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WOMADELAIDE 2001
program highlights
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The Benning Brothers (Australia) |
| At the forefront of
The Benning Brothers is Barry Benning, recognised as a living legend in
the world of Australian country and contemporary Aboriginal music.
Singer, songwriter, and educator, Barry and his band were the first Aboriginal
instrumental ensemble in Australia, and one of the first groups to perform
around the Kimberley region, pioneering a place for Aboriginal artists
in Australian country music. Together since 1963, they are the kings
of Kimberley country, well known for their skill with the guitar, and their
music is uncomplicated, down-to-earth, grass-roots country.
Last year the band was awarded the 2000 Aboriginal Country Music Award
for Excellence (at the Australian Independent Country Music Awards), and
Barry Benning was awarded an Australia Council Fellowship in 1999, to support
and further his work with young aspiring musicians in remote Aboriginal
communities. Some of the bands he has mentored include the Teenage
Lajamanu Band, Fitzroy Express, Kimberley Gold, and many other Aboriginal
bands now emerging in Central Australia, the Barkly Tableland and the Kimberley.
Barry is now a Tamworth Country Music Festival regular and the Womadelaide
2001 performance marks the first time the band has travelled down south.
The band has gone through some line-up changes over the years, and for
Womadelaide we will see Barry Benning, Eric Benning, and Stan Rogers on
vocals. They have recorded three albums to date, with the release
of King Sound last year. |
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