Mirrors by Kev Carmody

au) is his first collection of new material since 1995, but thankfully his lyrical fire still burns. Experimenting with a number of styles outside the restrictive ‘folk’ tag, Carmody pokes fun at modern technology in ‘Are You Connected’, mourns the treatment of asylum seekers on ‘Refugees’ and savagely lambastes George Bush on ‘Dubya Love Ya’.

Carmody’s greatest gift, however, remains his ability to evoke the unique Australian landscape. He checks out a ‘Georgina River’ waterhole, drives the late night back-roads on ‘Comin’ Home’, pulls over to stare at the desert skies in ‘Milky Way’, and listens to howling dingoes in the gorgeous ‘Moonstruck’. On the instrumental ‘Campfire Rain’, croaking frogs and the ambience of an approaching storm are laid over simple acoustic strumming and minimalist harmonica.

Mirrors confirms that while the body may be a little less active these days , Carmody’s astute mind is still more than capable of creating crucial songs that highlight relevant social issues and conveys his deep respect for the land.

REVIEW

New Internationist 367 May 2004

Mirrors

Song Cycles CD

Being described as Australia’s Bob Dylan could be a hard tag to live up to, but singer/songwriter Kev Carmody has the vision and the versatility that’s always marked the American’s career. It was 1990’s blistering Pillars of Society that put Carmody – and his impassioned songs around Aboriginal rights on the map. The success of Pillars, and subsequent albums such as Bloodlines, was also a wake-up call to many who knew nothing of the ‘stolen generation’ – Carmody himself was taken from his family aged 10.

Now Mirrors, released with an eye on elections in both Australia and the US, picks up the torch. It’s an attractively direct release; Carmody’s opener,’Dirty Dollar’, sets up a simple but effective dualism between globalization and the concept of a ‘pristine land’. ‘Are you Connected?’ – Its electronic voices almost straying into Laurie Anderson territory – wonders about isolation in the age of mass communication. ‘Refugees’ could be addressed to disposed Aboriginal people as well as Australia’s new asylum seekers.

While these, and other subjects, receive the benefit of Carmody’s eloquence, the real charge lies in their delivery. Mirrors – an album Carmody describes as techno/funk/punk/grunge – matches style and content in surprising ways. It’s fun and adventurous but many may feel that Mirrors works best in its contemplative moments: ‘Campfire Rain” with it’s crackling logs and deluge, or the dignified, hymnal pace of ‘Georgina River”. It’s here that Mirrors really gives a sense of transcendence.

Kev Carmody is back

Mirrors

Kev Carmody

Song Cycles Pty Ltd

REVIEW BY IGGY KIM

Kev Carmody has been much missed since his last original album release, 1995's Images and Illusions. While his live performances continued, some of us were a little worried by the 2000 release of his compilation album Messages. Like a retrospective exhibition, compilation albums usually herald an artist’s passing into revered — but retired — status.

Kev was especially missed, because Australian political music seems to be at an ebb — just when we need it most. In changing times, music gives a unique voice to cultural dissent. But corporate profiteers have stitched up the music industry in Australia with mindless audio fairy-floss.

But have no fear: Kev Carmody is back, still full of the powerful political passion and evocative sense of country that first stirred us to attention 15 years ago. A self-funded independent production, Mirrors continues Carmody’s label-defying musical style, fully recharged for a world much changed since 1995.

Using some of his most original music arrangements, Mirrors includes a contemptuous swipe at US President George “Dubya” Bush and a warm message of Indigenous solidarity with refugees. These combine with songs expressing — and celebrating — a spirit of country and environment that is defiant of the powers trying to destroy it.

The opening track, “Dirty Dollar”, reminds us of what’s at stake:

“Eatin’ whale meat faster, than they give birth

They’re connin’ us all… it’s scientific research

Them chain saws dozers clearin’ the trees

`Cos it’s so good for the economy

“Dumpin’ First World products in Third World lands

Forcing mono-culture into starvin’ hands

Executin’, jailin’, those who say it’s unfree

Rich importin’ their wealth an’ exportin’ poverty

“Just wanna know which side you stand

For the dirty dollar or a pristine land”

“Refugees” is a slow, reflective spoken-word indictment of Australia’s refugee policy, comparing it to the brutality of the Aborigines’ colonial experience:

“Seeking refuge, seeking shelter from the

bankers’ armoured tanks, will their god extend

compassion and embrace the immigrants

Their crime is seeking shelter from a human

livin’ hell they’ve been captured and imprisoned

as dangerous criminals.

“This land is my spirit, my right is sovereignty

But we exist here alienated as colonised refugees.

As colonised refugees”

This song is somewhat reminiscent of his earlier “Darkside” (Bloodlines, 1993), with a haunting use of reverberating mandolin. The latter was a tale of Murri life in the urban poor black community in Logan City, another form of imprisonment by racism. And like “Darkside”, “Refugees” continues to linger long after the track has ended.

Despite the times he writes about, Carmody manages to retain his sense of humour. “Are You Connected?” is a satire of the alienating use of technology today, set in a tongue-in-cheek way to a thudding techno arrangement. Kev’s baffled “Hello…hello…hello” fights its way through a funny barrage of automated voice prompts.

“Dubya Love Ya?” is a bitter-funny swipe at the world’s most dangerous man. It’s also a sharp rebuke at the religious justifications given for the US-led — and other — crusades:

“We gentile, infidel, heathen ones

Caught in the cross fire with worse to come

Monotheism that comes from the Middle East

Seem to be based on war……ain’t based on peace

Torah, Koran, Bible if ya take a look

Take their God’s Word……from that ol’ monotheistic book.”

Carmody’s deep sense of the beauty of life also continues to shine through in lush, poetic tributes to the Australian landscape.

“Moonstruck” is a sentimental but lovely song about the magic of the outback moon, rendered in a traditional country style with the acoustic guitar up front.

“Georgina River” is a laid-back celebration of that magnificent river in western Queensland, vital to the ecology and Indigenous communities of that vast region.

In the instrumental “Campfire Rain”, the dramatic sounds of a thunderstorm are skilfully interwoven with a lullaby-like, gentle sway of acoustic guitar, harmonica and yadaki (didgeridoo). In amongst it, Carmody manages to play in a handsaw without jarring the arrangement.

Indeed, despite its tight budget, Carmody hasn’t sacrificed the production quality. Together with a talented team of fellow Indigenous musicians, Carmody has come up with some innovative sounds.

In “El Diablo Blanco”, spoken-word poetry is set against a highly original crafting together of whip cracks and steel-string guitar played Spanish style. At least in art, the less one has to work with, the more ingenious can be the results.

Mirrors is a very welcome return from the master bard of Australian political music.

[For more information on his music, visit Kev Carmody’s web site at .]

From Green Left Weekly, February 4, 2004.

Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.

Review

Kev Carmody, Mirrors

Song Cycles Pty Ltd

Music Review, Australian Options, Summer 2005

Jack Humphrys

The continuing themes of anti corporate globalization and the beauty of nature and places visited from the past are reaffirmed from this fine indigenous singer. While not reaching the heights of iconic 90s songs, such as From Little Things Big Things Grow, co-written by Paul Kelly, about the Gurindji struggle for land rights in the mid sixties, a number of tracks stand out. ‘Dirty Dollar’ looks at the plight of the environment and the talking blues of Refugees is a powerful statement about the causes of that situation in the world. These songs with the critical lyrics, backed by forceful guitar, contrast with the delicacy of songs about places from the varied places Carmody’s life has lead him to. Tracks such as Moonstruck, Georgina River and Comin’ Home stand out here. As an artist who has defied mainstream categories such as being labeled ‘Australia’s Bob Dylan’, Carmody has always been open to experimentation. However, one track Are You Connected? featuring guitar and a series of mobile phone calls did not work particularly well.

HISTORY

Kev Carmody grew up on a cattle station near Goranba, 70km west of Dalby in the Darling Downs area of south eastern Queensland. His early childhood was simple but happy. He saw few children until the age of seven, mixing mostly with stockmen. The family, although poor and despised by the local white community because of their “mixed marriage” (his father was “mad Irish, fighting Irish” and his mother a Murrie) lived largely off the land growing vegetables near the house and hunting and catching everything from kangaroos to fish.

Today Kev Carmody lives out the life of a modern troubadour. He is a travelling singer/songwriter with a base in southern Queensland and an itinerary which finds him touring the world. He has toured Australian goals where he plays to the Aboriginal inmates. He has worked with street kids as part of a community education program at Logan City on the Gold Coast. He has worked with kids both in the cities and in country, rural areas using music designed “to encourage the kids to come up with artistic ideas, find their spirit, and, most importantly, their self-esteem.” You will often find him at a Greenpeace rally or fund-raiser, a world music celebration or an Aboriginal musical festival.

Respected in his native Australia almost to the point of reverence - the audience at his opening show was stuffed with fellow-artists from Down Under - this Aboriginal singer-songwriter combines a repertoire of bluntly eloquent protest songs and sparse, lyrical ballads with breathtaking guitar technique and a warmly down-to-earth manner.

His lived-in, grit-edged voice and understated yet intensely felt delivery are frequently reminiscent of Tom Waits or a Steve Earle - but they cannot play the didgeridoo like he does, generating an extraordinary array of evocative sounds and textures in a kind of mini- beginners' guide to the age-old termite- hollowed tube.

KEVIN CARMODY HAS A WHALE OF A TIME…

Indigenous singer-songwriter Kevin Carmody’s surname almost sounds like the combination of calm, karma, melody and harmony.

And that just about sums up the man who is a passionate and compassionate advocate for Aboriginal culture and mentor to indigenous performers.

Kevin was artist in residence for two weeks in October at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (ECU) where he asked commercial music students to think outside the framework of structured music courses and ask themselves such fundamental questions as, what is music?

He gave them a project which described the voyages of humpback whales along the east coast of Australia and down to the Antarctic and challenged students to imagine the sounds these whales might hear during their travels.

“My job is to help free the students’ creativity,” Kevin said. “I believe everybody has a book or a symphony in them if their potential can be exploited.”

Kevin spent his life as a drover, cane-cutter, wool-presser and self-taught welder before being admitted to university at the age of 33. He now has a masters degree in history and philosophy and is currently working on a doctorate.

Not bad for a man who only learned to read at the age of 11 years.

Most of his music deals with indigenous issues, mixing folk, country and rock influences and his voice—described as “lived-in and grit-edged…, understated yet intensely felt”—has been heard in CDs, concerts and festivals around the world, including the Edinburgh Festival.

Kev’s stay was courtesy of WMC Resources Ltd who fund a series of Aboriginal sponsorship programmes, including scholarships and a schools arts competition.

It is the first time the course has been involved in the artist in residence programme.

Head of Jazz and Commercial Music, Associate Professor Pat Crichton, said it was a wonderful opportunity for commercial students to think outside of the box musically and to experience some of our wonderful indigenous culture which will help broaden their musical perspectives.

“They all try to sound like Chuck Berry at first,” he said.

“Kevin has opened up a new world of sounds and music and given them the opportunity to be creative.”

It is hoped that Kevin may be able to return next year to continue the project which has so far yielded a collection of diverse and highly original music.

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