BURIED COUNTRY (2000/2015/2016/2018)
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Buried Country, the secret history of Aboriginal country music, first came out in 2000 as a cross-media juggernaut consisting of a book, film, and CD; in 2015, a new expanded edition of the book was published for the world market by Verse Chorus Press, beautifully redesigned by Louise Cornwall, along with an accompanying new 1.5 version of the CD through Warner Music in Australia. That the response was so enthusiastic - the way the whole thing just seems to have come back to life all over again, with the book being included on the Australian Book Review's Books of the Year list in '015, and all of it inspiring the creation, in 2016, of a touring live-concert stageshow that you can read NEWS about here and here - I'm taking as a vote for the quality it had all along.
So successful, in fact, has this rebirth been, that Buried Country now has its own standalone website at buriedcountry.com.au, and its own YouTube channel here. These pages here will remain intact as a sort of archive, and will be minimally updated as necessary, but as of August 2016, for all the more detail on all the more developments, go to buriedcountry.com.au... And then in 2018, a Buried Country vinyl LP was released in a joint venture between Mississippi Records in the US and Flippin' Yeah Industries in Australia - it just won't stop! The book was originally published by Pluto Press; the documentary was produced through Film Australia/SBS TV, directed by Andy Nehl, shot by Warwick Thornton and narrated by Kev Carmody; the CD came out through Larrikin-Festival. The DVD is sadly no longer available; the new edition of the book adds more to the story; it is fully updated of course, but also bolstered by more recently unearthed material, and boasting a beautiful all-new set of colour plates; and the new CD adds a whole disc's worth of new material. The stageshow is something else again! and after making its world premiere at the Playhouse Theatre in Newcastle in August 2016 it played two nights at the Melbourne Festival in October, and has continued playing the circuit all the way up to 2018. And the LP adds new tracks never previously re-released. The gods of ink gave me a gift in Buried Country, a story most writers would be humbled to light upon if only once in a lifetime. |
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"Greil Marcus’ Invisible Republic explored a ‘weird, old America’ which was reflected in its dusty folk songs and hillbilly tunes. With the timely Buried Country, his sixth book, urban cowboy Clinton Walker has done a far better job" - Jeff Apter, ROLLING STONE (2000) |
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REACTION TO 2015 EDITION:
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"Buried Country traces new pathways into the songlines and stories of a hidden and resonant Australian musical history" - Sophie Best, AGE ‘EG’ (2000)
"... a vast underground river of passionate music and song that is mostly unheard by white Australia - Clinton Walker’s captivating new book gathers all these winding tributaries and brings them to the surface for the first time" - Noel Mengle, COURIER MAIL "An eminently readable offering, revealing and intriguing, a book that should prove an eye opener for those who think of Aboriginal music purely in terms of Yothu Yindi" – Fred Dellar, MOJO
"The book was amazing, the film stunning and, I’m happy to say, the CD delivers just as powerfully" - Jess Lilley, INPRESS |
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PRODUCTION STILLS (courtesy Film Australia): |
With Lionel Rose, Bon Beach
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... same session...
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Bob Randall
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Vicky Simms
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Jimmy Little, Lillyfield
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Troy Cassar-Daley and Warwick Thornton
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Herb Laughotn heads off the Ghan, Alice Springs
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"Australia has yet to put together anything as monumental as Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music, but Buried Country, the utterly compelling 2CD set of Aboriginal country music, might be as close as we’ve got to date ... Moving and timely in the extreme, Buried Country is an education and a real pleasure" - Jason Blake, ROLLING STONE "Anybody who has a love of or interest in Australian music will carry some shame after listening to this remarkable collection ... producer Clinton Walker has dug up an incredible range of artists" - Peter Lalor, DAILY TELEGRAPH "An absorbing and at times bleak account of Aboriginal country music ... Listening to the CDs while reading the book strengthens Walker’s assertion ... Walker wisely allows his subjects’ first hand reminiscences to carry the narrative ... compulsively readable" - Stephen Cummings, AGE "A zestful ramble through this large and little known territory ... There are so many compelling personalities and riveting stories... although many of the stories here are deeply tragic, somehow the book and the voices speaking within it remain remarkably bouyant. The photographs are wonderful" - Peter Doyle, HQ "Buried Country is a great book. I despise terms such as ‘important book’, so I’ll just call it a necessary book" - Paul Toohey "Never gets polemic or hysterical… a mature and melodic examination of Australian racism and how music helped tear down the reign of injustice against a long-oppressed people" - FILM THREAT OPENING NIGHT (film premiere at the State Theatre, Sydney): |
With Kev Carmody
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With Bob Randall and Auriel Andrew
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Bobby McLeod, Kev Carmody
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Roger Knox, Jimmy Little, Andy Nehl
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"If the chardonnay set stopped playing their copies of The Buena Vista Social Club long enough they might find something happening in their own back yard of at least the same interest and of inestimably more relevance to where this country has been and where it is headed" - Keith Glass, RHYTHMS "The documentary is very powerful and moving, and there are particularly poignant moments that are virtually guaranteed to move the viewer to tears" - Susan Jarvis, CAPITAL COUNTRY NEWS "Walker dives headfirst into this labour of love. He has captured the essence of the performers and the significance of their most popular songs. Aboriginal country music’s heyday is behind it; thankfully, Walker bothered to uncover it for posterity" - Buzz McClain, WASHINGTON POST EXTRA PAGES |
SPINOFFs
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SALON DES REFUSES
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"A vivid and intriguing look at this genre, even if you usually only listen to country music under the threat of death" - Shane Danielson, AUSTRALIAN "Challenges the secularist cultural relativism of the assumed readership" - Graeme Smith, CENTRE FOR STUDIES IN AUSTRALIAN MUSIC "This is an amazing collection of recordings ... Bitter it’s not, engaging it is, and even sometimes confrontational but never alienating ... at the very least always interesting and at times absolutely stunning" - Neal Hunt, REVOLVER "Not the sort of thing that anyone, apart from a few hardcore fans, would buy for listening pleasure. It is a strange hodgepodge of styles and traditions masquerading as a coherent statement" – Bruce Elder, SYDNEY MORNING HERALD "Buried Country is a powerful collection of resources. Every school, every library, should have these resources" - McKenzie Wark, AUSTRALIAN ‘HIGHER EDUCATION’ |
