Archie Roach to join ARIA Hall of Fame 30 years after Charcoal Lane

“It’s a great honour,” said Roach. ‘Certainly, it helps me realise that I must be doing something right.’

Singer-songwriter Archie Roach photographed near his home in Killarney, Victoria on November 8 2020. Picture: Luis Enrique Ascui

Three decades after the release of his debut album, singer-songwriter Archie Roach will add another accolade to his remarkable career when he is inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame later this month.

“It’s a great honour,” Roach, 64, told The Australian. “I’ve collected a couple (of ARIA Awards) through the years, but to be recognised by the Australian recording industry is huge. Certainly, it helps me realise that I must be doing something right.”

His 1990 debut Charcoal Lane featured Took the Children Away, his landmark song centred on his own experiences as a member of the Stolen Generations.

The album was named best indigenous release at the ARIAs in 1991 and Roach was also named best new talent, which kicked off a recording career that includes eight studio albums through to 2018’s Dancing with My Spirit.

On Friday, Roach will release a reimagined version of his debut named The Songs of Charcoal Lane. Recorded with a guitarist and double bassist at his kitchen table in southwest Victoria during the COVID-19 pandemic, these new takes on some of his oldest songs also reflect the domestic space where they were written while surrounded by his young family and the sounds of life.

“I don’t know if I could lock myself in a room to write,” Roach said. “I’d probably come out of the room all the time to see what was going on. I’d find it a bit strange to do that.”

Charcoal Lane was written when Roach was in his 30s, and the songs he recorded then were so fresh that the singer-songwriter jokes the ink was hardly dry on the paper they’d been penned on.

“But 30 years later, they’ve matured as I have,” he said. “To revisit them, I have a better idea of how the songs should be sung and reinterpreted.”

On November 25, Roach will join the likes of vocal group Human Nature and country musician Kasey Chambers as recent ARIA Hall of Fame inductees.

With Victoria’s travel restrictions easing, he is looking forward to travelling to Melbourne to celebrate with some old friends and fellow artists. Together, they’ll watch on as the ARIA Awards are hosted live from Sydney in a virtual ceremony.

As well as the major honour of joining the Hall of Fame, Roach is nominated for awards in three categories for his 2019 release Tell Me Why: best male artist, best independent release and best adult contemporary album.