Kev Carmody

Infobox musical artist
Name = Kev Carmody

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Background = solo_singer
Birth_name = Kevin Daniel Carmody
Born = 1946
Died =
Origin = Cairns, Queensland, Australia
Instrument = vocals, guitar, harmonica
Genre = Acoustic, Folk rock, Australian rock
Occupation = Musician
Years_active = 1989–current
Label = Larrikin Records/Festival Records
Song Cycles
Associated_acts =
URL = [http://www.kevcarmody.com.au/ Offical website]

Kevin Daniel Carmodycite web |publisher=Australasian Performing Rights Association (APRA) |title=APRA search engine |url=http://www.apra.com.au/cms/worksearch/worksearch.srvlt |accessdate=2008-10-02 Note: requires user to input song title e.g. BLACKS AND WHITE] is an Indigenous Australian singer-songwriter born in 1946 in Cairns, Queensland. His father was a second generation Irish descendant, his mother a Murri woman. The family moved to southern Queensland in early 1950. Carmody grew up on a cattle station near Goranba, 70km west of Dalby in the Darling Downs area of south eastern Queensland. His parents worked as drovers there, moving cattle along the stock routes. [Told to ABC-TV interviewer Peter Thompson in Talking Heads program, aired May 21, 2007.] When he was ten years old, Carmody was taken from his parents under the assimilation policy and sent to a Christian school, after which he returned to his rural roots and worked for seventeen years as a country labourer.

At the age of 33 Carmody had the opportunity to go to university where he attended the Darling Downs Institute of Advanced Education, at which he completed a Bachelor of Arts degree, with honours. He later undertook postgraduate studies and completed a Diploma of Education from the University of Queensland, eventually finishing a PhD. While at university Carmody used his guitar as a means of implementing oral history in tutorials, which led to his career in music.

His first album, "Pillars of Society", was released in 1989 and drew heavily upon country music and folk music styles. Australian Rolling Stone described the record as "the best album ever released by an Aboriginal musician and arguably the best protest album ever made in Australia". In subsequent recordings he has adopted a broad range of music styles from reggae to rock and roll.

On October 31st 2007 Carmody was a special guest at the TV music channel MAX's "The Max Sessions: Powderfinger, Concert For The Cure" singing alongside front man Bernard Fanning to the controversial 'Black Tears' and also joined in with the encore of 'These Days'. The concert was a fundraiser and thank you to the "unsung heroes" of breast cancer with an invite-only audience, made up of a special group of people – those who have suffered and survived breast cancer and their support networks. The concert closed Breast Cancer Awareness Month and was the brainchild of 20-year-old Nick Vindin, who lost his mother Kate to the disease a few years ago.

Carmody regularly tours Australia and internationally and is highly regarded by audiences and critics.

He co-wrote "From Little Things Big Things Grow" with Paul Kelly on the The Gurindji Strike.

Awards

* 2005 recipient of the Jimmy Little Award for Lifetime Achievement in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Music (The Deadlys)
* Honorary Doctorate - University of Southern Queensland [cite web|url=http://www.usq.edu.au/newsevents/news/kevhondocpost.htm |title=Kev Carmody receives Honorary Degree of Doctor |publisher=USQ |accessdate=2008-10-08]

Discography

Albums/EPs

* "Pillars of Society" - Larrikin Records/Festival Records/Song Cycles (February, 1989)
* "Eulogy (For A Black Person)" - Festival (November, 1990)
* "Street Beat" (EP) - Festival (December, 1992)
* "Bloodlines" - Festival/Song Cycles (July, 1993)
* "Images and Illusions" - Festival/Song Cycles (September, 1995)
* "Messages" (2000)
* "Mirrors" - Song Cycles (May, 2003)

ingles

* "Jack Deelin" (1988)
* "Thou Shalt Not Steal" (February, 1990)
* "Eulogy" (November, 1990)
* "From Little Things Big Things Grow" (1991)
* "Cannot Buy My Soul" (December, 1991)
* "Blood Red Rose" (April, 1992)
* "Living South of the Freeway" (October, 1992)
* "Freedom" (July, 1993)
* "On The Wire" (May, 1994)
* "The Young Dancer is Dead" (1995)

Tribute albums

* "You Cannot Buy My Soul" - EMI (February, 2007)

References

External links

* [http://www.kevcarmody.com.au/index.html Official website]
* [http://www.messengernorth.com.au/article/2008/06/03/5186_south_vibe.html Messenger News interview, June 2008]