Sam Anning – Earthen (Ltd Ed)

In the course of Earthen’s nine tracks Sam Anning and his collaborators have produced a remarkable, elegiac memorial in homage to the great Indigenous Australian singer, songwriter, and activist, Archie Roach (Gunditjmanra and Bundjalong). The album will be of interest to many listeners for purely musical reasons, but the connection to Roach gives the work a depth of meaning that adds to the work’s vitality, in my experience. Anning worked as the bassist in Roach’s band during the last three years of Roach’s life, and can be heard in that capacity notably on the recording of songs from Charcoal Lane produced for the 30th anniversary of Roach’s debut album. Anning’s rich, restrained bass playing is beautiful underneath Roach’s voice, itself deeply engrained with the age and experience that separates that album from the songs’ original recordings.

Source: https://rhythmofstudy.com/2024/04/12/anning-earthen/