Search - Various Artists :: Cannot Buy My Soul: the Songs of Kev Carmody

Kev Carmody - an iconic Australian Aboriginal Folksinger

Sandra M. Greenberg | Sunnyvale, CA | 08/18/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"How lucky I was to read a short review of this double CD in a weekly entertainment newspaper picked up in Sydney! Hadn't ever heard of the singer-songwriter, in the U.S., which is a crying shame. The album contains decades of achingly poignant protest and native pride songs, which seem to me in the proud tradition of Woody Guthrie, Malvina Reynolds and Pete Seeger.



It's so great to hear both Kev Carmody singing his own songs (on the first CD), and then other musicians interpreting these same songs, in the same order, on the second CD - on a multiple CD changer, it's easy to switch back and forth, play the same song covered by both the creator and by other skilled, admiring musicians. Often, I found myself preferring Carmody's interpretation (unlike Bob Dylan's music - which I usually prefer covered by another artist!).



I felt that the compilation of songs offered a perspective on 3 decades of native rights efforts and issues in Australia - something I was only peripherally aware of before traveling there for 3 weeks, but which struggle's aims became observably still necessary and righteous - especially during our short stay on the outskirts of Chinatown in Brisbane."