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Information/Bio:
A slightly crazy lapsed engineer, Keith McKenry is one of Australia’s finest performance poets. In concert he interweaves original verse with bush poetry, producing a refreshing amalgam of humour, satire and social comment which doesn’t fit into any familiar stereotype.

Keith has presented many papers on Australian folklore and social history, and has appeared as a featured artist at all major Australian folk music venues and at festivals and folk clubs in the United Kingdom and United States

He remains the only person to have recited “McArthur’s Fart” at a reception on the 30th floor of the United Nations Building in New York, “The Spirit of the People” in the foyer of the Australian High Court and “A Study in Linguistics” in the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House.

Keith’s solo album Bugger the Music, Give Us a Poem!, won the prestigious Golden Gumleaf Bush Laureate Award at Tamworth for Album of the Year.

In 2003 Keith released “The Folklore of Terrorism: Songs, Poems and Sketches from a Crazy World”. The book brings into focus the tragic symbiosis between terrorism and the policies and actions of major world powers.

In 2005 Keith moved to a farm in Central Victoria, where he and his lover Jenny raise alpacas.

With the aid of a Harold White Fellowship from Australia's National Library Keith presently is writing a social history of Australia's folk music revival and a biography of Australia's greatest folk song collector, John Meredith.

Contact details:
ph. 03-5439 6525
email: FangedWombat@activ8.net.au

Past performances: National Folk Festival 2008, Newstead Live 2008, Maldon Folk Festival 2006, Chewton Folk Festival 2006, Cygnet Folk Festival 2004, Old Songs Festival New York 2004, American Music & Arts Festival 2004, Boite World Music Cafe 2003, National Folk Festival Scotland 2002.