A fantastic music line up was programmed for Winanjjikari Music Centre’s 2011 BAMFest!

BAMFest – Barkly Area’s Music Festival – was the inaugural showcase of music recorded throughout the year at the WMC music studios. This involved artists and producers from far and wide across the Northern Territory’s Barkly region, and Australia.

On the bill were:

• Iwantja Band (APY Lands) The rising stars’ new album Palya was recorded at WMC in November 2010 and produced by WMC producer Tim Cole in a partnership with Wantok Musik from Melbourne.
• Shellie Morris (Darwin) and Warren H. Williams (Hermannsberg); both are part of the historic Song Peoples Sessions music project, a 2-CD collaboration between the Borrolloola Yanuwa singers and the Tennant Creek Warumungu singers with WMC. Both Shellie and Warren are Deadly Award nominees, with Shellie nominated at the 2011 Deadlys in the ‘Female Artist of the Year’ category.
• The Tableland Drifters (pictured below). Local 2009 IMA Hall of Famers and home town faves, also nominated at this year’s NIMAs  for their latest music video, Raindancer.
• Sandridge Band. Hailing from Borroloola, the local stars are just putting the finishing touches to their new album courtesy of WADOP (Winanjjikari Artist Development outreach Program), with WMC producer Jeff McLaughlin.
• Winanjjikari Allstars & Barry Benning, local guitar legend and country artist, Tennant Creek Country Music Hall of Famer (alongside Slim Dusty, The Tableland Drifters and Paul Kelly), one half of the ‘Benning Brothers’ and Hall of Fame inductee at the 2007 NT Indigenous Music Awards.
• Battle of the Bands. Bands from communities as far away as Alpurulum will be competing for the grand prize of a demo CD recording at the Winanjjikari studios!

BAMFest took place on Sunday September 4th, 2011, right in the heart of Tennant Creek at Purkiss Reserve from 2-9pm.

It was part of the 2011 Desert Harmony Festival, presented by Barkly Regional Arts, August August 26 – September 4, 2011.

Event details on the Music NT Forum.

Visit the Winanjjikari Music Centre blog.

Words: Megan Spencer. Source: Adrian McNamara & WMC.