Showing 1 - 25 of 54
Artist: Aboriginals
Artist: Aborigines of Papua New Guinea
Artist: Billy Daniels
The famous nightclub singer Billy Daniels immortalized the song "That Old Black Magic," but that doesn't give him the rights to provide translations of ancient, mystical aborigine texts. Such a thing would be provided by a different Daniels, as on the late-'90s release entitled Australian Aborigines. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, All Music Guide [+] Read More
Artist: No Fixed Address
No Fixed Address was founded by a former student of Center of Aboriginal Studies, Bart Willoughby. Political in its designs and nationalist in tone, No Fixed Address finds inspiration in the sounds and sentiment of reggae star Bob Marley. The band gained national exposure as a result of the 1979 documentary Wrong Side of the Road, which looked... [+] Read More
Artist: Us Mob
Us Mob are a popular aboriginal group with a strong political and nationalistic agenda. The group finds inspiration in the sounds and sentiment of reggae star Bob Marley. The band gained national exposure as a result of the 1979 documentary Wrong Side of the Road, which looked at the cultural discrimination experienced by Australia's aborigines.... [+] Read More
Artist: Warumpi Band
Since they first burst onto the Australian music scene in 1984 with their debut album, Big Name No Blankets, the Warumpi Band has been at the forefront of the Australian Aboriginal rock movement. The band plays a hard-driving blues-rock in both English and their native language. They often use their music to promote Aboriginal rights and causes.... [+] Read More
Artist: Kev Carmody
The Aboriginals of Australia are given a musical voice by Kev Carmody. With his protest-minded lyrics set to the hard-strummed sounds of his acoustic guitar and didgeridoo, Carmody blends the musical traditions of Australia with an insightful view of the struggles of the Aboriginals in modern society. Carmody has a right to be angry. At the age... [+] Read More
Artist: Mark Atkins
The musical, artistic, and storytelling traditions of Australia's aboriginals are preserved through the performances of didgeridoo player and builder Mark Atkins. While he primarily performs as a soloist, Atkins has been an essential member of the Kooriwadjula Ensemble of Contemporary and Traditional Australian Musicians and Ankala, a group he... [+] Read More
Artist: Russell Smith
This Russell Smith is Australian but his credits should not wind up down under those of the session brass player of the same name. Collaborating with so-called aboriginal folk stylist Kavisha Mazzella, Smith is an arranger and keyboardist with much additional input as both producer and recording engineer. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, All Music Guide [+] Read More
Artist: Gondwanaland
Lead by virtuoso didgeridoo player Charlie McMahon, Gondwanaland has brought the sound of aboriginal music to White Australia. The didgeridoo is a wind instrument fashioned from the hollowed trunk of a eucalyptus tree. It is regarded as a sacred instrument and is used in a variety of religious and communal ceremonies. His album Gondwanaland Wide... [+] Read More
Artist: Ghostwriters
This awkward Australian side-project from Midnight Oil's Rob Hirst and the Hoodoo Gurus' Rick Grossman was the red-haired Richard Hell-indebted stepson that fans of either band could enjoy. While the Ghostwriters' rich lyricism and rotating supporting cast lacked the classic disobedience of Oil and the levity of the Gurus, their sweep of... [+] Read More
Artist: Yothu Yindi
Yothu Yindi is the most successful and internationally recognized of Australia's aboriginal bands. Their importance lies in their fusion of traditional music and performance with contemporary rock.
The name of the band translates as "mother and child" and is essentially a kinship term used by the Yolngu people of the Northern Territory's Arnham... [+] Read More
Artist: Midnight Oil
Australia's Midnight Oil brought a new sense of political and social immediacy to pop music: not only did incendiary hits like "Beds Are Burning" and "Blue Sky Mine" bring global attention to the plight of, respectively, aboriginal settlers and impoverished workers, but the group also put its money where its mouth was -- in addition to mounting... [+] Read More
Artist: Dr. Didg
The U.K/-based organic electronica trio Dr. Didg was primarily a vehicle for Dr. Graham Wiggins, a Ph.D in physics who in 1982 became fascinated with the didgeridoo, the ancient instrument of the Aborigines of northern Australia. After picking up the instrument, Wiggins mounted a series of studies on the physics of its sound, earning the... [+] Read More
Artist: Tjalkuri
Australian singer/songwriter Broughton Mitchell was living with an aboriginal tribe when a member of the tribe named Mitchell died. As an honor to the dead, he was asked to take a different name and was christened Tjalkuri. The transformation was typical of a musician who has combined Western rock styles with traditional native music and played... [+] Read More
Artist: TYA
German composer and multi-instrumentalist Martin Scherl's evocative blend of worldbeat and trance has drawn comparisons to the likes of Deep Forest and Enigma. The moniker TYA, which is the aboriginal word for Mother Earth, was the result of some inspirational time spent in Australia with its native people. Scherl was moved by the group's... [+] Read More
Artist: William Daniels
The Atlanta drummer known as either Billy or William Daniels is most frequently confused with the singer Billy Daniels of "That Old Black Magic" fame, but he is also not related to the Daniels who translates ancient aboriginal texts in Australia. Had he amassed more recording credits, the drumming William Daniels might have had half a chance of... [+] Read More
Artist: Shane Anthony
Formed out of a last-minute opportunity, the group's frontman was scheduled to go to Australia as part of a group called Woodrow. An arts grant from the Metis Nation of Ontario resulted in a slight change of plans. The band, whose members predominantly come from Ottawa, Ontario, released Sky Stories in the autumn of 1998, and followed up with... [+] Read More
Artist: Ruby Hunter
With her ultra-deep voice, Ruby Hunter has risen to the upper echelon of Australia's Aboriginal singers. Best known for her collaborations with her husband, Archie Roach, Hunter successfully stepped into the spotlight on her own with a memorable debut album, Thoughts Within, in 1994. A review of a performance at a conference for the Research... [+] Read More
Artist: Los Yaguaru de Angel Venegas
After playing for almost two decades under a different name, this tropical and mainly Cumbia-oriented outfit made their international debut in 1997 with the release of Lo Bueno Lo Traigo Yo, adopting the name of Los Yaguaru, based on a Paraguayan aboriginal word that means otter. Their breakthrough came during a live performance in Pueblo while... [+] Read More
Artist: Archie Roach
With his politically charged lyrics backed to the tradition-rooted rhythms of his acoustic guitar, Archie Roach has risen to the upper echelon of Australia's music. His album, Charcoal Lane, was one of Rolling Stone Magazine's Top 50 albums of 1992 and received an ARIA (Australian Record Industry Association) award as Best Indigenous Album of... [+] Read More
Artist: Jerry Alfred
The traditional sounds of northern Canada's Native Americans is given a modern sensibility by guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Jerry Alfred. Together with his group, the Medicine Band, Alfred projects a hard-driving, dance-inspiring energy to his songs. Although he sings in his native Tutchone, the language of the Selkirk First Native tribe,... [+] Read More
Artist: Vladiswar Nadishana
Vladiswar Nadishana is a russian virtuoso multi-instrumentalist and composer from Siberia in direction of modern world fusion and ethnic jazz. He plays on more than 50 instruments of the world, including self-invented. He is laureate of the international festivals "Ustuu-Huree", "The Sayan Ring" and "New Songs of the Old Lands", and he is also... [+] Read More
Artist: Lorrie Church
Canadian country music artist Lorrie Church is a descendent of Cree and Metis ancestors. On the Sweetgrass First Nation Indian Reservation, she is called Wepi Nakwa Mek'Wanak, which translates from the Cree language as Grey Feathers. She draws on this diverse background for her mainstream country songs.
Church is a native of Meadowlake,... [+] Read More
Artist: Harry Ferguson
When someone named Harry Ferguson blows hot air into a musical instrument the occasion is not always a tenor saxophone solo, despite the impression left by at least a couple of jazzmen in various eras. Down under in wombat world, the didgeridoo solos of Harry Ferguson have been recorded for inclusion on various collections of traditional... [+] Read More
