Paul Maurice Kelly is an Australian rock music singer-songwriter and guitarist. He has performed solo, and has led numerous groups, including the Dots, the Coloured Girls, and the Messengers. He has worked with other artists and groups, including associated projects Professor Ratbaggy and Stardust Five. Kelly's music style has ranged from bluegrass to studio-oriented dub reggae, but his core output straddles folk, rock, and country. His lyrics capture the vastness of the culture and landscape of Australia by chronicling life about him for over 30 years. David Fricke from Rolling Stone calls Kelly "one of the finest songwriters I have ever heard, Australian or otherwise." Kelly has said, "Song writing is mysterious to me. I still feel like a total beginner. I don't feel like I have got it nailed yet".
Christine Anu is an Australian pop singer-songwriter and actress of Torres Strait Islander heritage. She gained popularity with the cover song release of the Warumpi Band's song "My Island Home". Anu has been nominated for 17 ARIA Awards.
...nothing but a dream is a studio album recorded by Australian singer-songwriter, Paul Kelly. It was released on 13 August 2001 via EMI Records, which peaked at No. 7 on the ARIA Albums Chart and No. 46 on the Official New Zealand Music Chart. It was also released in the United States on Cooking Vinyl and included four tracks from Kelly's earlier extended play, Roll on Summer (2000). In Australia and New Zealand the album provided three singles, "Somewhere in the City", "Love Is the Law" (October) and "If I Could Start Today Again".
Professor Ratbaggy is a sometime four-piece band based in Melbourne, Australia. Sometimes thought of as a side-project of iconic Australian singer-songwriter Paul Kelly, the band is in fact its own entity: Kelly is one of the four members.
Hidden Things is an album by Australian folk rock group Paul Kelly & the Messengers released in March 1992 on Mushroom Records, which reached No. 29 on the ARIA Albums Chart. It also reached the Top 40 on the New Zealand Albums Chart. It is a collection of tracks recorded by Kelly and both his backing bands, the Coloured Girls and the Messengers, from 1986 to 1991, but were not issued on previous studio albums. The album spawned a single, "When I First Met Your Ma", which was issued in April. Messenger band members provide lead vocals on "Hard Times" from its writer Steve Connolly, "Rock 'n' Soul" from its writer Jon Schofield. "Sweet Guy Waltz" is a slower version of "Sweet Guy" which was on 1989's So Much Water So Close to Home. The album was re-released in 2011 as Hidden Things: B-sides & Rarities.
Warumpi Band were an Australian country and Aboriginal rock group which formed in the outback settlement of Papunya, Northern Territory, in 1980. The original line-up was George Burarrwanga on vocals and didgeridoo, Gordon Butcher on drums, his brother Sammy Butcher on guitar and bass guitar, and Neil Murray on rhythm guitar and backing vocals. Their key singles are "Jailanguru Pakarnu" (1983), "Blackfella/Whitefella" (1985), "Sit Down Money" (1986), "My Island Home" (1987) and "No Fear" (1987). The group released three albums, Big Name, No Blankets (1985), Go Bush! (1987) and Too Much Humbug (1996). From late 1987 to mid-1995 the group rarely performed as Murray focused on his solo career. In early 1995, Christine Anu, issued a cover version of "My Island Home". Warumpi Band regrouped before disbanding in 2000. Burarrwanga died on 10 June 2007 of lung cancer.
Joseph Benjamin Geia is an Australian musician of Murri Aboriginal heritage. As a solo artist he has released three albums, Yil Lull (1988), Tribal Journey (1996) and Nunga, Koori and a Murri Love (2005). He has worked with artists, No Fixed Address (1982–83), Shane Howard and Rebecca Barnard (1990). In 1988 Geia composed the track, "Yil Lull", which has been recorded by other artists, Paul Kelly, Archie Roach, Jimmy Barnes, and the Singers for the Red, Black and Gold, which included Howard, Kelly, Christine Anu, Renée Geyer, and Tiddas.
No Fixed Address are an Australian Aboriginal reggae rock group formed in 1979. The band was led by Bart Willoughby Pitjanjatjara from Koonibba Mission near Ceduna in the far south west of South Australia, together with Ricky Harrison Kurnai from Morwell in Victoria, Leslie Lovegrove Freeman, Ngarrindjeri from Murray Bridge in South Australia, John Miller (bass) from Port Lincoln in South Australia and Veronica Rankine, Ngarrindjeri from the south east of South Australia. Many members were related through family ties, Willoughby, Miller and Freeman were cousins. Freeman, related to Harrison through marriage, recruited him from Victoria and they all met and formed the band at the Centre for Aboriginal Studies in Music (CASM) in North Adelaide, South Australia.
Tiddas are a female folk trio from Victoria, Australia.
"My Island Home" is a pop song written by Neil Murray and originally performed by the Warumpi Band. The song references lead singer's home up at Elcho Island off the coast of Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory. It was recorded in 1986 and released as a single from their second album, Go Bush, in January 1987. "My Island Home" won 'Song of the Year' at the 1995 Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) Awards for Anu's reworked version of the song. It was also listed in the APRA Top 30 Australian songs of all time in 2001.
Neil James Murray is an Australian musician, singer-songwriter-guitarist and writer. He was a founding member of the Warumpi Band which was the first major influential Aboriginal rock group with mostly Indigenous members. Murray was recognised as one of Australia's foremost songwriters at the APRA Awards of 1995 by winning Song of the Year for "My Island Home".
Nick Larkins is an Australian rock musician who has played with various Australian acts, and solo. Nick was born in London but raised in Hobart, Tasmania. Larkins has been highly nomadic for much of his career. He has usually been based in the city of Melbourne, known as the live music capital of Australia, but has also lived and worked in Europe several times.
The discography of Paul Kelly, an Australian rock artist, includes solo releases, those from various bands that Paul Kelly has led, and material from the related projects Professor Ratbaggy and Stardust Five which contain the same personnel as his bands. Paul Kelly, under various guises, has released twenty-seven studio albums, fifty-nine singles, forty-two music videos, and contributed to ten film / television soundtracks and scores.
Building Bridges is an Australian compilation album containing tracks from both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal performers inspired by a 1988 community concert called Building Bridges. The vinyl album was released in 1989 to raise money for the National Coalition of Aboriginal Organisations. It includes songs sung in Aboriginal languages. The vinyl album was released by CAAMA Music and distributed by CBS in 1989, followed by a CD album released by ABC in 1990. It reached #47 on the Australian album charts and may have symbolised "the embrace of indigenous rock by the mainstream". The original double-vinyl release features twenty-seven tracks while the later CD release features nineteen.
Peter Luscombe is an Australian drummer and composer.
Shane O'Mara is an Australian musician and record producer.
Stephen Hadley is an Australian musician. Hadley was a member of The Black Sorrows from 1991 to 1993 appearing on the album Better Times (1993). In the mid 90s he joined Paul Kelly's Band and later Professor Ratbaggy. In 1998 he was part of the Singers For The Red Black & Gold who released a cover of "Yil Lull" which was nominated for the ARIA Award for Best Indigenous Release. Along with Paul Kelly, Shane O'Mara and fellow members of Professor Ratbaggy he provided the soundtrack to Lantana. This earned him an ARIA Award for Best Original Soundtrack Album in 2002.
Bruce Geoffrey Haymes is an Australian musician. Since 1976 Haymes has been a member of numerous bands including Avalanche (1978), Richard Clapton Band (1979), Russell Morris and the Rubes (1980–83) and Bachelors from Prague (1985–93). He joined Paul Kelly's Band (1995–97) and was also in Kelly's next group, Professor Ratbaggy (1999–2002). In 1997 he was part of the Singers for the Red Black & Gold, which released a cover version of "Yil Lull" (1998). It was nominated for the ARIA Award for Best Indigenous Release. Along with Kelly, Shane O'Mara and fellow members of Professor Ratbaggy, Haymes performed and co-wrote the soundtrack for the feature film, Lantana (2001). For this work he won the ARIA Award for Best Original Soundtrack Album in 2002.
