Ruby

by Australian Art Orchestra | Archie Roach | Ruby Hunter | Paul Grabowsky

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Comes in a gatefold card case.

Includes unlimited streaming of Ruby via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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1.	A Child Was Born Tonight 06:37	buy track
2.	Ngarrindjeri Woman 03:00	buy track
3.	Nopun Kurongk 07:23	buy track
4.	Held Up To The Moon (In My Grandfather's Hands) 03:59	buy track
5.	Wash My Soul In The River's Flow 06:10	buy track
6.	Daisy Chains, String Games And Knuckle Bones 05:54	buy track
7.	Took The Children Away 07:03	buy track
8.	Coolamen Baby 06:20	buy track
9.	Little By Little 06:37	buy track
10.	Down City Streets 07:30	buy track
11.	Old So & So 07:44	buy track
12.	Kura Tungar 05:23	buy track

about

Together and separately, Ruby Hunter and Archie Roach have forged careers that cross musical boundaries. In this powerful collaboration, Ruby and Archie join forces with members of the Australian Art Orchestra to perform songs they have written about their experiences as members of the Stolen Generation. The songs recount Ruby’s birth by the side of a billabong near the banks of the Murray River in South Australia and chart her search for identity, the discovery of hope through love, and Ruby and Archie’s return to the river to build a new life and a new home to mend the wounds of the past. Through lyrical and poignant songs, Ruby’s Story is a tale about the abuse of power and the power of love; about facing up to past wrongs; and our shared responsibility to battle for the survival of our environment and the great river systems upon which all of our lives depend.

"I have been a fan of the music of Archie Roach and Ruby Hunter for many years. I have known them since 1996, when we met during Womad, out in the desert near Woomera. A friend of mine describes Archie's music as 'masterpieces of minimalism', by which he means that the songs have something absolutely essential about them, that not a note or word could be changed.They emerge from his creative process fully formed, perfection. Ruby's have something more mysterious about them, something organic, and able to undergo slight modification during the arranging process.

For her, the order of the events in a song is of the utmost importance. Her songs have a connection to traditional ways of telling stories, with a certain incantatory quality which summons up particular times and places or which announce her identity in very specific ways.

In arranging the songs, I wanted to create little tone poems around the structures, enhancing the storytelling aspect without messing around with the general forms, and being particularly mindful not to upset the simple yet fundamental harmonic language so important to the roving balladeer tradition from which they ultimately spring.The roots of both of their songs can be found within the experience of so many indigenous people around the world, namely in the church, and in the country and blues traditions which express the hopes and dreams of the dispossessed." - Paul Grabowsky "

credits

released January 1, 2005

Vocals – Archie Roach, Ruby Hunter
Violin – John Rodgers
Clarinet [Bb, Eb], Bass Clarinet – Paul Cutlan
Trumpet – Phillip Slater*
Soprano Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone – Sandy Evans
Trombone – James Greening
Guitar – Stephen Magnusson
Piano – Paul Grabowsky
Vibraphone, Percussion – Niko Schauble*
Double Bass, Tuba – Philip Rex
Drums – Simon Barker

Written By – Archie Roach, Ruby Hunter
Producer, Arranged By – Paul Grabowsky
Supervised By [Music Supervisor] – Estelle Pizer
Coordinator [Project Coordinator] – Ann Moir

Design – Mahon&Band
Art Direction, Photography By – Jeff Wassmann
Liner Notes – Paul Grabowsky

Engineer [Recording Engineer] – Robyn Gray
Mastered By – Ross Cockle
Engineered At – Allan Eaton Studios
Mastered At – Sing Sing Studios

Copyright (c) – Australian Art Orchestra

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about

Australian Art Orchestra Australia

With an emphasis on improvisation, the AAO explores the meeting points between disciplines and cultures, and imagines new musical forms to reflect the energy and diversity of 21st century Australia. The AAO explores the interstices between the avant-garde and the traditional, between art and popular music, and between electronic and acoustic approaches. ... more

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