Customer Reviews

Looking for Butter Boy

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Thanks, Malcolm Burn, for letting Archie rock! "Djabugai Lady," "Hold On Tight," and "Give Unto Caesar" break free in fine garage band fashion...but it's free of shallow adolescent pretences that one may associate with three-chord guitar music. Much of the record remains "folk music," but Archie is branching out into neighboring genres. I'm hoping to hear Archie sing more rock songs on future albums.

Archie Roach is one of the English-speaking world's top-shelf songwriters and singers. Archie doesn't sing about "getting the girl" but about loving your wife...if you are man enough. Archie sings about protecting the children's home ("A Child Was Born Here"), about how a grandmother can inspire a boy to resist the stains of ethnic discrimination ("My Grandmother"), and praise the nurturing qualities of mothers ("My Mother's Heartbeat"). This is Archie again, as he did in the "Charcoal Lane" and "Jamu Dreaming" albums, singing about one of the most personal set of issues around -- our very own families.

Archie's family journal comes with a soundtrack! Next comes the documentary film? I hope so...because more of the world needs to find Butter Boy...and listen to his stories.

This man's music is another wonderful thing I brought home from Australia. Many Australian performers work with or cover songs by Archie, and to listen to this CD is to understand the true depth of the man's music. He can be very political and social in his songs; in that respect, he seems to be a mellow version of Australia's Midnight Oil, and with good reason. His political and social songs are less preachy and more of him dealing openly and honestly with his childhood and teen-age years. He was a stolen child (meaning he is an Aboriginal that was forcibally taken from his family by the government) and that resonates in many of his songs on this and previous CD's. Songs like "My Grandmother" "F Troop" "Mother's Heartbeat" and "Louis St John" have definitive politcal lyrics without wanting to blame people, something I find most writers of musical political material can not accomplish. "Djabugai Lady" is a love song that makes you sing the chorus, and "Reach For You" is probably the most soulful, honest, heartfelt and acoustic love song you'll hear for the next twenty years! This is the CD to start with if you want to start listening to Archie Roach. He'll have you "Dancing with My Spirit" (or your spirit) without caring who leads.