Spirit Of Place

About

Five years after folk-rock group Goanna was pulled together in Geelong, Victoria, by singer/guitarist Shane Howard, they hit the big time with 1982’s “Solid Rock,” a scorching-hot song about the dispossession of Australia’s Indigenous people that was inspired by Howard’s spiritual awakening during a trip to Uluru. That single, and that intensity, drove <i>Spirit of Place</i>, a collection of politically powered pub-rock tunes that covered hot-button environmental and labor issues. It was the first charting album in Australia to include the didgeridoo, played by No Fixed Address’ Billy Inda. <i>Spirit of Place</i> also features Goanna’s second best-known song, “Razor’s Edge,” a sing-along warning about life’s precarity that name checks some iconic regional towns. Meanwhile, “Stand Yr’ Ground” is a call to arms that showcases female vocalists Marcia Howard and Roslyn Bygrave. The band followed this up with non-album release “Let the Franklin Flow,” under the nom de plume Gordon Franklin and the Wilderness Ensemble, to protest plans for Tasmania’s Franklin River to be dammed. It was a hit, too, but a second album, <i>Oceania</i>, didn’t capture the same energy as the band’s debut. Goanna then went on a lengthy hiatus when an overwhelmed Howard retreated to the outback for a spell.

via Apple Music