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The Dust Sings

by Steve Bevis

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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Album style - Singer/Songwriter
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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Songs shaped by the Outback, the clash of cultures, the land, the power of love, the quest for justice and search for place.

    Includes unlimited streaming of The Dust Sings via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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      $15 AUD or more 

     

1.
Drier Than Dry 05:03
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2.
The Country Walks In You 04:27
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3.
No Colour Line 03:50
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4.
Flight Or Fight 04:55
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5.
Signs Of Life 03:35
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6.
The Key - Walk Like Madiba 05:06
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7.
Travelling With Guitars 04:25
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8.
Poisoned Policy 03:25
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about

The Dust Sings is the first of two albums by singer-songwriter-guitarist Steve Bevis that find their centre in experiences of living and travelling in the outback of Central Australia. At the heart of these albums are fresh impulses and perspectives gained from walking with Aboriginal elders: people who along the way became both friends and teachers. Surprising lessons about listening to country and one’s spirit, and creatively finding ways to face a complex, entangled and often painful history, have led to a suite of songs that are both deeply personal and openly political. Together, they tap into a spirituality that is grounded in the ordinary struggles and joys of life, as well as into the potency of the music and silences of the land itself. They include odes to friends departed, paeans to loves maintained, and stories of the opening up of the outback and the myriad cost to local people that history entailed. They also weave in short phrases from two local Indigenous languages, Arrernte and Warlpiri, that were taught to Steve by these local custodians. Out here even melody can be reshaped by an encounter with the true languages of the country.

The songs took shape from sitting around campfires, travelling in 4WDs across vast stretches of country, learning stories, sharing jokes, playing guitar. They were mostly written while living in Alice Springs or on the long personal journey of deciding to make the big move from the Blue Mountains and Sydney to the remoteness of a town called Alice. One song was written in Darwin, an inescapably twinned-city, or so it seems, for anyone living in Alice Springs. The subject matter on this first album, The Dust Sings, then spans out to include the world: Nelson Mandela is invoked as a witness of how to face adversity and overcome the odds. Palestine, and the emotions it wrenches out of us, is referenced after a friend of Steve’s returned from Israel to share her experiences with a group at Honeymoon Gap, out there on the edge of Alice Springs; lives and stories merging, setting the imagination free against a backdrop of red rock and whitegums. Yes, throwing rocks in Jerusalem or Alice Springs might come from a common need; flight or fight, indeed. Refugees also live in Alice, and so they also find their place on The Dust Sings.

While the project is lyrically and aesthetically focused on one whitefellas response to stories of this country, the project also represents a long-distance collaboration between musicians recording in studios across the country and, indeed, the globe. Matt Snowden, a UK-based drummer and engineer laid down his sumptuous grooves in the South of England. Spike Mason, a truly gifted Australian jazz player wrote, played and recorded his lyrical sax lines in Poatina, Tasmania. Liz Frencham, double bass player extraordinaire, worked with her engineer husband Steve Vella, to lay down her own entrancing lines in country Victoria. Brendan Saad recorded propulsive bass in the Blue Mountains and Leichhardt NSW, and a fine cohort of local musicians led and arranged by Alex McClean contributed from Alice Springs itself. It is a testament to the power of technology to reduce the remoteness of life in the outback, and the capacity of people to connect and create, even across vast distances. In music we can hear each others’ heartbeat - even when it is transmitted in ones and zeros across cable and screens. There is also family on this record: Steve’s wife, Miriam, and daughter, Aislinn, contribute vocals that sweeten any song, proving there’s no barrier between hearts: colour, age, gender, culture, or any other kind…

credits

released August 1, 2019

Produced, Engineered and Mixed by James Johnson
Steve Bevis: Guitars, Vocals, Zouk, Keys
Miriam Bevis: Vocals
Paul Gioia: Piano
Spike Mason: Brass
Liz Frencham: Double Bass
Brendan Saad: Bass
Matt Snowden: Drums
Thanks to all...
Mastered by Don Bartley at Benchmark Mastering
Photography and Design: Steve Bevis

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Steve Bevis Sydney, Australia

Singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, nomad and pilgrim.

Traversing folk, rock, trad and spirituals
on 'country' and across many nations.

Now residing on the lands of the Wangal people of the Eora nation. ... more

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