Cannot Buy My Soul (2008)

Over two nights at Sydney's grand State Theatre, before a packed audience, many of Australia's most acclaimed singer/songwriters and musicians came together to perform the songs of Kev Carmody. Although Kev Carmody is far from a household name, this former stock-man and laborer is one of the nation's most respected songwriters. With an Irish father and Murry mother, Kev was barely literate when he enrolled at university at the age of 33. At about the same time he became a singer and songwriter. Kev's work draws on a unique life experience combining both Western and Indigenous literary and spiritual traditions and eye for historical and political narratives and a willingness to explore the deeply personal. His songs cover Christian theology, black deaths in custody and celebrations of all walks of Australian life. These diverse strands came together on an album project Cannot Buy My Soul where his friend Paul Kelly assembled a diverse selection of Australia's notable and new artists to perform Kev's songs. This album has led to a two-night show at the State Theatre as part of the 2008 Sydney Festival. The live show of Cannot Buy My Soul was a selection of Kev Carmody's songs structured in such a way as to provide a narrative of his life from his early droving years to his political work in later years. The combination of so many artists from different aesthetic, generational, racial and gender backgrounds makes this concert the epitome of reconciliation. The fact that Kev is less well known that those paying him tribute gives a sense of mystery to the proceedings. At times intensely intimate, occasionally raucous and loud - this documentary is a joyous celebration of the life and times, the spirit, the songs and story telling of Kev Carmody. In the end it was a night of great hope. Kev himself joined those on stage, performing with them as they re-arrange and re-interpret this classic material. At different times throughout the night he will stand alone, center stage, to share in a very personal way some of his timeless songs and stories. This concert was a landmark moment in Australian music. This is how we saw it.