You Beautiful
Artist : Kev Carmody Date : 2006.10.03
Genre : World music Length : 30
Biography:
Kev Carmody belongs to the oldest living culture on the planet. Kev grew up on a cattle station near Goranba, 70km west of Dalby in the Darling Downs area of south eastern Queensland. His early childhood was simple but happy. He saw few children until the age of seven, mixing mostly with stockmen. The family, although poor lived largely off the land growing vegetables near the house and hunting and catching everything from kangaroos to fish.
Today Kev lives a rural based lifestyle with a sprinkling of the modern troubadour. Over the last 30 years Kev has toured Australian goals where he plays to the Aboriginal inmates. He has worked with marginalised young people and communities both in the cities and in country, rural areas using music; “My job is to help free the peoples’ creativity,” Kevin said. “I believe everybody has a book or a symphony in them if their potential can be exploited.”
Respected in his native Australia almost to the point of reverence - this singer-songwriter combines a repertoire of bluntly eloquent protest songs and sparse, lyrical ballads with breathtaking guitar technique and a warmly down-to-earth manner. His lived-in, grit-edged voice and understated yet intensely felt delivery are frequently reminiscent of Tom Waits or a Steve Earle - but they cannot play the didgeridoo like he does, generating an extraordinary array of evocative sounds and textures in a kind of mini- beginners' guide to the age-old termite- hollowed tube.
Kev has an extraordinary ability to communicate with everyone. In his own Cultural tradition of Lama Lama and Bundjalung, he is an elder statesman. When he is not working on his patch of dirt, he is commenting on current issues, or writing short stories or crafting a piece of music. Kev’s perspective covers everything from the ecology, politics, history, philosophy, theology, ideology, community and cultural development, future dreaming, planning and of course his 60 000 year old living Culture.
