Songs From Walking with Spirits

The re-release of this 2007 album showcases an extraordinary collaboration that brought together Aboriginal songmen with other Australian musicians. It was the brainchild of late Indigenous musician/actor Balang T E Lewis (aka Tom E Lewis), who passed away in 2018, age 59. A gifted performer, Lewis hailed from Ngukurr (Roper River) in south Arnhem Land, and he co-founded Djilpin Arts, a community-run gallery/cultural complex in his adopted home of Beswick (Wugularr). In 2002 he initiated the Indigenous-based festival Walking with Spirits at a stunning local site. Having featured a number of regional Arnhem Land songmen at the festival, Lewis’ trademark enthusiasm led him to record their traditional singing in 2007, augmented by special invitees. Four songmen – Roy Muyngarnbi Ashley, Micky Hall, Victor Hood and Jimmy Wesan – were joined by Australian rock guitarist Ross Hannaford, bassist-producer Michael Hohnen (Gurrumul) and Lewis, with Tony Floyd's drumming added later.

The resulting album was an eccentric, intriguing hybrid of the songmen's ancient vocals with improvised rock-country backing. While the songmen, as well as Lewis and Hannaford, have since passed, in retrospect this recording was one of the first to successfully combine traditional singing with Western instrumentation. It's re-release deserves to spark renewed interest in a remarkable one-off project.