Music
Press
“One of the most interesting and original artists I had the luck to discover last year”
Massimo Ferro, Radio Voce Spazio, Italy
...about his debut CD Bagarap Empires CD (2005):
“It is an amazing piece of work. Truly folk music at its best – chronicling a period in a peoples’ history that few of us know anything about.”
Les Siemieniuk, Penguin Eggs, Autumn 2006 Edition
“One should seriously consider purchasing Bagarap Empires. Especially if you are, or would like to be, a songwriter, just to hear how good it sounds when it’s done really well”
Mike Cooper, fROOTS magazine (UK)
“In addition to the rollicking songs full of humour and politics, it turned out that Smith was capable of the most touching heartfelt ballads.”
Dometrius Romeo, Stand and Deliver, ABC News Radio
“You’d have to go along way to find a singer-songwriter with more scope. From
performing in the schoolrooms and on the airstrips of South Pacific islands to revving up the locals at dingy inner city pubs, Smith makes ‘versatile’ seem an understatement.”
Matt Levey, Revolver Magazine
“His songs range from the deeply affecting, to the astringently observant, to the rousing singalong. He has a perceptive eye for modern life, its foibles and joys, and an ability to express this in song.”
Philip O’Brien, producer, ArtSound FM 103.1
“If songwriting is all about your ability to express your soul, then Smith has talent in bucketloads”
Neal Hunt, Revolver,
“A unique guitarist and songwriter, Smith possesses not only an ability to paint phrases of vivid depictions and satire, but of captivating ballads that can often suck you dry, leave you feeling shredded, and more frequently than not, you'll find something to relate to and feel equally passionate about. A definitive Australian icon, Smith never ceases to amaze and delight his audiences...”
Victory Harper, www.the-riotact.com
- Various
Discography
North America:
Ballads and Barsongs, recent release receiving strong airplay on AAA Stations
Bagarap Empires, several tracks from were featured on ABC Radio National and local stations around Australia, Papua New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands.
Australia: Bagarap Empires, Into My Room, Party Pieces, Soapbox
Papua New Guinea- Songs of Peace
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
"His CD was good, but his live performance blew me away"
Rich Warren, Folk Alliance Digest, VOl 14, Issue 12
One of the most interesting and original artists I had the luck to discover last year
Massimo Ferro, Radio Voce Spazio, Italy
Australian songwriter Iain Campbell Smith is a 2005 NAFA Official Showcase Artist.
Recently moved to Washington DC, Smith has spent much of the last 5 years living and working in the war ravaged islands of the South Pacific.
Sent to the islands by the Australian Foreign
Ministry, he learned pidgin dialect and began
writing songs, in both English and pidgin, from the stories of people he worked with in their struggle to build trust and peace after a bitter civil war.
He became a celebrity on Bougainville Island
collaborating with local musicians to release 20,000 copies of a Songs of Peace cassette, and hosting a weekly program on the islands only radio station.
The Bagarap Empires CD reflects his experiences in the Pacific. The album won the Screensound Australia National Folk Recording Award and was rated among the top 5 albums of the year by ABC Radios Paul Petran.
He has added 4 new tracks to for the US release of Bagarap Empires. The new songs were written during his most recent tour of Bougainville Island when filmaker Nick Agafonoff shadowed him for 3 weeks shooting footage for the documentary "Bougainville Sky" scheduled for release in June 2005.
Smith appears regularly at Australian festivals
including the National, Woodford, Port Fairy and Blue Mountains. He has led workshops on Songs of Peace during which he often has attendees
singing along in Papua New Guinea pidgin!
In concert he performs songs ranging from wry comic songs to tender ballads of loss and survival reflecting personal stories from life in a conflict zone. He presents with a warm humour and a unique gift for illuminating worlds both familiar and unfamiliar to the audience.
Iain has recently relocated to the USA and will be touring this coming fall and winter to promote the Bagarap Empires album and the Bougainville Sky documentary.
One should seriously consider purchasing Bagarap Empires. Especially if you are, or would like to be, a songwriter, just to hear how good it sounds when its done really well
Mike Cooper, fROOTS magazine (UK)
In addition to the rollicking songs full of humour and politics, it turned out that Smith was capable of the most touching heartfelt ballads.
Dometrius Romeo, Stand and Deliver, ABC News Radio
His songs range from the deeply affecting, to the astringently observant, to the rousing singalong. He has a perceptive eye for modern life, its foibles and joys, and an ability to express this in song.
Philip OBrien, producer, ArtSound FM 103.1
A definitive Australian icon, Smith never ceases to amaze and delight his audiences...
Victory Harper, www.the-riotact.com
Links
