CD REVIEW: RUSSELL MORRIS – Red Dirt – Red Heart

CD REVIEW: RUSSELL MORRIS – Red Dirt – Red Heart
Chugg Music
23 October, 2015
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
8/10

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.

Cut You Loose starts his travels in Victoria, before heading north to Sydney for the betrayal and death of the notorious bushranger Jack Donohue – the Wild Colonial Boy. I Go Round’s shuffle takes him north of Byron Bay, while Bennelong, Alice and Nullabour Sand all tell stories of this big sun-drenched land.

Goanna Man, the witch doctor tale Kadaitcha Man, and more bushrangers in the form of Moondyne Joe and Ben Hall explore colourful and unique characters, both historically noteworthy and ordinary.

Morris’s own travels around and around the country have fuelled this wonderful collection of stories, and his husky drawl and laid back blues playing perfectly complement the arid settings of the songs.

As far as late-career rejuvenations go, Morris’s Oz Blues trilogy certainly struck gold for him, and with this chapter now closed a lot of people will be eager to see what he’ll follow up with.

Category: CD Reviews