Album Review: Roger Knox and the Pine Valley Cosmonauts

Stranger in My Land

2013

Bloodshot Records

bloodshotrecords.com/artist/roger-knox

Review by Anthony Amis

"This land is like a store-bought pie and lots of people come

All to get themselves a slice and I can't get a crumb"

The older I get, the more I like country music. I've often thought it's a crying shame that country music is almost universally disdained amongst progressive types. Perhaps there's an elitism apparent, that theorises that country music is enjoyed mainly by rednecks and therefore is politically unsound. I'm not sure, but when I'm travelling country miles, the only music that makes sense out there is country.

In many regions of Australia, country music is one of the only means possible to communicate feelings for the country (and loss of country) in song. Sung around countless fires, many people, including Aboriginal singers, crafted country music into heartfelt, mournful and sometimes hilarious interpretations of their struggles and day-to-day life. Many of the best examples of Aboriginal country songs were collated by Clinton Walker in his famous book and very hard to find double-CD, released in 2000, called 'Buried Country'.

Roger Knox's fourth album, 'Stranger in My Land', is another stellar release in his impressive catalogue. It features some of Aboriginal Australia's best known country songs, delivered in Roger's own unique style, with vocals as smooth as it silk. Some of the best songs made famous in 'Buried Country' that get Roger's unique treatment on 'Stranger in My Land' include songs originally recorded by Vic Simms, Mop and The Dropouts, Bobby McLeod, Dougie Young and Jimmy Ridegway. It's all good.

Roger grew up on the Toomelah Mission near Moree. In June 1981, he was seriously burnt in one of two plane crashes that he survived. This meant six months in hospital and two years in bed convalescing from very serious burns. His first album, 'Give It A Go', was released almost 30 years ago in 1984 and received positive reviews not only in the country music capital, Tamworth, but also Sydney and Melbourne. 'Stranger In My Land' has been released by US label Bloodshot, and it must make Roger very satisfied to know that these great songs are now being listened to by an increasingly aware global audience.

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Bloodshot Records:

Roger Knox, aka the Koori King of Country or Black Elvis (as he's known in his homeland), and survivor of TWO plane crashes in ONE day (holy sh*t, now THAT'S a country song!), is an Aboriginal Australian Country & Western singer with a honeyed bear hug of a voice.

Back in the 1980s Roger Knox and the Euraba Band (named after the Euraba bush − which supplied him with traditional medicines made by his Aunt to soothe his crash-related injuries) were the hottest act in Australian Country music, black or white.

These days you're more likely to find him out of cell phone range in some far flung bush community singing his heart out, counseling the youth and leading by example.

Bloodshot artist Jon Langford (Mekons, Waco Brothers) met Knox on a visit to Australia several years ago. When he heard of Roger and the potentially-soon-to-be-lost subculture of the utterly unique cultural collision that is Koori country, Langford knew he had to be involved. Stranger In My Land is a collection of songs originally written by Aboriginal artists who were Knox's peers and predecessors; some tunes previously recorded but difficult to find as well as several unrecorded, handed-down folk songs (which without this recording, could have been lost forever).