Neil Murray

His paternal great-great-grandfather was driven out of his home in Scotland by the Highland Clearances and arrived in Australia in 1848.

His grandfather showed him "blackfella stones" (remnants of indigenous artefacts including grindstones and axe heads) of the local Tjapwurrung tribe.

He later wondered about the fate of the land's traditional owners.

Neil James Murray (born 1956) is an Australian musician, singer-songwriter-guitarist and writer.

Neil James Murray, was born in 1956 in Ararat and raised on a farm near Lake Bolac in western Victoria.

His family's farm raised sheep and crops until the mid-1970s.

As a tertiary student, Murray studied art in Ballarat and Melbourne.

In 1978 he started travelling through Australia, and by 1980 he moved to Papunya (about 240 km north-west of Alice Springs) where he worked as a teacher, truck driver and outstation worker, both there and at Kintore (about 530 km west of Alice Springs).

He was a founding member of the Warumpi Band (1980–1988, 1995–2000) which was the first major influential Aboriginal rock group with mostly Indigenous members.

The Warumpi Band were pioneers of Aboriginal rock music and with Murray as a member they released two albums, Big Name, No Blankets (April 1985) and Go Bush! (April 1987).

The tour is named for Warumpi Band's 1985 single, "Blackfella/Whitefella", which was co-written by Murray and lead singer, George Rrurrambu.

They toured widely, including the Blackfella/Whitefella Tour through outback Australia with Midnight Oil in 1986.

Another single, written by Murray for the band to perform, was "My Island Home" (1987).

By the end of 1988 Murray had left the group and relocated to Sydney.

Murray launched his solo career and by 2023 had released eight studio albums, three books, and one CD of spoken poetry.

Murray has had a solo career since 1989 and had issued eight studio albums by 2014.

Murray regularly performed throughout Australia, either with a backing band, The Rainmakers, or solo.

His debut solo album, Calm and Crystal Clear was issued in April 1989 on Festival Records' Infinity label.

Murray described its sound as "outback rock with a slab of transcontinental drivin' thrown in".

It was produced by Mark Moffatt (Mondo Rock, Eurogliders, Jenny Morris) and Murray used session musicians including Midnight Oil's Peter Gifford on bass guitar and Andy Travers from the Happening Thang on drums.

In February of the following year The Canberra Times' Mike Jackson felt that Murray "does belong to the current wave of new country music that's sweeping the land, courtesy of the likes of The Flying Emus and ... Joe Sun. However, his songs have definite folk overtones to them".

Neil Murray and The Rainmakers were formed to tour in support of Calm and Crystal Clear, with an initial line-up of Murray on lead vocals and lead guitar; James Cruikshank on keyboards and guitar (ex-Widdershins); Bill Heckenberg on drums; and Alex Hodgson on bass guitar.

The group toured Australia before Murray took a four-month break, he reassembled The Rainmakers in mid-1990 which supported Midnight Oil's tour of Australia.

By that time the line-up were Murray and Heckenberg with Bill Jacobi on bass guitar (ex-Warumpi Band); and Russell Nelson on guitar, keyboards and backing vocals (ex-Matt Finish).

By 1992 Murray had added Christine Anu to The Rainmakers, initially as a backing singer, he asked her to take on lead vocals for his track, "My Island Home".

Murray's second solo album, These Hands, appeared in July 1993 and was co-produced by Moffatt, Jim Moginie (keyboardist and guitarist of Midnight Oil) and Angelique Cooper.

By that time Anu had left to pursue her solo career.

Murray's second book, Sing for Me, Countryman, appeared in 1993 which was critically reviewed by those watching the career trajectory of Murray (and Warupi Band) as being ... a thinly disguised autobiography ... . As fiction Murray, could use his word smithing as he pleased knowing the rules of offending would not be advanced on him as he sought acknowledgement as poet, author, composer and reconciliation whisperer.

By that year he had returned to the Lake Bolac area where he had bought a small farm block, and worked with the local Tjapwurrung members to try to learn more of their culture.

Murray was recognised as one of Australia's foremost songwriters at the APRA Awards of 1995 by winning Song of the Year for "My Island Home".

In June 1995 she recorded a cover version of "My Island Home", on her debut album, Stylin' Up.

That version was named the APRA Song of the Year at the APRA Awards for Murray as its songwriter and Anu as performer.

The Anu version became an unofficial anthem and she performed it during the closing ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

In the following year it was listed in APRA Top 30 Australian songs of all time.

He undertook a series of performances with Shane Howard (ex-Goanna), as 2songmen from 2006 to 2007.

In June 2011 Murray described his earlier journey:

"It's not an easy road but those who really are meant to do it will do it anyway – they do it because they must, it's the only thing that validates their existence ... I was on a quest for meaning and that meaning I felt was to be found in the company of Indigenous people, the simple premise being they've lived on this land the longest, they know it the best. I wanted to learn from them so I kind of headed to the Territory because that's where I heard people still had their language and law and culture"

- Neil Murray

Murray, on rhythm guitar and backing vocals, became a founding member of the Warumpi Band alongside Aboriginal members, Sammy Jabanangka Butcher on guitar and bass guitar; his brother, Gordon Jabanangka Butcher on drums; and George Rurrambu (born Kumanjayi Rurrambu II Burrarrawanga aka George Djilaynga) on lead vocals and didgeridoo.

A similar set of gigs, One of those Tunes, occurred with Jim Moginie (Midnight Oil) from mid-2013 to early 2014.