Someone sent my song Peninsula's Heart, about a proposed mine on Yorke Peninsula into the ABC. They asked if they could interview me and play it, which they did last week. You can hear the interview and the song in this podcast. The first speaker they dragged out is the manager of the mine project - must have been worried! Tell someone who might not know about this!!!

Podcast- ABC Interview Peninsula's Heart

This is a song about a proposed mining development at Ardrossan on South Australia's beautiful Yorke Peninsula. Rex Minerals, with complicit state and federal governments plans to destroy 3000 hectares of the state's best farmland by creating a mine site bigger than Olympic Dam, with a huge tailings pile and a hole that will never be filled in. Copper and gold are the targets and no-one seems to want to talk about the uranium. The life of the mine is around 15 years - compare that to the life of the farms that preceded it and which could go on producing for centuries. Yorke Peninsula is the tourist mecca for South Australians and interstate visitors alike. Soon, 56 ore carrying ships will pull into the tiny shipping port of Ardrossan on the fragile Gulf St. Vincent ecosystem. Ring a politician today and tell him or her that you're NOT HAPPY before it is too late! The song was played recently on the ABC along with an interview about why I wrote it. Pass it round crew!

Peninsula's Heart MP3 FINAL MIX -  - Output - Stereo Out

Here's an interview I did with Ian Henschke on ABC 891 which was aired this morning 8 Sept 2014. I've somehow got labeled as a "protest" song writer although I'd rather think of myself as an observer. Having said that, always happy to be one of the too few voices standing up for the environment these days. Ian plays a recording of Peninsula's Heart about the proposed Rex Minerals Hillside mine at Ardrossan on Yorke Peninsula. I also play live, a song I wrote about the closure of Holden and scaling down of Qantas jobs called Our Jobs are Overseas. Enjoy and please share. Thanks.

ABC 891 interview with Ian Henschke

Here's a free download track from new album Travellin' Shoes. You can download the whole album or order a physical CD by following the links on my website: http://www.mikerobertsmusic.com.au


Keep Your Eyes On The Road- 2

This is a track I've just entered in the Fleurieu Folk Festival's Judith Crossley singer/songwriter competition which calls for a song about Adelaide or South Australia in the folk or blues traditional style. 

Back To South Australia

Musos often hear that they HAVE to do a Xmas album. That wasn't on my list of 1000 favourite things. However, Xmas music did seem important to some of the people who like my songs SO.....here's one for you guys. FREE DOWNLOAD. Please share. Don't stress out in the next month when everyone else is!! Peace Out!

A Song About Xmas

Rats by Mike Roberts

This is a song i wrote and recorded at Quentin Eyers' studio in the early 90's. It was written after leaving my friends on Kangaroo Island on the day they learned that the bank was forclosing on the loan for their family farm. The song was played extensively on ABC radio at the time and used by the Kangaroo Island Rural Action Group. The wonderful post-script to this story is that twenty years later, my friends have bought their farm back!!

The Night We Left the Island by Mike Roberts

This is a song I wrote for my friend Ty Belnap. He is one of four people worldwide who will be presented with a special achievement award at the World Down Syndrome Congress in South Africa in August 2012. I was honoured to have been asked to write this song for a documentary film about Ty to be screened at the Congress. Here's an excerpt from the the blurb about the film:

“I Can Do That!"
 
The Documentary is approximately 50 minutes in length.  It is a very honest, heart warming and inspirational series of interviews with Ty and the people directly influenced and affected by an amazing personality who happens to have Down syndrome.  It includes co-workers, a man he has rescued,  surf lifesavers, instructors, parents of children he supports, his family members and many more. It is a record of how Ty has changed and challenged peoples' perceptions of the ability of people with Down Syndrome.  It has been sensitively filmed by an Australian professional photographer and film maker Hing Ang. It is all set to a customized and original sound track and an anthem written by a professional musician, Mike Roberts, both people who know him intimately. Copies will be available for no cost for families and organizations who are directly supporting people withDown Syndrome.

Mike Roberts 18

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