2songmen - Shane Howard & Neil Murray: Together in concert
Question:
What do you get when the writer of “Solid Rock” meets the writer of “My Island Home ?”
Answer:
The heart and soul of Australia.
Shane Howard (founding member of Goanna) and Neil Murray (founding member of the Warumpi Band) are a couple of weathered songmen, who despite the passing trends and decades, still stand tall in this country. Each has contributed some of the finest songs to Australian music. In their songs we glimpse a vision of Australia as an independent, compassionate, free thinking country, where its indigenous heritage and environment are protected and respected to form the foundation of a unique national identity.
Now for the first time, Shane Howard and Neil Murray are touring the nation together.
In 1982 Goanna released the pro land rights song “Solid Rock” and were thrown into the limelight. “Solid Rock” is an Australian music classic and remains a landmark rallying call in the history of indigenous protest. After Goanna, Shane Howard went on to release some 7 albums in a solo career that has spanned two decades. With songs such as Razors Edge Common Ground, Walk on Fire, Murri Time, Heart of my Country, Flesh and Blood, Talk of the Town, Don’t Say OK, The Rebel Song, The River Knows and Let the Franklin Flow
He has just finished his eighth solo album ‘Songs of Love and Resistance’
1n 1995, Neil Murray was awarded the APRA song of the year for “My Island Home” a song of heart-felt belonging, originally written for the Warumpi Band in 1985 and re-recorded by Christine Anu in the early nineties. “My Island Home” has become something of an unofficial anthem for Australia and featured in the closing ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Olympics and was included in APRA’s Top 30 Best Australian Songs of All Time. Since 1989 Neil Murray’s solo career has produced 5 albums and spawned such songs as- Cleverman, Big truck, Far away, Broken Song, Spirit, Menindee, Native Born, Good Light in Broome, Long Grass Band and Myall Creek.
Touring nationally throughout August, The ‘2 songmen’ offer listeners solo acoustic sets from Howard and Murray followed by a unique performance of shared songs and stories.
Both Shane Howard and Neil Murray have recently released “best of” double CD collections .
On offer for concert goers is a copy of both Shane Howard’s “Retrospect” Double CD and Neil Murray’s “About time” double CD for the special price of $50 at any venue where they appear on the 2 Songmen tour.
“There’s been times when the Australian music landscape has looked pretty bleak but I can always count on a Shane Howard song to make me sit up and say, “Yes that’s it!” I’ve known him for a long time, felt he was my countryman, an ally…. it seems natural that we should tour together. With the two of us performing on each other’s songs, it’ll bring more weight to what we do”
- Neil Murray
“Neil Murray’s songs and writings speak to me about Australia, in a way that few other artists can. The loss and longing, the need for those of us, as migrant Australians, to understand this Aboriginal Country and create a new way to belong here. Neil’s never opted for the easy road. The hard edged reality of life on the fringes as well as the poetic grandeur of the landscape are all there in his powerful body of work.
– Shane Howard
“Shane Howard and Neil Murray made the journey into Aboriginal Australia and never came out.”
–Martin Flanagan
CONTACT:
Paul Minshull
minshull@bigpond.net.au
Phone (03) 9509 1080
Mobile 0417 018 399
2songmen
Shane Howard & Neil Murray
Together in concert.
On Tour Nationally August 2006
VIC
3rd -The Loft – Warrnambool
4th -Peninsula Lounge - Mornington Peninsula
5th -Alcoa Studio One, G.P.A.C - Geelong
6th -Corner Hotel - Richmond
WA
11th -Fly By Night Club - Fremantle
12th -Quindanning Tavern - Quindanning
13th -Nannup Town Hall - Nannup
NSW
17th -Heritage Hotel - Bulli
18th -Clarendon Guesthouse - Katoomba
19th -The Harp –Tempe
SA
20th -Fowlers Live - Adelaide
NT
22nd - Darwin
QLD
24th –The Rev venue – Brisbane
25,26,27th -Toyota Muster - Gympie
