Deadly Woman Blues: Black Women and Australian music

Description

Deadly Woman Blues, stunning, original and brimming with life, is the first of its kind. Part art book, part comic book, part biography and fully deadly, it is a unique graphic history of the black women who made Australian music. Traditional Indigenous music, spirituals, vaudeville, post-war jazz, country, gospel, soul, R&B and hip-hop have been made and re-made by these legendary women, some household names, some forgotten, some totally unknown until now. In this album of portraits, the long-awaited follow-on from Clinton Walker's classic Buried Country, more than one hundred amazing artists are reborn. It's as if a long-lost set of bubblegum cards has been found and remade for us, now. Starring Georgia Lee, Nellie Small, Candy Devine, Wilma Reading, Sibby Doolan, Ruby Hunter, Marlene Cummins, Tiddas, Carole Fraser, Christine Anu, Jessica Mauboy, Emma Donovan, Shellie Morris, Leah Flanagan, Crystal Mercy and many, many more singers and musicians, Deadly Woman Bluesis a story full of tears and joy, always beautiful and heroic.

Clinton Walker has been called `our best chronicler of Australian grass-roots culture' by Sydney's Sun-Herald. Born in Bendigo in 1957, he is an art school drop-out and recovering rock critic who has published nine books, and has worked extensively in television as well as journalism. His previous titles include Buried Country, Inner City Sound, Golden Miles and History is Made at Night and the global best-seller biography of Bon Scott, Highway to Hell. For ABC-TV, he was co-writer of the hit 2001 Oz-rockumentary series Long Way to the Top, and co-presenter of the late-night live music show Studio 22, and producer of their soundtrack albums; he also produced the soundtrack for the film version of Buried Country that he wrote for SBS, and is currently the director of its touring stageshow iteration.

"Well overdue and incredibly fascinating." - Franny Peters-Little "Another great work of scholarship by Clinton Walker, accompanied by his beautiful drawings... a fascinating but overlooked aspect of Australia's cultural history." - Reg Mombassa "No longer ignored and forgotten, these women, their stories and their contributions to Australian music, are now given the recognition they deserve in this fascinating, epic exploration- an inspired, deadly book." - Lindy Morrison