Russell Morris Wins New Award

After his appearance at BIGSOUND last week, Australian music legend Russell Morris’ Van Diemen’s Land has been named Album of the Year at the annual Leading Edge Music conference in Melbourne.

The award is voted for by Leading Edge retailers, who collectively are the lifeblood of independent music stores in Australia. The album has taken Morris’ career to new heights, giving him his highest ever charting album, approaching gold sales after having clocked up 19 weeks in the ARIA top 50. With a successful national tour wrapping up and a US release slated for 2015, the Russell Morris story continues to grow.

“On behalf of our group of indie record stores & music loving customers, we pleased to acknowledge Russell Morris for the 2nd year running with our Album of the Year award. Russell is an Australian icon and we’re proud to be selling his music,” Leading Edge General Manager George Papadopoulos said in a statement.

Van Diemen’s Land is the second Russell Morris album in a trilogy telling the story of Australia’s historic characters in blues. The previous Russell Morris album Sharkmouth was the biggest selling Australian album of 2014 and won the ARIA Award last year for Best Blues and Roots Record.

Russell Morris had his first hit with ‘Hush’ in 1967 with Somebody’s Image. His first solo hit was ‘The Real Thing’ which reached no 1 on the Australian chart in 1969. He had a second number one hit with ‘Part Three Into Paper Walls’ that same year. Morris classics include ‘Wings Of An Eagle’, ‘‘Sweet Sweet Love’ and ‘Live With Friends’.

Make sure you check out Subculture’s own Dave G interviewing Russell Morris right here.