Up Armidale Road

Grace and Hugh with the Nymboida Bush Fire Survivors and Clarence Valley Conservatorium

Two renegade songwriters, a piano, a village of bushfire survivors… a song from the ashes.

Why we wrote this song

Up Armidale Road emerged from the apocalyptic Australian bushfire season of 2019-20. The village of Nymboida was decimated by a hurricane of fire that left 200 out of its 300 residents homeless- only weeks after the fire, Nymboidans welcomed us (Grace and Hugh and our long-suffering piano) into their lives, sharing their stories of survival and recovery.

Moved by ravaged landscape and incredible spirit of the community, the we threw ourselves into immortalising those stories. We returned many times over the following year to write Up Armidale Road, embarking on an ambitious musical collaboration with the community to bring the song to life on a shoe-string budget, full orchestra in tow, as the hills turned from black to green again.

The song and accompanying documentary (Winner – Best Music Documentary at the Commffest Global Community Film Awards, Toronto) have since toured to 75 recovering disaster-affected communities throughout the country.

About us as artists

Hugh Murray has played thousands of shows across Australia, the United States and Europe with the best in the business. The first time Grace saw Hugh, he was atop a wobbly table, singing to a packed country hall, drawing on lessons learned and songs co-written with Fleetwood Mac, Midnight Oil, INXS, The Angels, Cold Chisel Keith Urban, soul legend Lou Rawls and others.

That summer, Grace was on the run from art school with an impractical degree, a sketchbook full of lyrics and nothing to lose. Her vivid songwriting stopped Hugh in his tracks… just long enough for her to climb up into the Pajero and refuse to get out.

Seeking a creative adventure outside the norm, the pair have since journeyed across Australia, pushing their half-tonne piano down every backroad. The true stories Grace and Hugh encounter provoke new songs and extraordinary musical collaborations… in the most unlikely places.

About the music video

Our video captures the first performance of Up Armidale Road, in the shadow of the hills surrounding Nymboida. Exactly a year prior to the performance, the firefront had roared down those hills towards the village, changing the lives of the residents forever. Many of those who lost their homes joined us in bringing Up Armidale Road to life. Even from our very first visit to Nymboida, we knew it was a place filled with musicians. Inspired, we wrote specific musical parts for the locals to play and sing, and enlisted the local Clarence Valley Conservatorium to play Guy Noble’s (Sydney Opera House, ABC Classic FM) string arrangement. The purpose of the music video was simple: to capture that unique collaboration to share directly with other survivors, in an increasingly volatile climate of fire and flood: ‘With no walls left to lean on… they’re holding their own, up Armidale Road.’