming through a town near the South Australian border when Shane spotted one which had been amended to read : John Howard – For A Stranger Australia. He’s certainly delivered on that promise. It’s strange and getting stranger.

 

When I think of where we are in Australia today, I think of the old Credence Clearwater line: Long as I can see the light. The light I see in the two songmen is how long they’ve held the line, given all the things that have worked against them, like the vast indifference of Australian people to Aboriginal people, how they’ve walked on like true explorers, how they walked so far they disappeared from sight from mainstream Australia, and still they kept walking because they’d seen something and they knew it was true, and that was the spirit of Aboriginal Australia, the spirit of the land, the thing that however assaulted and injured has survived Christ knows how many thousands of years, and one wrote a song called Solid Rock and the other wrote My Island Home.

 

Those two songs became something lots of Australians knew even if they didn’t know the two men who wrote them, and they kept walking ever more solitary paths, then Shane was discovered in Ireland, and all sorts of bridges were made, new songlines forged between that country and this, between indigenous Ireland and indigenous Australia, and a new idea of indigenous was born; meantime, Neil wrote a book called “Sing For Me Countryman”, and I don’t want to embarrass him by saying it again, but you gotta believe me, it’s the best book on Aboriginal culture by a contemporary whitefeller I’ve read.

 

It’s like that big rock in the desert – nothing can erode it even if only a few people can see it and it’ll still be there in 100 years time.  And they both took what they had learned in northern Australia back to western Victoria where they were from and made albums about it and they both wrote songs about what happens in the mid-40s when the life we’ve lived appears to hold less and less connection to the life we’d hoped for, and still they kept walking, out there out of sight, writing songs about hope and loss, about love and reconciliation, another word for peace, something we may need plenty of in this country before too long, and all of it was born of experiences which would have broken many another but somehow they kept going.

 

I look at Neil and Shane and see what it takes to create truly Australian culture. I see two songmen who walked to the spiritual centre of this country, found themselves alone and kept walking  I see two artistic paths that may not be much appreciated or understood today but will have a life and importance beyond this poor bewildered era.

 

Ladies and gentlemen – it’s my privilege and honour to introduce two of the heroes of the Australia fighting to be born, Shane Howard and Neil Murray.

 

Martin Flanagan

The Corner Hotel, Richmond, Melbourne

Sunday August 6 2006

"2 songmen - Live in Darwin" is available to purchase online by Clicking Here

2007 Season's Greetings

"I'd like to thank all of you out there who have supported my music, especially getting behind my new album  "Overnighter" and requesting the "Lights of Hay" filmclip on CMC and Rage. Im looking forward to exciting and new opportunities for 2008. Have a safe and merry Christmas and a happy new year and I'll see you at a gig sometime soon"

Neil Murray 6/12/07

Catching up with Neil Murray

Hi there,

Straight after the G. R Burarrawanga memorial concert held in Darwin on August 25th, which was an emotionally powerful yet serenely satisfying event, I found myself on a plane bound for the US.

Among other things I visited New York for the first time and I can report it certainly is a buzz. It truly is a world city that never sleeps. If money was no object and I was a big city person one might be tempted to live there for a spell. I found myself wandering around the streets, avenues, parks and squares thinking of all the songs I'd ever heard about New York. I thought about the beat writers and poets, the folk singers, the artists and jazz musicians that had come to the big apple. Innovative and ground breaking music, writing and art can be found anywhere in the world, its just that if it happens in New York the world gets to hear about it quicker. Its like New York is one gigantic all powerful radio transmitter.

I suppose a lot of people are attracted to New York and the US generally with an idea of making it on the big stage. I don't suffer that particular affliction. As an ambition, it seems somehow flawed to me, just as fixation on a destination can undermine the journey. I can only write from the life and times I was born into. That's enough for me to do.

Apart from a couple of gigs I did at "aussie" bars in Manhattan, I spent the time visiting galleries and museums and taking in the colourful street life. And yes I had a sobering walk around Ground Zero. I also caught up with Fred Myers, the head of the anthropology department at NYU. I'd first encountered Fred in the early 80's at Papunya. He'd been doing his research in the western desert since the mid seventies. We spent a couple of evenings pontificating on the impact that western desert Aboriginal culture had made to our lives. (We must have been the only 2 people to have ever had that conversation in New York).

I went on to Nashville and wrote several songs with writers there and did a couple of show case performances at cafes. It's nigh impossible to get paid for a gig in Nashville as the place is overloaded with music. I also did a house concert in Atlanta for Jill Sweetapple, who must be my number one fan in the US just about, well at least in Georgia.

I went home via several days in LA, where I played a gig at the Genghis Cohen and wrote a couple of songs with Stephen Rowe (originally from Broken Hill) and Henry Fenton (another aussie from Sydney). Both of these guys have been in the US for a long time and are pursuing their music there.

I can also report that I'm very pleased the ABC have got behind my new album Overnighter and I'm looking forward to the Spiegeltent show with Shane Howard on October 31st, the Tarerer festival on November 10th & 11th and particularly the shows with Sara Storer at the Harp in Sydney on November 30th and the Heritage Hotel in Bulli on December 1st. I heard a sneak preview of some tracks from Sara's new album recently and I was very impressed.

Also I want to thank David Nicholson for the superb job he has done in cobbling together a film clip for "Lights of Hay" from my Overnighter album. You can see by clicking here to play the video

Anyway people, think green, plant trees, save whales and be kind to all creatures including your own families.

That should give you enough to do before I see you next.

Neil Murray

More News @ Neil's Blog at MySpace - blog.myspace.com/NeilMurrayMusic

Lake Bolac Eel festival - Coming up in 2008
 Each year the festival takes place and Neil has been a regular performer at the event. For more information see www.eelfestival.org.au. The following  is some reviews and information about Neil's involvement with previous events.

 

Fiery Creek Healing Walk 2006
Lake Bolac Eel festival forum speech delivered by Neil Murray on 21/4/06
 To read the transcript of Neil's speech click here

Review: EEL FESTIVAL by Tonchi Mcintosh
 To read the review click here

Neil Murray MySpace Site
Since playing the Australian festival in Nashville and a host of other appearances the overwhelming response from the US was "what's your MySpace address"?
The question was noted and now answered: www.MySpace.com/NeilMurrayMusic

You can now check out soundbytes, the videos of "Lights of Hay" and "Tom Wills Would" plus other videos and my blog. Click on the link below to have a look at Neil's MySpace site and sign up as a friend.

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