ABSTRACT
Wherever one goes in the Australian desert region, Aboriginal people play, perform and listen to music on a daily basis. Most desert communities house at least one but often several gospel groups, a couple of country, rock and reggae band formations, and a number of men are skilled in playing the guitar and drums. As in any musical culture, the Central Australian Aboriginal country music scene is highly diverse and continuously changing. Regardless of this diversity, the desert musicians usually distinguish their country music as ‘real’ country, which they commonly substantiate by contrasting it with what they perceive it is not: ‘American’ or ‘Nashville’ country, denoting a commercially standardized pop quality and attitude. All the mentioned ‘hard-core’ features reappear in the desert musicians’ understandings of ‘real’ country. The desert musicians take the separation of ancestral and non-ancestral music forms for granted and do not reflect much on the matter.
