Ashley Davies – Burke & Wills, The Expedition (CD & Booklet)

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Ashley Davies – Burke & Wills, The Expedition (CD & Booklet)

“What an epic airing of this brave Australian tragedy! Ash Davies’ dynamic instrumentals truly do justice to the peaks and troughs of Burke and Wills’ journey. It was a pleasure to be a part of the whole shebang in giving voice to the narratives.” Henry Wagons

Ashley Davies is a consummate musician and composer with the capacity to bring uniquely Australian stories to life with breathtaking accuracy. His new project Burke & Wills: The Expedition is an extraordinary piece of work.
Musically it reinforces Davies as one of the country’s great talents… but it is more than that. His commitment to bring one of Australia’ most epic tales of triumph and ultimate defeat to the fore via his music is exciting and commendable. The creative license is with the music only. The narrative written by Australia’s foremost Burke & Wills scholar Dave Phoenix, President of the Burke and Wills Society upholds the highest historic integrity. The music combined with the narrative makes Burke & Wills: The Expedition one of the most significant independent music releases of 2013.
This project is not Davies first foray into interpreting sto- ries of historical significance. In 2001 Davies launched his CD and live road show of Ned Kelly, produced with noted historian Ian Jones. The project told the story of the legendary Australian outlaw and bushranger, and the album won the 2001 Best Australian Debut CD in Rhythms Magazine Readers poll. Ned Kelly was critically acclaimed across the nation.

Burke & Wills: The Expedition the perfect saga for Da- vies’ to create another outstanding project featuring an album and live shows.
Davies says of writing Burke & Wills: The Expedition “I think a lot of people see Burke and Wills’ expedition as a failure – I don’t see it that way. After reading about the expedition I was astonished at what they accomplished and totally inspired by what they did… The ideas came and I started to write a musical journey of the Burke and Wills expedition.” As listeners we should thank Davies as the music takes you on an aural journey where your minds eye can truly retrace the steps, joyous and an- guished, and distinctly Australian
To work on this project Davies gathered together some of Australia’s finest musicians to work with him includ- ing Matt Walker, Reg Mombassa, Shane O’Mara, James Lee, Rick Plant, Craig Pilkington, Anita Quayle, Abbie Cardwell, Howard Cairns, Andrew Ogburn, Eugene Ball, Monique DiMattina, Michelle Lewit and Glenn Romanis.
Davies also secured the artistic talent of Reg Mombassa for the front cover, which complements perfectly the his- toric images in the accompanying booklet.