Red Dirt – Red Heart
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''Red Dirt – Red Heart'' is a
studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...
by
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
n singer–songwriter
Russell Morris Russell Norman Morris (born 31 July 1948) is an Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist who had five Australian Top 10 singles during the late 1960s and early 1970s. On 1 July 2008, the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) reco ...
. It was released on 23 October 2015 by Roustabout Records/ Chugg Records and peaked at number 21 on the
ARIA Charts The ARIA Charts are the main Australian record chart, music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA beca ...
. At the
ARIA Music Awards of 2016 The 30th Annual Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (generally known as ARIA Music Awards or simply The ARIAs) are a series of award ceremonies which include the 2016 ARIA Artisan Awards, ARIA Hall of Fame Awards, ARIA Fine ...
, the album won Best Blues and Roots Album.


Background

''Red Dirt - Red Heart'' is the third release in Morris' Australian blues 'n' roots trilogy. It follows '' Sharkmouth'' which focusses on back blocks of 1920s and 30s inner-city
Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...
while ''
Van Diemen's Land Van Diemen's Land was the colonial name of the island of Tasmania during the European exploration of Australia, European exploration and colonisation of Australia in the 19th century. The Aboriginal Tasmanians, Aboriginal-inhabited island wa ...
'' focussed on larger events, such as the 1894 Australian shearers' strike and the 1850s Bendigo gold rush. ''Red Dirt - Red Heart'' focuses on the Australian interior; indigenous inhabitants,
bushranger Bushrangers were armed robbers and outlaws who resided in The bush#Australia, the Australian bush between the 1780s and the early 20th century. The original use of the term dates back to the early years of the British colonisation of Australia ...
s, swagmen and The Nullarbor. ''Red Dirt - Red Heart'' has an underlining story about the indigenous people with songs about life in central Australia such as "
Alice Springs Alice Springs () is a town in the Northern Territory, Australia; it is the third-largest settlement after Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin and Palmerston, Northern Territory, Palmerston. The name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William ...
" but there are also some biographical songs such as "God Loves a Sinner" and "Tiger Snake" written by Morris about himself. Morris said "Before I wrapped up these albums I had to include songs about the people who've been here for 40,000 to 50,00 years and their Aboriginal heroes like
Bennelong Woollarawarre Bennelong ( 1764 – 3 January 1813) was a senior man of the Eora, an Aboriginal Australian people of the Port Jackson area, at the time of the first British settlement in Australia. Bennelong served as an interlocutor between ...
and
Pemulwuy Pemulwuy ( /pɛməlwɔɪ/ ''PEM-əl-woy''; 1750 – 2 June 1802) was a Bidjigal warrior of the Dharug, an Aboriginal Australian people from New South Wales. One of the most famous Aboriginal resistance fighters in the colonial era, he is n ...
. I got permission to do a song about the Kadaitcha Man by contacting the people from Skinnyfish Records and Gurrumul because I didn't want to offend anyone". As Morris explains, the three-album project didn't begin as a trilogy; "I started off in 2012 wanting to do a blues album. Then I saw a photo of scam-artist Thomas 'Shark Jaws' Archer that inspired me to write a song about him". adding "Once I got through the first album I realised there was so many stories that I wanted to tell. Our tapestry of characters and places are so interesting. I have a passion for history" In an interview on 6PR in December 2015, Morris said he believes ''Red Dirt - Red Heart'' is the best of the trilogy. He promoted the album with a video clip and live performances of "Lonesome Road" on television and radio.


Reception

Noel Mengel from
News.com.au News.com.au (stylised in all lowercase) is an Australian website owned by News Corp Australia. It had 9.6 million unique readers in April 2019 and covers national and international news, lifestyle, travel, entertainment, technology, finance an ...
said; " Most of the album sticks to the blues template but "Nullarbor Sand" is a gentle folk-country reflection that suggests a musical direction worth exploring next time around.
Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his nearly 70-year ...
and
Leonard Cohen Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934November 7, 2016) was a Canadian songwriter, singer, poet, and novelist. Themes commonly explored throughout his work include faith and mortality, isolation and depression, betrayal and redemption, soc ...
have kept the creative juices flowing into their 70s and 80s: Morris is intent on doing the same." Andrew McDonald from the Music AU said; "The album's themes make for a worthy close to his trilogy, and deal with Australian history in a unique way, examining Indigenous culture in the face of perverse whiteness. Australiana is in full force on tunes like the harmonica-driven "Bennelong", and the honestly danceable "Lonesome Road". Morris knows his audience on this album, and plays to them without concern; this is not an experiment or a new side of him, and the album does feel overly long in its continued examination of Australiana, but for fans of the man, this will more than satisfy." adding "The album is an engrossing listen for a blues fan." Shane Pinnegar from 100% Rock Magazine said; "The climax to Russell Morris's enormously successful Australiana trilogy is perhaps the most 'true blue', 'dinky-di Aussie' of the lot mining a folky blues seam as he sings of bushrangers and the wide open spaces of our great southern land". Steeve Creedy from
The Australian ''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet daily newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964. As the only Australian daily newspaper distributed nationally, its readership of b ...
said; "Morris was deluged with accolades for ''Sharkmouth'' and ''Van Diemen’s Land''. His friend and promoter
Michael Chugg Michael Glenn Chugg (born 15 June 1947) is an Australian entrepreneur, businessman and concert tour promoter. As a promoter and manager he was a founder of Frontier Touring Company (1979–99) and Michael Chugg Entertainment (2000–present ...
describes this as "a wonderful conclusion to an amazing trilogy". He would say that, but that doesn't mean it isn't true."


Track listing


Tour

Morris toured the album throughout January and February 2016 .


Charts


Weekly charts


Year-end charts


Release history


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Red Dirt - Red Heart 2015 albums Russell Morris albums ARIA Award–winning albums