Live at Smith’s

This record is a collaboration that spans the 5000 kilometres between esteemed Northern Territory musician Ray Dimakarri Dixon and the Blue Mountains based Standing Strong Band.

Ray is a proud Mudburra man singing in language, and a leader in Australia’s Indigenous music scene. His album Standing Strong (2020) was a runner up in the Indigenous Music Awards, and many of the songs from Ray’s album formed the repertoire for this record. His music is a celebration of Country, culture and a call for  their protection, sung in one of the world’s oldest living languages.

In 2019 a group of musicians from the Blue Mountains travelled to the Northern Territory to play music with Ray, and what evolved from this collaboration became the Standing Strong Band. This group is made up of musicians who have a long history of working and playing together, including three former members of bluegrass folk band Lime & Steel, and other members of the Blue Mountains’ vibrant music scene. As part of this project Ray has generously shared his culture and language with the band in order to inform and shape the music they make together.

Their first performance together was at the Freedom Day festival on Gurindji land, celebrating the Wave Hill-walkoff and the returning of land to the Gurindji people in 1975. This was the first of several trips in both directions, each time building on this musical connection and friendship.

In early 2025 Ray and the band did a tour of NSW and ACT, and this record was recorded during that tour at Smith’s Alternative Bookstore on 26th Jan 2025. This was a particularly sweet performance, and one of the band’s favourites, now recorded, mixed and mastered for vinyl.