James Conway is an Australian harmonica player and with his brother,

Mic Conway Mic Conway (born 15 February 1951) is an Australian vocalist and with his brother, Jim Conway, was a co-founder of the 1970s humour, theatre and rock group, The Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band.McFarlane (1999). Encyclopedia entry for . Retrieved ...

, was a co-founder of the 1970s humour, theatre and rock group,

The Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band The Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band, also known as Soapbox Circus or Matchbox, were an Australian jug band formed in 1969. It centred on Mic Conway ("Captain Matchbox") on lead vocals, washboard and ukulele; and his brother, Jim Conway, on harmon ...

.McFarlane (1999). Encyclopedia entry fo
'Captain Matchbox'
Retrieved 31 January 2010.Spencer et al, (2007
CAPTAIN MATCHBOX WHOOPEE BAND
entry. Retrieved 31 January 2010. NOTE: Used for Australian Singles and Albums charting from 1974 until

ARIA In music, an aria ( Italian: ; plural: ''arie'' , or ''arias'' in common usage, diminutive form arietta , plural ariette, or in English simply air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrumental or orchestral accompa ...

created their own

charts A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tab ...

in mid-1988. In 1992, Kent back calculated chart positions for 1970–1974. Conway plays blues, jazz and

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

, and has undertaken national

tours Tours ( , ) is one of the largest cities in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the prefecture of the department of Indre-et-Loire. The commune of Tours had 136,463 inhabitants as of 2018 while the population of the whole metro ...

with American bluesman

Brownie McGhee Walter Brown "Brownie" McGhee (November 30, 1915 – February 16, 1996) was an American folk music and Piedmont blues singer and guitarist, best known for his collaboration with the harmonica player Sonny Terry. Life and career McGhee was ...

, The Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band, Circus Oz and

Backsliders Backsliding, also known as falling away or described as "committing apostasy", is a term used within Evangelical Christianity to describe a process by which an individual who has converted to Christianity reverts to pre-conversion habits and/or ...

and more recently Jim Conway's Big Wheel.

Biography

During his high school years, Conway, along with his brother Mic, attended

Camberwell High School (Learning to be considerate of others) , city = Canterbury , state = Victoria , country = Australia , coordinates = , type = Public , established ...

Conway was a member of the Conway Brothers Hiccups Orchestra from 1984 to 1988 and toured the UK in 1986 appearing at the

Edinburgh Festival __NOTOC__ This is a list of arts and cultural festivals regularly taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland. The city has become known for its festivals since the establishment in 1947 of the Edinburgh International Festival and the Edinburgh Fe ...

, the Capitol Music Festival and the Newcastle Festival. In 1988, the Conway Brothers appeared at the Houston International Festival, World Expo 88 and the Perth festival. Conway joined the

in 1989, touring nationally at festivals including the

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

, Sydney,

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...

and Melbourne Festivals,

Womad WOMAD ( ; World of Music, Arts and Dance) is an international arts festival. The central aim of WOMAD is to celebrate the world's many forms of music, arts and dance. History WOMAD was founded in 1980 by English rock musician Peter Gabriel, w ...

, the East Coast Blues Festival, the Port Fairy Folk Festival, the Wangaratta Jazz Festival, the Bellingen Jazz Festival and the Gold Coast International

Jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

and Blues Festival. He has twice been a judge at the Hohner Australian Harmonica Championships at the Tamworth Country Music Festival. Apart from four successful recordings, including two

gold record Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...

s with Captain Matchbox, Conway co-produced two of the Backsliders eight albums; "Sitting on a Million" and "Hellhound". In 2003 he was awarded the prestigious Centenary Medal in recognition of his contribution to the Arts. In 2003 he produced a recording funded by the Australia Council for his band "Big Wheel". The resulting recording, ''Little Story'' was nominated for an

ARIA Music Award The Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (commonly known informally as ARIA Music Awards, ARIA Awards, or simply the ARIAs) is an annual series of awards nights celebrating the Australian music industry, put on by the Austra ...

2004 ARIA Music Awards The 18th Annual Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (generally known as ARIA Music Awards or simply the ARIAs) were held on 17 October 2004 at the Sydney Superdome within the Sydney Olympic Complex. The ceremony, hosted by Rov ...

. Conway is a sought after session musician and has recorded with numerous artists including Shane Howard (Goanna Band) Colin Hay (

Men at Work Men at Work are an Australian rock band formed in Melbourne in 1978 and best known for breakthrough hits such as " Down Under", "Who Can It Be Now?", " Be Good Johnny", " Overkill", and " It's a Mistake". Its founding member and frontman is C ...

Jon Lord John Douglas Lord (9 June 194116 July 2012) was an English orchestral and rock composer, pianist, and Hammond organ player known for his pioneering work in fusing rock with classical or baroque forms, especially with the British rock band Deep ...

( Deep Purple), Bob Brozman,

Slim Dusty Slim Dusty, AO MBE (born David Gordon Kirkpatrick; 13 June 1927 – 19 September 2003) was an Australian country music singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer. He was an Australian cultural icon and one of the country's most awarded stars ...

, Jan Preston, Tim Gaze,

Dutch Tilders Dutch Tilders (29 August 194123 April 2011), born Mattheus Frederikus Wilhelmus Tilders, anglicised as Matthew Tilders, was a Netherlands-born Australian blues singer-songwriter and guitarist. He performed and released material as a solo artist ...

, Anne Kirkpatrick and Pat Drummond. During 2007 and 2008 he recorded and performed with The Brewster Brothers of The Angels fame. Conway has also composed, produced and recorded music for a broad range of film and radio projects, including the Kennedy Miller

telemovie A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...

The Riddle of the Stinson ''The Riddle of the Stinson'' is a 1987 Australian television film about the 1937 Airlines of Australia Stinson crash at Lamington, Queensland, Australia and the rescue of its survivors by local Queenslander Bernard O'Reilly (played in the film ...

'' and the comedy feature ''

The Honourable Wally Norman ''The Honourable Wally Norman'' is a 2003 Australian comedy film directed by Ted Emery. It stars Kevin Harrington, Shaun Micallef, and Greig Pickhaver. It was filmed primarily in South Australia and was nominated for two AFI awards. Plot ...

'' which was chosen to open the 2003 Sydney Film Festival. ''The Jim Conway Blues'', a documentary film celebrating Conway's contribution to Australian music was screened on S.B.S. Television in July 2000. The film won a silver medal for Best Independently Produced Documentary at the Chicago International Film Festival. A photographic portrait of Conway by renowned photographer

Greg Weight Greg Weight (born 2 December 1946 in Sydney, Australia) is an Australian photographer specialising in fine art photography and portraiture. Greg was the inaugural winner of the Australian Photographic Portrait Prize in 2003 and his book ''Aust ...

won the inaugural Prize for Photographic Portraiture associated with the Archibald Prize. Conway was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1983 and as a result has been reliant on a wheelchair for a number of years. At the Sydney Paralympics Opening Ceremony he performed a piece of music specially written to feature his harmonica playing. Due to his increasing disability he announced his retirement from performing in 2014.

Discography

Albums

Awards and nominations

ARIA Music Awards

The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music. , - , ARIA Music Awards of 2004 , ''Little Story'' (as Jim Conway's Big Wheel) ,

ARIA Award for Best Blues and Roots Album The ARIA Music Award for Best Blues and Roots Album, is an award presented at the annual ARIA Music Awards, which recognises "the many achievements of Aussie artists across all music genres", since 1987. It is handed out by the Australian Recor ...

, , -

References

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White Room Electronic Publishing Pty Ltd
in 2007 and was expanded from the 2002 edition. ;Specific

External links

2003 Australian Photographic Portrait Prize Jim Conway's Blues documentary film
{{DEFAULTSORT:Conway, Jim Harmonica players Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Musicians from Melbourne Australian blues musicians Blues harmonica players People with multiple sclerosis Jazz harmonica players Country harmonica players