Kev Carmody is best known for the song "From Little Things Big Things Grow", which was recorded with co-writer Paul Kelly for their 1993 single.
27 Facts About Kev Carmody
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Kev Carmody has won many awards, and in 2009 was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame as well as being a recipient of the Queensland Greats Awards.
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In 2019, Kev Carmody was recipient of the JC Williamson Award at the Helpmann Awards.
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Kev Carmody is known for his activism for Aboriginal rights.
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Kevin Daniel Carmody was born in 1946 in Cairns, Queensland.
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Kev Carmody's father, John "Jack" Carmody, was a second-generation Irish descendant and his mother, Bonny, an Aboriginal woman of Lama Lama and Bundjalung descent, were not allowed to get married because she was Aboriginal, and they went to Cairns because "the rules were a lot slacker there" due to the large number of migrants working in the cane fields.
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Kev Carmody's family moved to southern Queensland in early 1950, and he grew up on a cattle station near Goranba 70 kilometres west of Dalby in the Darling Downs area of south eastern Queensland.
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Kev Carmody said that the boys did not do much schoolwork, but spent their time feeding chickens, collecting eggs, "hauling in coal for the kitchen stoves and buttering bread for the nuns".
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Kev Carmody did not learn to read until he was 11 years old.
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In 1978, at the age of 33, Kev Carmody enrolled in university, Darling Downs Institute of Advanced Education.
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At university, Kev Carmody had used music as a means of implementing oral history in tutorials, which led to his later career.
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Kev Carmody emphasises the importance of land to the indigenous people, "The land's our heritage and spirit", and turns the Christian lesson given to indigenous people around: "We say to you yes, whiteman, thou shalt not steal".
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In subsequent recordings Kev Carmody adopted a broad range of musical styles, from reggae to rock and roll.
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One of the things he [Kev Carmody's grandfather] said to us was, you have to learn to listen to the wind.
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Early in 1991 Kev Carmody co-wrote a song, "From Little Things Big Things Grow", with Paul Kelly; it was an historical account of the Gurindji tribe drovers' walkout led by Vincent Lingiari at Wave Hill Station in the Northern Territory during the 1960s, the incident which sparked off the indigenous land rights movement.
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Also in 1993 Kev Carmody was the subject of a musical documentary, Blood Brothers - From Little Things Big Things Grow, by Rachel Perkins and directed by Trevor Graham, which explored Kev Carmody's life, using music clips and historical footage.
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Kev Carmody re-evaluated his life and career, reducing the demands placed on him by the mainstream recording industry.
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Kev Carmody continued performing, as a musician and public speaker, to audiences as diverse as the National Press Club and Aboriginal Australians in prison.
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In 2001, together with Kelly, Mairead Hannan, John Romeril, Deirdre Hannan and Alice Garner, Kev Carmody assisted in writing the musical score for the Australian film One Night the Moon.
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On 27 August 2009, Kev Carmody was inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association Hall of Fame alongside The Dingoes, Little Pattie, Mental As Anything and John Paul Young, Kev Carmody's first reaction was to laugh and reply "I must be getting into the Hall of Fame with the lowest record sales in history".
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At the ceremony, Missy Higgins inducted Kev Carmody, who accepted the induction,.
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Kev Carmody was joined onstage by Paul Kelly, Dan Kelly, Missy Higgins and John Butler to perform "From Little Things Big Things Grow".
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In 2020, Cannot Buy My Soul: The Songs of Kev Carmody was re-released featuring updated cover versions of Carmody's songs.
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The cover features on Cannot Buy My Soul: The Songs of Kev Carmody, released on 21 August 2020, which includes covers of other Carmody songs by artists such as Jimmy Barnes, Courtney Barnett, and Kate Miller-Heidke.
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Kev Carmody has reduced his musical activities due to the effects of arthritis.
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In 2009, Kev Carmody was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame.
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In 2019, Kev Carmody received the JC Williamson Award, the LPA's highest honour, for their life's work in live performance.