Album Notes

Introducing PENNY DAVIES & ROGER ILOTT at the Woodford Folk Festival, in 1989, Jacko Kevans declared that "their music could charm the birds out of the trees."

OUTBACK CAFÉ is a thoroughly Australian experience. Lots of people think of Australian folk music in terms of “Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport” – but it’s a bit like thinking of Australian drama in terms of Neighbours! At the OUTBACK CAFÉ,
PENNY DAVIES & ROGER ILOTT create a whole new experience of the Australian ethos in music.

The popular ABC Radio show, Australia All Over, introduced Penny and Roger's music to an Australia-wide audience in 1986, when their recording of Bill Scott's "Hey Rain!" first caught the nation's attention.

Other songs, "Nightfire", and Macca's favourite, "Beside a Railway Line" were popular inclusions on "Australia All Over - Volume 2",and "Macca Tracks". Most recently, "Ridin' On The Fruit Train" was listed at #4 on the show's playlist - and everyone knows "The Monkeys Sing Soprano (Around Stanthorpe In July)".

"OUTBACK CAFE" is the first in a series of albums by PENNY DAVIES & ROGER ILOTT on Compact Disc. The 72 minute, 20 track CD combines songs from their earlier albums (previously only available on LP or cassette) with brand new recordings. Popular favourites "Hey Rain!" “Beside A Railway Line", "The Monkeys Sing Soprano", and "Ridin' On The Fruit Train" are all collected here on one CD.

"OUTBACK CAFE" is an evocative musical landscape of Australia. You can hear the crack of the bullocky's whip echoing out of the past as you plod along with "Bullocky Bill and his Old Red Team", wait patiently "Till The Camels Come" out in the far west, ride on the ringing rail with "The Flying Gang", brave the floods "Where The Rivers Rise", and experience the beauty and heartbreak of the "Outback".

At the "OUTBACK CAFE" you'll hear the work of some of Australia's best known poets - Henry Lawson, Banjo Patterson, Bill Scott and Edward Dyson - in sparkling musical settings. You'll be treated to a feast of music that is as Australian as billy tea and damper.

Capital News' Jon Farkas wrote of Penny and Roger's music, "if this is where folk and country music meet, I'll raise my glass to a very fine place indeed!" You'll do the same when you visit the "OUTBACK CAFE".

TRACKLIST: Till The Camels Come; The Flying Gang; Up In The Queensland Mountains; Beside A Railway Line; Mrs Thomas Moore; Send Her Down, Hughie!; Outback; The Monkeys Sing Soprano; The Cubby Tree; Balmain; The Sealers' Slaves; Bullocky Bill; Hey Rain!; Where The Rivers Rise; Down The Track; Backyard At Hurlstone Park; Girraween; Ridin' On The Fruit Train; Little Stranger; Bird Going West.