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Explore powerful stories at the intersection of history, culture, and music—from Aboriginal cricket pioneers and war heroes to legendary albums by Hendrix, Miles Davis, and Gurrumul. This blog dives deep into First Nations resilience, iconic protest music, and untold truths that shaped Australia and the world. Engaging, thoughtful, and unapologetically real—where powerful voices from the past meet today's social conversation.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that this page contains images and names of deceased persons.
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Music
What made these legendary albums great? Read about the music behind the great albums by Black Artists. Hendrix, Gurrumul, James Brown, Yothu Yindi and more.
A Kamilaroi kid who changed the game.
From couch-surfing in Redfern to headlining Coachella — this is the story of a Kamilaroi kid who changed the game. Charlton Kenneth Jeffrey Howard — better known to the world as The Kid LAROI. Born in Waterloo, New South Wales, and proudly Kamilaroi (Gamilaraay) through his mother's side, his name isn't just a stage name — "LAROI" is a direct tribute to the Kamilaroi people, the mob he comes from. And everything about his journey honours that heritage. From humble beginnings
Groote Broadcasting
6 days ago2 min read
Artist Spotlight: Wilma Reading.
It was 1959. A 17-year-old girl from Cairns named Wilma Reading had come to Brisbane for a softball tournament. On a night out with teammates, she heard jazz drifting from a nearby arcade and stepped inside. Someone handed her a microphone. The room went silent. Her powerful voice stunned seasoned jazz musicians on the spot — and by the end of the night, she had an invitation to join a swing band at the Ritz Ballroom. That spontaneous moment set in motion one of the most extr
Groote Broadcasting
Apr 112 min read
Artist Spotlight: Budjerah
If you haven’t been paying attention to Budjerah yet, now’s the time. The platinum-selling, ARIA Award-winning artist — a Coodjinburra man from the Bundjalung nation — has quietly become one of the most compelling voices in Australian music. What hits you first is that voice. It’s rich, soulful, and carries an emotional weight well beyond his years. There’s a sincerity to the way Budjerah sings — no over-singing, no gimmicks — just pure feeling. Whether he’s leaning into stri
Groote Broadcasting
Mar 281 min read
Artist Spotlight: Eric Avery.
Few artists in contemporary Australian music embody the power of cultural expression quite like Eric Avery. A Kabi Marrawuy Mumbulla man with connections to the Ngiyampaa, Yuin and Gumbaynggirr peoples of New South Wales, Avery is a violinist, vocalist, dancer and composer whose work moves fluidly between classical tradition and the deep cultural rhythms of Country. What makes Avery remarkable is not simply his technical mastery of the violin, but the way he reshapes the inst
Groote Broadcasting
Mar 211 min read
Deborah Cheetham Fraillon: A proud Yorta Yorta woman, Soprano, Composer, and Educator.
Few figures in Australian music have reshaped the cultural landscape with as much vision and determination as Deborah Cheetham Fraillon. A proud Yorta Yorta woman, soprano, composer, and educator, Cheetham Fraillon has spent decades redefining what opera can mean in Australia — expanding the art form to include First Nations languages, stories, and performers who had long been excluded from its stage. Her journey into music is inseparable from her personal history. Removed fr
Groote Broadcasting
Mar 142 min read
![Graceland [1986]](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/4c5356_07ea9da264c749febee2187ee85bf9bb~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_940,h_706,fp_0.50_0.50,q_35,blur_30,enc_avif,quality_auto/4c5356_07ea9da264c749febee2187ee85bf9bb~mv2.png)
![Graceland [1986]](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/4c5356_07ea9da264c749febee2187ee85bf9bb~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_940,h_706,fp_0.50_0.50,q_95,enc_avif,quality_auto/4c5356_07ea9da264c749febee2187ee85bf9bb~mv2.png)
Graceland [1986]
When Paul Simon released Graceland, he didn’t just reinvent his own career — he altered the direction of global pop. Arriving in 1986, at a time when Simon’s commercial momentum had cooled, Graceland felt audacious: a deeply American songwriter immersing himself in South African township music during the height of apartheid. The result was an album that was musically radiant, politically complicated, and ultimately transformative. From the opening strains of “The Boy in the B
Groote Broadcasting
Mar 72 min read
!['Under The Mango Tree' [2006] The Pigram Brothers.](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/4c5356_1796b751daaf461baf92e3e80b619a06~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_1331,h_1000,fp_0.50_0.50,q_35,blur_30,enc_avif,quality_auto/4c5356_1796b751daaf461baf92e3e80b619a06~mv2.png)
!['Under The Mango Tree' [2006] The Pigram Brothers.](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/4c5356_1796b751daaf461baf92e3e80b619a06~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_1816,h_1364,fp_0.50_0.50,q_95,enc_avif,quality_auto/4c5356_1796b751daaf461baf92e3e80b619a06~mv2.png)
'Under The Mango Tree' [2006] The Pigram Brothers.
With 'Under The Mango Tree' [2006], the The Pigram Brothers invite listeners into a world shaped by red dirt, tidal rhythms, family harmony, and an unshakeable sense of place. This is an album that doesn’t announce itself loudly — it welcomes you in, sits you down, and lets the stories unfold at their own pace. Like so much of the Pigram Brothers’ work, its power lies in warmth, generosity, and deep cultural grounding. Recorded in the Kimberley and steeped in the easy sway of
Groote Broadcasting
Feb 282 min read
Today is International Mother Language Day and what better way to celebrate and promote linguistic and cultural diversity...
Known affectionately as the “Queen of the Bandrarl Ngadu (Fitzroy River) Delta,” Kankawa Nagarra stands as one of the most spiritually resonant voices in Australian music. A Walmatjarri, Gooniyandi and Bunuba Elder from the Kimberley, Nagarra is not an artist shaped by industry ambition or commercial expectation. She is, first and foremost, a custodian of culture — a singer whose music carries Country, memory, and lived experience with rare authority. Kankawa Nagarra’s life s
Groote Broadcasting
Feb 212 min read
![Barry White, 'Can't Get Enough' [1974]. Create the perfect mood for Valentine’s Day.](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/4c5356_160999374f3e4f3d9ea5205aa85d03f9~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_1080,h_811,fp_0.50_0.50,q_35,blur_30,enc_avif,quality_auto/4c5356_160999374f3e4f3d9ea5205aa85d03f9~mv2.png)
![Barry White, 'Can't Get Enough' [1974]. Create the perfect mood for Valentine’s Day.](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/4c5356_160999374f3e4f3d9ea5205aa85d03f9~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_1080,h_811,fp_0.50_0.50,q_95,enc_avif,quality_auto/4c5356_160999374f3e4f3d9ea5205aa85d03f9~mv2.png)
Barry White, 'Can't Get Enough' [1974]. Create the perfect mood for Valentine’s Day.
There are Valentine’s Day records, and then there is Can’t Get Enough . When Barry White released this album in 1974, he wasn’t simply adding another collection of love songs to the marketplace — he was perfecting a mood. Lush, unapologetically romantic, and steeped in orchestral soul, Can’t Get Enough remains one of the most potent soundtracks to seduction ever committed to vinyl. From the opening bars of “Mellow Mood (Part I)” , the tone is set: strings sweep in like silk
Groote Broadcasting
Feb 142 min read
Live at the Rainbow, 4th June 1977. Bob Marley and the Wailers.
There are live albums that document a moment, and then there are those that define one. Live at the Rainbow, recorded at London’s Rainbow Theatre on 4 June 1977, belongs firmly in the latter category. More than a concert film or souvenir recording, it captures Bob Marley and the Wailers at a crucial intersection — between exile and home, militancy and mercy, rising global fame and unwavering spiritual purpose. In honouring Marley’s legacy following the anniversary of his birt
Groote Broadcasting
Feb 72 min read
On This Day, 6th of February 1945: Bob Marley was born.
On the 6th of February, the world pauses — whether it realises it or not — to acknowledge the birth of a man whose music reshaped not just a genre, but a global consciousness. Bob Marley was born in 1945 in the small village of Nine Mile, Jamaica. What followed was not merely a musical career, but a cultural movement that continues to reverberate through politics, spirituality, and popular music more than four decades after his passing. Marley did something extraordinarily ra
Groote Broadcasting
Feb 62 min read
Cause ’n Affect - Radical Son
Radical Son’s debut album Cause ’n Affect arrived with the weight of lived experience and the clarity of purpose that only comes from telling your own truth. This was not a record chasing trends or courting easy approval. It’s a raw, unflinching body of work that positions David Leha — from the Kamilaroi nation of Australia and the South Pacific nation of Tonga — as one of the most compelling voices in Australian hip-hop and soul. From the outset, Cause ’n Affect announces it
Groote Broadcasting
Jan 312 min read
'Nyaaringu' - Miiesha
When Miiesha released Nyaaringu, it didn’t arrive as a tentative first step — it landed like a statement of intent. This was not a debut made for background listening. It was a record that demanded presence, asked for empathy, and rewarded both with extraordinary emotional depth. In a contemporary landscape crowded with polish and posturing, Nyaaringu stands apart as a work of rare honesty and quiet power. Miiesha’s voice is the album’s guiding force — warm, soulful, and ungu
Groote Broadcasting
Jan 242 min read
Auriel Andrew - "an enduring influence on Australian music."
Auriel Andrew occupies a unique and quietly dignified place in Australian music history — a country singer whose voice carried the vastness of the Northern Territory and whose songs bridged gospel, country, and lived experience with remarkable grace. Best known for her 1969 album Just For You, Andrew’s work stands as an important, often overlooked chapter in the story of Indigenous Australian music. 'Just For You' is a gentle, heartfelt record that reflects both its era and i
Groote Broadcasting
Jan 172 min read
Ruby Hunter - Thoughts Within (1994)
Ruby Hunter’s Thoughts Within (1994) is one of the quiet masterpieces of Australian music — an album that speaks softly but carries enormous weight. Long overshadowed by the towering presence of her partner Archie Roach, this debut record stands today as a work of profound emotional honesty and cultural importance, a collection of songs that gave voice to stories Australian music had rarely been willing to hear, let alone centre. From the opening moments, Thoughts Within esta
Groote Broadcasting
Dec 20, 20252 min read
Barkaa - The New Matriarch of Australian Rap.
Barkaa — the stage name of Chloe Quayle, a Malyangapa, Barkindji woman from western New South Wales — has become one of the most commanding and necessary voices in Australian music. In just a few short years, she’s transformed from an emerging rapper with raw, uncompromising bars to a national force: a storyteller, a truth-teller, and a cultural firebrand whose voice carries the weight of generations. Her rise has been nothing short of remarkable. Barkaa’s music arrived not a
Groote Broadcasting
Dec 8, 20252 min read
![Georgia Lee Sings the Blues Down Under [1962]](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/4c5356_cd1791d8301e4a9cbd39bfdeef272ad1~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_1331,h_1000,fp_0.50_0.50,q_35,blur_30,enc_avif,quality_auto/4c5356_cd1791d8301e4a9cbd39bfdeef272ad1~mv2.png)
![Georgia Lee Sings the Blues Down Under [1962]](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/4c5356_cd1791d8301e4a9cbd39bfdeef272ad1~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_1350,h_1014,fp_0.50_0.50,q_95,enc_avif,quality_auto/4c5356_cd1791d8301e4a9cbd39bfdeef272ad1~mv2.png)
Georgia Lee Sings the Blues Down Under [1962]
Georgia Lee — born Ramer Lyra “Dulcie” Pitt in Cairns in 1921 — occupies a singular place in Australian music history: a trailblazer whose artistry broke barriers long before the industry was ready to acknowledge them. A proud woman of Torres Strait Islander, Jamaican and Scottish heritage, Lee grew up in a musical family and began her career in the dance halls, clubs, and hotel circuits of North Queensland, singing jazz and blues with a voice that could shift from velvety wa
Groote Broadcasting
Dec 6, 20252 min read
Eric B. & Rakim: Paid in Full (1987)
When Eric B. & Rakim dropped Paid in Full in 1987, hip-hop wasn’t ready — but it evolved quickly to catch up. This wasn’t just another rap record; it was a seismic shift in rhythm, rhyme, and attitude. If early hip-hop was the spark, Paid in Full was the moment the flame turned into a laser beam: precise, controlled, and pointed straight into the future. Rakim arrived like he’d been beamed in from another timeline. Up to that point, MCs largely operated within a high-energy,
Groote Broadcasting
Nov 29, 20252 min read
Prince: Sign O’ the Times (1987)
Prince’s Sign o’ the Times (1987) is a sprawling, fearless, genre-melting double LP from a man at the height of his creative power, it remains one of the most electrifying documents of musical imagination ever pressed to vinyl. If Purple Rain made Prince a superstar, Sign o’ the Times is the proof that he never needed the spotlight to shine — he generated his own light. The album bursts open with the title track, a stark, drum-machine-driven bulletin from a world teetering on
Groote Broadcasting
Nov 22, 20252 min read
![Bob Marley and the Wailers: Exodus [1977].](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/4c5356_dde93db938a44371847aea7a44bc65ce~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_1331,h_1000,fp_0.50_0.50,q_35,blur_30,enc_avif,quality_auto/4c5356_dde93db938a44371847aea7a44bc65ce~mv2.png)
![Bob Marley and the Wailers: Exodus [1977].](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/4c5356_dde93db938a44371847aea7a44bc65ce~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_1620,h_1217,fp_0.50_0.50,q_95,enc_avif,quality_auto/4c5356_dde93db938a44371847aea7a44bc65ce~mv2.png)
Bob Marley and the Wailers: Exodus [1977].
When Bob Marley and the Wailers released Exodus in 1977, it wasn’t just another reggae record — it was a statement of survival, faith, and spiritual fire from a man who had stared down death and come out singing. Written and recorded in exile after Marley was shot during political turmoil in Jamaica, Exodus stands as both a personal rebirth and a cultural beacon — an album that turned pain into prophecy, and reggae into a global force. From the first pulse of the title track,
Groote Broadcasting
Nov 15, 20252 min read
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