Stranger In My Land
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LP is a Limited Edition of 500 - Includes Digital Copy plus a nifty insert of Jon Langford artwork
Features guest vocals and instrumental performances from Bonnie Prince Billy , Kelly Hogan, Dave Alvin of the Blasters , Sally Timms , Andre Williams and Charlie Louvin. All this star power is backed The Pine Valley Cosmonauts and the Sadies
Powerful and moving material, heartbreaking and hilarious, downtrodden and uplifting, suffused with longing, alienation, resilience and hop. Humor, resignation and outrage stalk a superficially familiar musical landscape that’s been re-populated with stockmen, bandicoots, wallabies, porcupines, grog-drinkers, pelicans and policemen.
Look, dammit, not only is this one of the BEST records we've ever released, it's one of the most important. It's speaks to the universality of music, the amazing possibilities of cross-cultural pollination and the simple power of one musician strumming a guitar. It's political, yes, but above all, it's a humanistic triumph and a joy to listen to. If we here at Bloodshot have acheived nothing else in life, we were able to say we were able to release this record.
Stranger In My Land is a collection of songs originally written by Aboriginal artists who were Knox’s peers and predecessors; some tunes were previously recorded but difficult to find as well as several unrecorded, handed-down folk songs (which, without this recording, could have been lost forever). It is powerful and moving material, heartbreaking and hilarious, downtrodden and uplifting, suffused with longing, alienation, resilience and hope; universal themes arising out of largely unexplored context. It possesses the urgency of a Alan Lomax field recording, but with a spirit that remains relevant in today’s world.
Features guest vocals and instrumental performances from Bonnie Prince Billy ("Scobie's Dream"), Kelly Hogan ("Blue Gums," "Took The Children Away,") Dave Alvin of X, Blasters ("Land Where The Crow Flies Backwards"), Sally Timms ("Home In The Valley"), Andre Williams ("Stranger in My Country") and perhaps the last known recording from Charlie Louvin of the Louvin Brothers ("Ticket to Nowhere"). All this star power is backed The Pine Valley Cosmonauts and the Sadies.
Also included in a album is a lovely insert by Langford that gives an apt history of the songs, artists, and people behind this fragile, yet empowering music. This is an album about a man and a people’s struggles in their own place of origin, and the experiences in a journey that such a complex life path can take. Knox is the conduit for these stories and these songs, but this isn’t ancient history and these songs are not museum pieces.
The place names and characters are different, but the humanity remains common. In making Stranger In My Land, Roger Knox closes the circle on a strange journey that takes the music and stories of his people all the way around the planet and back to America.
