The third of five Irish Catholic kids, James Kenyon was born in the town of Gawler, South Australia, and grew up on a community farm ‘full of musos and mad Catholics’.

His mother, a classically trained pianist, classical guitarist and mezzo soprano, nurtured his musical talent, piquing his interest with a catalogue of Irish folks songs she would bring out at night.

Captured by the uniquely raw stories of writer A.B. Facey and songwriter Paul Kelly, Kenyon left school early to make his own dusty tracks through the country, working as a shearers’ hand and a farm manager in country Australia. Following short stints back in Adelaide as a factory worker and arborist, Kenyon bought a banged-up Bedford van and headed back onto Australia’s byways and highways with a guitar for company.

In time Kenyon headed to Melbourne to study fine art at VCA where he took liberties with the college’s music school, using its studios and equipment to write and record. Since then he has established himself firmly on Melbourne’s music scene in bands such as ‘The Lloyd Weir’ (with Al MacInnes and Sez Wilks) whose EP Caravan saw them support Shane Howard, Dan Kelly and Charlie Parr. Kenyon has since played extensively across Australia, including the Mullum Music Festival, and internationally in Berlin and the Rockwood Music Hall in New York.

Now writing and performing under his own name, Kenyon is set to release his debut album, The North Pole.

The album sees Kenyon carve out the contours of the human heart, overlaying emotional peaks and plateaus on the topography of the landscape in which he has spent years living and working.