Kamerunga is an Australian folk band from Cairns,

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

, consisting of six members. The band's music derives from traditional

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

-influenced

Australian folk music Australian folk music is the traditional music from the large variety of immigrant cultures and those of the original Australian inhabitants. Celtic, English, German and Scandinavian folk traditions predominated in the first wave of Europe ...

, which it mixes with elements of rock,

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...

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. It plays classic Australian folk songs using these elements to produce eclectic and unusual versions of recognisable tunes. Instruments used in Kamerunga's music include guitar, drums, mandolin, fiddle, saxophone, keyboards and violin. Kamerunga has released two albums to date. Both were produced by drummer

Nigel Pegrum Nigel John Pegrum (born 22 January 1949) is a music producer and former drummer, most known for playing on many albums by Steeleye Span. Biography Nigel Pegrum played drums with an early line-up of the Small Faces, then with Lee Grant And The ...

, who played in the British folk band Steeleye Span in the 1970s and '80s.

Members

Kamerunga currently consists of six members. *Andree Baudet – saxophones, keyboards, cello *Peter Ella – acoustic and electric guitars,

tenor guitar The tenor guitar or four-string guitar is a slightly smaller, four-string relative of the steel-string acoustic guitar or electric guitar. The instrument was initially developed in its acoustic form by Gibson and C.F. Martin so that players of ...

, mandolin, violin *Tony Hillier – rhythm guitar, backing vocals *Will Kepa – bass *David Martin – violin, mandolin, vocals *Nigel Pegrum – drums Nigel Pegrum joined Kamerunga from the second album. The band's previous drummer, who played on the first album, was Ben Hakalitz, who had long been affiliated with

Yothu Yindi Yothu Yindi ( Yolngu for "child and mother", pronounced ) are an Australian musical group with Aboriginal and '' balanda'' (non-Aboriginal) members, formed in 1986 as a merger of two bands formed in 1985 – a white rock group called the Swam ...

History

Kamerunga formed in Cairns,

in 2007. It was contrived by vocalist Tony Hillier and multi-instrumentalist Peter Ella, who had been playing together in the local folk band Snake Gully since 1986. According to Hillier, the band was created specifically with "big

festivals A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival c ...

" in mind. Its debut album, ''The Push'', was first launched at the Yungaburra Folk Festival in October 2008, and was released later in November. It was further promoted at the

Woodford Folk Festival The Woodford Folk Festival is an annual music and cultural festival held near the semi-rural town of Woodford, north of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It is one of the biggest annual cultural events of its type in Australia. Every year ap ...

in December, and the

Port Fairy Folk Festival The Port Fairy Folk Festival is an annual four-day music festival based in the historic fishing village of Port Fairy in Victoria, Australia. History The festival began on 2 December 1977 under the theme of "Australian and Irish Traditional Mu ...

in March 2009. Making up ''The Push'' were several classic Australian tunes, including unique versions of "

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

" and "The Lachlan Tigers". It also contained a tribute song to the bushman

James Venture Mulligan James Venture Mulligan (13 February 1837 – 24 August 1907) was an Ireland-born Australian prospector and explorer. Early life Mulligan was born in Drumgooland, County Down and emigrated to Australia at the age of 21 in 1860. He settled a ...

, who explored Far North Queensland in the late 19th century. Kamerunga's second album was produced during 2011, taking up most of the year. During the year, the band also performed at the

Rainforest World Music Festival The Rainforest World Music Festival (often abbreviated as RWMF) is an annual three-day music festival celebrating the diversity of world music, held in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia, with daytime music workshops, cultural displays, craft displays, ...

in Kuching,

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and ea ...

in July 2011. They began promoting their second album at the Port Fairy festival in February 2012. It was titled ''Worlds Kaleid'', and was released in March. Several other well-known Australian musicians appeared on the album, including

Joseph Tawadros Joseph Tawadros (born 6 October 1983) is an Egyptian-born Coptic Australian multi-instrumentalist and oud virtuoso. Tawadros has won the ARIA Award for Best World Music Album five times: 2012, 2013, 2014, 2020. and 2021. Biography His famil ...

playing the

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Harry James Angus Harry James Angus (born 11 June 1982 Melbourne) is an Australian singer-songwriter, trumpet player and guitarist. He was one of the lead vocalists in the Melbourne band The Cat Empire along with Felix Riebl. He joined the group in early 2000 a ...

on trumpet,

Jeff Lang Jeff Lang (born 9 November 1969) is an Australian guitarist, songwriter, vocalist and music producer. Lang plays various types of guitar, both slide and standard, as well as banjo, mandolin, cümbüş and drums. He is a three-time ARIA Award w ...

on slide guitar, and

Dobe Newton Dobe Newton OAM (born 14 July 1948) is an Australian musician and member of folk and country music group the Bushwackers from 1973. He co-wrote the patriotic song " I Am Australian" in 1987 with Bruce Woodley. For his service to the performi ...

from

The Bushwackers The Bushwhackers are a professional wrestling tag team who competed first as the New Zealand Kiwis and then as The Sheepherders during their 36-year career as a tag team. They wrestled in the WWE, World Wrestling Federation, Jim Crockett Promoti ...

on lagerphone. It gained critical praise from newspapers, as well as from musicians

Paul Grabowsky Paul Atherstone Grabowsky (born 27 September 1958) is an Australian pianist and composer. Biography Born in Lae, Papua New Guinea, Grabowsky is a pianist and composer of music for film, theatre and opera. His father Alistair had lived in Pap ...

and

Shane Howard Shane Michael Howard (born 26 January 1955) is an Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist, he was the mainstay of folk rock group Goanna (1977–85, 1998) which had hit singles with " Solid Rock" (September 1982, No. 3) and " Let the ...

Discography

Albums

Awards

ARIA Awards

The ARIA Music Awards are presented annually from 1987 by the

Australian Recording Industry Association The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) is a trade association representing the Australian recording industry which was established in the 1970s by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replacing ...

(ARIA). Kamerunga was nominated for its debut album, but the award went to

Seaman Dan Henry Gibson Dan (25 August 1929– 30 December 2020), known as Seaman Dan, an Indigenous Australian, was a Torres Strait Islander singer-songwriter with a national and international reputation whose first recording was released in 2000. His al ...

. , - , 2009 , , ''The Push'' , , Best World Music Album , ,

References

External links

Kamerunga
on Myspace
Kamerunga
at

Triple J Triple J (stylised in all lowercase) is a government-funded, national Australian radio station intended to appeal to listeners of alternative music, which began broadcasting in January 1975. The station also places a greater emphasis on broad ...

''Unearthed'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Kamerunga Australian folk music groups Queensland musical groups Musical groups established in 2007