The Music Show
The Music Show explores all kinds of music and features conversations with a wide range of musicians. Hosted by Andrew Ford, the show delves into the stories behind the music and the artists who create it.
Episodes
Music Now & Then: Liza Lim
The latest in our Music Now & Then series with composer Liza Lim, who first appeared on The Music Show in its early years when she was in her mid twenties, where both her youth and the 'difficulty' of her music were remarked upon. As her opera The Oresteia is remounted by Sydney Chamber Opera and ELISION Ensemble, Andy speaks with Liza on stage about revisiting works and idea
Music for winter stillness and electromagnetic storms
The Veils frontman Finn Andrews joins Andy to talk about love, death, and Sinead O'Connor, all features of their latest and aptly named album Fragile World.Married couple Anna Maria Friman and Arve Henriksen are both Norwegian musicians who've benefited from Norway's remarkably genre-blind attitude to making music. She's a classical vocalist (one third of Trio Mediæval), he's a j
Middle of the Air: The Music Show at Sydney Writers' Festival
Ziggy Ramo, Leah Senior, and Kate Fagan join Andy to talk about the art of turning poetry into song.Recorded live at the 2026 Sydney Writers' Festival, in partnership with Red Room Poetry.Songs performed live:Ziggy Ramo: Little Things (after Kev Carmody and Paul Kelly)Leah Senior: The Arbour (text by Giles Watson)Kate Fagan: Child Upon the Road (Kate Fagan, based on Child Ballad
Songs about fish, divorce, and moth DNA: Montaigne, Gin Wigmore, and Elissa Goodrich
Electropop singer, songwriter and producer Montaigne took the plunge into the world of independent music after over a decade with a big label a couple of years back. Their first offering in the indie era is an album called it's hard to be a fish. But they've not left their earlier music behind entirely: Montaigne joins Andy to talk about taking their 2016 album Glorious Heights o
"An ecosystem for song people": 25 years of Koori Radio
Guringai writer and creator Kaylene Langford is behind the mic for NAIDOC Week, with a celebration of Koori Radio for its 25th anniversary."It's an ecosystem for song people" says Stiff Gins' Nardi Simpson, one of the acts championed by Sydney's Indigenous station.From beginnings in a Redfern terrace with a knocked-through wall to a cornerstone of Indigenous culture, it's a story
ELISION Ensemble turn 40 and Rosie McDonald on The Go Twos and Nigel Lever
ELISION Ensemble began as a Melbourne new music ensemble, but have gone on to become international in both focus and reputation, building enduring collaborations with some of the world's best modern composers. Elision turns 40 this year and the artistic director Daryl Buckley reflects on the ensemble's history and their birthday celebrations.The Go Twos began as a collaboration b
Cover Story: Can’t Buy Me Love
It’s almost impossible to choose a Beatles song for Cover Story (we’ve been putting it off for three series). The band’s productivity in 1964 alone would give us ten good options. It was the year of their first - and second! - US tours, their one Australian tour, and the film A Hard Day’s Night. Can’t Buy Me Love inspired a wide and wild range of covers, so strap in with DOBBY an
Stephen Foster: The bicentenary of the father of American music
Stephen Foster's songs remain among the best known music to come out of the United States, with classics like Oh! Susannah, Hard Times (Come Again No More), and Old Folks At Home still covered to this day. He wrote with an ear to melody that saw his songs performed both in minstrel shows and in the parlour, and with an ambiguity that led to his lyrics being claimed by both sides
Cover Story: Never Tear Us Apart
Never Tear Us Apart began its life as a bluesy demo by INXS’s keyboardist and songwriter Andrew Farris. Frontman Michael Hutchence gave it lyrics, producer Chris Thomas gave it synthesisers, and the public gave it a place on every Australian Music best-of list. And the covers come from far and wide: you’ll hear English, American, Welsh, French and Lanarkshire accents amongst the
Embracing the choir: Alina Pash returns to Ukraine and Kristina Olsen takes up choral composition
Alina Pash was last on the show back in 2021, before the Russian invasion of her country began. At that point, Pash said that she wanted to stay in Ukraine and be part of a strong emerging music scene there. Circumstances changed and Alina is now based in the USA, but she returned home last year with the Belgian-Canadian producer Apashe. Together, they recorded with local choirs
Cover Story: Wonderwall
A love song, a football anthem, and a weapon of war for men with acoustic guitars: Noel Gallagher said he thought Wonderwall was an annoying song when he wrote it. Cover Story dips more than a toe into the world of Britpop with composer and ex-Go-Between Amanda Brown, and conductor, composer and singer Dan Walker. Every great song gets covered. Sometimes beautifully, sometimes ba
A solo debut from Trials and Isobel D'Cruz Barnes is working In Shadows
As one-half of A.B. Original, Trials was responsible for one of the key moments in Australian hip-hop over the last decade with the album Reclaim Australia. Away from that collaboration he’s worked with everyone from Paul Kelly to the Hilltop Hoods. His latest work though marks a debut of sorts - his first solo release, called Hendle.Shadow puppetry, dance theatre, and music are
Cover Story: Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow
Cover Story makes a long overdue visit to the songwriting of Carole King, who with her then-husband Gerry Goffin wrote Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow as songwriters-for-hire in the Brill Building music factory of 1960s New York. Originally recorded and made famous by The Shirelles, King's own version of the song on 1971's Tapestry might be its most famous iteration, but there ar
David Mills' glamour and despair and Lawrence Power shines a light on British music
Comedian David Mills takes his acerbic humour into the world of cabaret for this year's Adelaide Cabaret Festival. He joins Andy to talk about pessimism, storytelling, and picking the right song for the moment.Violist Lawrence Power joins the Australian Chamber Orchestra this month for a program wending its way through the rolling hills of English music, from Thomas Tallis and He
Different versions of Daniel Avery and clipping's experimental approach to hip-hop
Daniel Avery has been filling dancefloors around the world for more than a decade, both as a dj and with his own critically acclaimed records. On his latest, Tremor, Avery has embraced his love of rock and shoegaze, blending driving guitars with his normal electronics. Not content with one set of songs, Avery completely remixed his own album, turning it back to the dancefloor wit
Cover Story: Jolene
Every great song gets covered. Sometimes beautifully, sometimes badly, and sometimes by people who clearly should have known better.Cover Story, returning for its third series, hunts down the best, the worst, and the downright strange versions of classic songs, and asks the question: why does this version give us goosebumps while that one makes our skin crawl?According to some Do
Miles Davis: a centenary
A portrait of the legendary trumpeter Miles Davis on his centenary. We hear how Miles not only changed music but also the lives of those he played with. We've pulled interviews from The Music Show's archives with former bandmates including pianists Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea, saxophonists Wayne Shorter and Gary Bartz, guitarist John McLaughlin, bassist Dave Holland as well as
A tribute to Sonny Rollins, Mahalia Barnes sings The Rose, and Cass McCombs live in the studio
We pay tribute to Sonny Rollins, who died this week at the age of 95. Rollins played with many of the greats of jazz, but was himself something of loner. Driven by ideas of perfection, Rollins played into his 80s, but spent years away the music industry, including a famous three-year sabbatical where he played for no one other than himself on the Williamsburg Bridge in NYC. Andy
Hilary Geddes' Redleaf and Kae Tempest's Self Titled
Hilary Geddes is a guitarist of understated virtuosity, and a composer of music that takes jazz into a rolling, lush, environmental register. Her latest album Redleaf, with the Hilary Geddes Quartet, is a record of the sounds she's heard, the music she's created, and the relationship between the players over the past four years.Kae Tempest returns to The Music Show ahead of his a
Barry Conyngham's rarely performed classic & Mogwai and Tortoise both celebrate new music and big anniversaries
Barry Conyngham’s piece Ice Carving isn’t performed very often, and almost never in its intended configuration - a solo violinist surrounded by an audience, who are then surrounded by 4 string orchestras. It’s finally getting its proper form at The Ian Potter Centre in Melbourne and Barry takes us back to the inspiration, at The Imperial Palace in Tokyo.It's been 30 years since M
Folk fixtures: Judy Small's Swansongs, and the National Folk Festival at 60
Judy Small is a fixture of the Australian folk scene, a writer and performer of songs about politics and people. She joins Andy to recap the thirty-ish years since she was last on the show, including a career in family law and as a federal judge, and the process she's been undertaking of recording some of her last songs (Swansongs) and appearing at the 60th National Folk Festival
Xiu Xiu take on Eraserhead and Pinchgut Opera's first murder
Xiu Xiu has been a leading figure in American avant-pop for more than two decades: combining abrasive noise and extremely dark subject matter with a catchy pop sensibility. It’s perhaps no surprise then that they’ve been drawn to the work of David Lynch, releasing their version of the music of Twin Peaks, and now, appearing at Dark Mofo in Tasmania to present their take on Eraser
The mystery and music of Connie Converse
American Singer-songwriter Connie Converse would be hard enough to pigeonhole had she not disappeared without a trace in 1974. She wrote folk songs, and art songs, and the story of her life and disappearance is a fascinating one. It's the subject of a biography called To Anyone Who Ever Asks: The Life, Music, and Mystery of Connie Converse by Howard Fishman, who joins Andy to tel
Raven Chacon's Pulitzer Prize-winning Voiceless Mass and Cam Butler takes on the grand organ
Voiceless Mass, by Raven Chacon, can be performed in 'any space of worship with high ceilings and pipe organ' and plays with the amplifying power of a church's architecture, while commenting on the silencing of voices and languages that churches have been active in throughout their history. It won the composer the Pulitzer Prize for music in 2022 and is heading to the Rising Fest
The prodigy and the piano: Ruth Slenczynska 1925-2026
The American pianist Ruth Slenczynska, who died last week at the age of 101, was a childhood prodigy (although she denies the label). That came at a huge price, including a punishing concert schedule from the age of 4, orchestrated in the main by a tyrannical teacher-father. She went on to be one of the great pianists of the 20th century, playing duets with Harry Truman, touring
Anna Meredith wants her music loud and the musicality of Dorothy Porter
Scottish composer Anna Meredith creates a meeting place between the concert platform and the rave in her music. Her piece for electronics and string quartet, Tuggemo, takes its name from an archaic English word for a swarm of bees, and demands to be heard loud. It's being given its Australian premiere by Omega Ensemble as part of their Howl concert season.Sophia Brous is an Austr
Music Now & Then: Jeremy Sams
Jeremy Sams is a composer, theatre director and a long-time friend of the show. He's the latest in our series of long conversations with old friends. He joined Andy recently in London to talk about how opera, music theatre and the industries behind the art forms have transformed over the years. Music heard in the show:Title: Balloon MusicArtist: Royal Philharmonic OrchestraCompos
ZÖJ deafen the devil's ear and The Three Seas embrace naivety
ZÖJ, the collaboration between Gelareh Pour and Brian O'Dwyer perform the opening track from their new album, May The Devil’s Ear Be Deaf, live in the music show studios. The album was recorded at an artists retreat in Banff, Canada, and features music “built on fragility and on the fear of its own erasure." They also talk about performing a live score to a remarkable 1925 silent
John Darnielle: meaning, musicals, and The Mountain Goats
The Mountain Goats started out as a solo project by then-psych nurse John Darnielle recording directly into a boombox in his room. Their latest album (Through This Fire Across From Peter Balkan) is a "full-on musical", complete with french horn and a string section, recorded on what sound like very nice microphones. Darnielle's tastes and influences are esoteric and wide ranging,
Going gospel with Robert Finley and going ham(mond) with Jake Mason
Robert Finley's first album was called Age Don't Mean A Thing, which was fitting because he released it in his 60s. Before that, he was a military man and then a carpenter. When he began to go blind he sat down his tools and returned to music - initially the blues - but his latest album Hallelujah! Don't Let the Devil Fool Ya is a gospel album, and a very special one. Robert is o
Hitchock and Herrmann: the thrilling partnership that shaped an era of cinema
Film composer Bernard Herrmann’s career started and ended with classics: his first film was Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane (1941), his last was Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver (1976). But it’s the nine films that Herrmann worked on with Alfred Hitchcock that define his legacy, and in his new book, Hitchcock and Herrmann: The Friendship and Film Scores that Changed Cinema, Steven C Smi
Sparks rennaisance continues and Mo'Ju's rebel heart
There aren’t many bands that are still going after 50 years, but Sparks, who had their first big hit back in 1974 with This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both Of Us, have seen a renaissance of sorts in the last few years - they wrote a film, starred in a documentary, collaborated with Cate Blanchett, and have released some of their best work. The brothers, Ron and Russell Mael, talk
Tabaran is a Sound of Australia and Carl Vine's final collaboration with the Goldner Quartet
Tabaran, the 1990 album by Not Drowning, Waving and the musicians Of Rabaul, Papua New Guinea featuring Telek, has been inducted into the National Film and Sound Archive as one of the Sounds of Australia. David Bridie looks back on the album, which saw the band head to Papua New Guinea to work with George Telek for the first time.The music of Australian composer Carl Vine serves
Disney's Renaissance man Alan Menken
Alan Menken’s name is synonymous with Disney’s 1990s purple patch: a so called ‘renaissance’ of the animation empire’s fortunes, where a run of films starting with 1989’s The Little Mermaid cut through to a new generation. Ahead of a series of solo performances in Australia, he talks to Andy about how he's brought characters to life through songs. And from the archives, conversat
Pits, picket lines and pop music: the 1984-5 UK miners' strike
We're digging into the archives for a special program looking at the role that music played in the UK miners' strikes: a political, industrial and personal struggle. From Peggy Seeger to Paul Weller, Billy Bragg to brass bands—there's music supporting the striking miners, songs tormenting strikebreakers and tracks referencing (and sometimes sampling) National Union of Mineworkers
Flinders Quartet and Melody Eötvös plan ahead, Cassie To gets personal, and Mantis shares his award-winning hip-hop
Zoe Knighton of Flinders Quartet is undertaking a multi-year project with composer Melody Eötvös. It's fittingly called The Eötvös Cycle, and The Music Show will be following this creation of new Australian repertoire over the next five years. Composer Cassie To has told other people's stories when she's scored for the screen and advertising, but her debut album, Heart Songs, tak
What Did You Hear: listening to the music of Bob Dylan
Writing about and scholarship of Bob Dylan tends to focus on the words - he's a Nobel Prize winner for literature, after all - but his music deserves a deeper look too. Between the jangling guitar sound, rusty-hinge vocal stylings, and highly variable intonation, his unpolished and constantly shifting attitude towards performing his own music demands a long conversation with Stev
Riccardo Tesi and Giua open their retablos & Rafael Anton Irisarri searches for connection
Riccardo Tesi and Giua are bringing their melodeon, guitar, and Italian folk tradition to Australia for a series of concerts called Retablos. These are Peruvian magic boxes which create windows into different worlds. Riccardo and Giua join Andy to open a window into their worldPoints of Inaccessibility, the latest album by Rafael Anton Irisarri, began as an audio-visual improvisa
Music Now & Then: Andy Irvine
Irish singer and multi-instrumentalist Andy Irvine has been coming on The Music Show for over thirty years, so he's the perfect person to start our occasional 2026 series Music Now & Then, in which Andy (Ford) speaks to long-running guests about how the world of music around them has changed over the years. Andy spoke to Andy in front of a gaggle of session-goers at the Gaeli
Violinist María Dueñas and percussionist Claire Edwardes
Spanish violinist María Dueñas makes her Australian debut with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, playing Beethoven’s Violin Concerto. Signed to Deutsche Grammophon since she was nineteen, her distinctive style of playing, her expressiveness, and her youth have all captured audiences. She talks to Andy about embracing canonical repertoire like Beethoven, and new music like the wor
Live at WOMADelaide 2026: Ganavya, La Perla and the Zawose Queens
On stage at WOMADelaide, the world's festival on Kaurna Country, Andy hosts bands from Tanzania, Colombia, and India via the USA. The Zawose Queens, La Perla, and Ganavya demonstrate their diverse musical languages in front of a live audience. The Music Show is made on Kaurna, Gadigal, Gundungurra, and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country CountryTechnical production by Ann-Marie Debett
The magnificent voices of Annahstasia and Åkervinda
First discovered as a 17-year-old, Annahstasia found the music industry had a vision for her that she didn't recognise. Leaving the industry behind gave her a chance to find her voice - both metaphorically and literally, with months spent testing various mics and studios to get the right right for her latest album, Tether. While she points to influences like Nina Simone and Bill
Ron Sexsmith and Mary Coughlan
Ron Sexsmith is a Canadian singer-songwriter who more than earns the title of tunesmith with his melodies and storytelling. He's back on The Music Show to talk about his latest album Hangover Terrace, about finding his voice eight albums into his career, and being a songwriter's songwriter.Uncategorisable is how we like them on The Music Show and Mary Coughlan is certainly that.
Marisa Anderson's UnAmerican Folk Music and paying tribute to Éliane Radigue
Marisa Anderson says she learned to play the guitar three times. Once, as a young learner of classical guitar as a child. Then, being exposed to folk music at university, and, finally, when she threw away standard tuning about fifteen years later. On her latest album, The Anthology of UnAmerican Folk Music, she has taken inspiration from the record collection of Harry Smith and c
György Kurtág at 100
It's the hundredth birthday of György Kurtág, one of the most revered and increasingly performed of living composers. Cellist Steven Isserlis and baritone Benjamin Appl have both worked closely with the Hungarian composer on his rarefied music, and they tell Andy about his humour, high standards and a commitment to work that finds him currently composing a new opera in between ta
The surprising and eclectic sounds of Ben Nobuto and Black Country, New Road
British Japanese composer Ben Nobuto's Hallelujah Sim. opened the BBC Proms in 2024, garnering a roaring, standing ovation (a rare feat for a world premiere). His musical vocabulary, which marries precise chamber music sensibilities with video game sound effects and electronic multitracking, is unique in the universe of contemporary composition. He joins Andy to unpack his compos
Nairobi comes to Adelaide with Blinky Bill, and the weird and wondrous sacred music of Gesualdo
Carlo Gesualdo was a Renaissance composer, a prince, and a murderer. His sacred music, including his Tenebrae Responsoria, is a strange collection of settings full of dissonance and chromatic moving parts. AJ America is the Artistic Director of Luminescence Chamber Singers, and she joins Andy to talk about how the gory details of Gesualdo's life translate to the music.Blinky Bill
Gillian Welch and David Rawlings celebrate new music and a big anniversary; and Raphael Pichon's surprising choice of Orfeo
Gillian Welch and David Rawlings are one of the great couples of Americana, with a catalogue that stretches back decades. Along the way they've put their stamp on the classics of American folk, and created more than a few classics of their own. On the twenty-fifth anniversary of Time (The Revelator), they're heading back to Australia to show off their latest collection of new mat
Lachlan Skipworth on expanding his compositional palette and Worlds Only embrace the moment
Lachlan Skipworth, one of Australia's most beautiful compositional voices, has a very unusual new double concerto - for trumpet and clarinet - set to premiere with Omega Ensemble. He tells Andy how a series of 'joyful and uplifting' commissions added a new string to his bow.And Thomas William Smith & Mara Schwerdtfeger from the ambient collective Worlds Only share why they pr
Andrea Keller's Transients; and Ian Thompson takes us to the French musical underground of 1968
Andrea Keller is not only a pianist, composer, bandleader and educator, she's also the Jazz Ambassador at this year's Clarence Jazz Festival, celebrating its 30th year. She joins Andy to talk about creating a web of collaborators in her Transients series. Ian Thompson's book, Synths, Sax and Situationists, examines the music of the French underground that began with the Paris 'ev
Neil and Tim Finn unsplit the Enz and Reuben Brown on the music of Arnhem Land
Tim Finn and Neil Finn have worked together in a number of guises over the years: Crowded House, The Finn Brothers, and guesting on each other’s solo projects. But it all began with Split Enz, and there’s something about that music that keeps bringing them back together. Neil and Finn reminisce about their early collaborations, explain how a setlist comes together, and share how
Lucy Dacus on feelings, bread, and roses; and 'a country trying to sing itself free' in Celtic Utopia
Lucy Dacus is now perhaps best known for being one third of boygenius, one of the great sad girl groups of all time. But her latest album, Forever is a Feeling, is bursting with romantic joy. On her way to Australia for a series of shows, she talks to Andy about finding its lush sound, performing it live, and about singing for Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral inauguration in New York Cit
Ursula Yovich sings NIna Simone and Toshi Maeda on pop-punk and Mach Pelican
Singer and actor Ursula Yovich joins Andy to talk about Nina Simone. Yovich has been taking on Simone's music for a show at Sydney Festival and she explores what set Simone apart, what part of her story she wanted to tell, the continuing importance of Simone's politics, and the cost to an artist to perform and share themselves on the stage.And Toshi Maeda, from the Australian pun
The backbone of Midnight Oil: Rob Hirst (1955 - 2026)
From a teenage band driving up and down the coast in a station wagon to one of the biggest Australian bands of all time, Midnight Oil survived on the backbone of drummer, founding member, and songwriter Rob Hirst. Hirst, who has died at the age of 70, was a frequent guest on The Music Show, both as an Oil and with his blues band the Backsliders, and we remember him with a selecti
The bouzouki in Irish folk with Daoirí Farrell; and The Red Shoes with Meow Meow
The bouzouki has been a feature of Irish folk music since the mid-1960s, and one of the instrument’s finest modern exponents is Daoirí Farrell. He’s also a singer and a song collector, and he's brought his instrument into our studio to demonstrate how the three things fit together.Post-post-modern chanteuse Meow Meow returns to The Music Show to talk about The Red Shoes, the thir
From broken piano to bestseller: Keith Jarrett's The Köln Concert
In February 1975, Keith Jarrett turned up at the Cologne Opera House to play a solo concert. He was tired, hungry and in pain, and the Bösendorfer piano was falling apart. Technicians worked on the instrument before and after that night’s opera performance, and the 18-year-old promoter talked Jarrett into going on. Still tired, still hungry (dinner arrived too late), still in pai
Storytelling, beats and soundscapes on Warlpiri Country, and the legacy of the Shangri-Las
Lajamanu is one of the most remote places in Central Australia, and it’s where we meet Wanta Jampijinpa Pawu-Kurlpurlurnu, his father Jerry Jangala Patrick OAM, and the music producer Marc ‘Monkey’ Peckham. Crown & Country is a new album and film that’s come out of more than a decade of friendship and collaboration between Wanta, Jerry and Monkey. Blending Warlpiri Jukurrpa (
"I have seen rock and roll's future and its name is Bruce Springsteen": Born To Run at 50
On the 25th of August, 1975, Bruce Springsteen released Born to Run, the "dividing line" of his career. Starting with the title track, written on the edge of his bed in a rented cottage in New Jersey, Born to Run signalled the arrival of Springsteen, and the E Street Band. A child of the Kennedy, King, and Malcolm X assassinations, Springsteen transformed classic rock and roll im
Collecting Scots songs on horseback with Quinie; and The Sex Pistols with Steve Jones
The Glasgow-based singer Quinie travelled across Argyll on her horse Maisie to collect old Scots songs for her new album Forefowk, Mind Me. On this record, Quinie (whose real name is Josie Vallely) pays tribute to her ancestors as well as Scots Traveller singers like Lizzie Higgins, whose deep connection to the land has been expressed beautifully in song for generations. She spea
The violin in the colony
“Ships become obsolete; fine furs are ravaged by moths, faded by the sun, worn by rubbing against show cases; garments go out of style; the gold watch grandfather handed down is replaced by a thin one. Change and decay is all around — except in violins. Death rarely comes to the violin.” So wrote Arland Weeks in 1929, in The Scientific Monthly.Dr Laura Case gives Andy a potted hi
Chamber music by women with Anna Goldsworthy and Richard Dawson's evocative songwriting
Seraphim Trio have been making chamber music together for over twenty years. Pianist Anna Goldsworthy joins Andrew Ford to talk about her relationship with violinist Helen Ayres and cellist Tim Nankervis, as well as the women composers – famous and lesser known – they have recorded as part of their latest album Radiante.Written from the small shed on his allotment in Northern Eng
Innovation and imitation: Maurice Ravel at 150
Aspirations of modernity, progress and innovation drove music through the 20th century. For French composer Maurice Ravel, inspiration from (and imitation of) his peers, of the voices and styles around him, made him a true original. He pulled from Spanish music, 18th century music, Viennese waltz and jazz, and yet within seconds it’s always possible to hear Ravel’s own, distinct,
Genre-benders: Abel Selaocoe and Bush Gothic
Almost every description of South African singer, cellist and composer Abel Selaocoe starts with a phrase like “genre-defying”, but Abel refers to himself as genre defining. Wherever he tours, he brings with him a lifetime of musical influences ranging from his childhood in Sebokeng, a township outside Johannesburg, to adolescence at Soweto’s African Cultural Organisation of Sout
Ellen Stekert on a full life in folk music
Ellen Stekert has spent a lifetime in folk music. She got her first guitar at 13 (to assist with her rehab after contracting polio) and soon after high school she became enmeshed in the Greenwich Village folk scene, crossing paths with the likes of Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie. Ellen released four albums of traditional songs in the 1950s and then focused her career on academia,
The "doofy folk" of Brisbane band Amaidí; and Luciano Berio at 100 with his student Kim Williams
Brisbane trad band Amaidí say they perform "doofy folk stuff": accordion, guitar, banjo and fiddle augmented by stomp box and electronics. Amaidí means nonsense in Gaelic but it's more than just silly stuff, with their new album Beyond Cape Capricorn reflecting the broad and often dark influences of Scottish and Irish music in the Australian folk tradition. That being said, there
Messiah
What do an actress mired in scandal, a grieving political dissident, a previously enslaved African celebrity, and a court composer have in common? They’re all integral to the story of Messiah becoming a cornerstone of the musical repertoire. Heard now more often at Christmas, it was premiered at Easter in 1742 after three rapid weeks of writing by Handel, and it suggests, as auth
From Mixtapes to MTV: The Music of the 1980s with Tony Wellington
Tony Wellington returns to the show to race through the 1980s in a single episode. It's a decade of contradictions, where big hair, commercial pop hits, lip syncing and the music video meet rap, independent rock, and house music. From girls on film to video killing the radio star, from talking about a revolution to being touched for the very first time: how do you sum up the triu
JJJJJerome Ellis on the musicality of stuttering, and a masterclass in the chromatic harmonica
JJJJJerome Ellis styles their name with five Js because it’s the word they stutter on the most. The artist, writer, composer and multi-instrumentalist has released a new album Vesper Sparrow which layers spoken word, vocals, saxophone, hammered dulcimer, organ, electronics and more. JJJJJerome speaks to Andrew Ford about the musical opportunities that speech disfluency provides,
Reed and Oak: DOBBY & Cate Kennedy
Reed and Oak - composed and performed by DOBBY, words by Cate Kennedy.One of two winning poems from our Middle of the Air competition, run in collaboration with Red Room Poetry.
The Arbour: Leah Senior & Giles Watson
The Arbour - composed and performed by Leah Senior, words by Giles Watson.One of two winning poems from our Middle of the Air competition, run in collaboration with Red Room Poetry.
Poetry becomes song: Middle of the Air winning songs revealed with DOBBY and Leah Senior
In August, ABC Radio National and Red Room Poetry put out the call for Australian poets to submit new poems to be set to music by two great local musicians, DOBBY and Leah Senior. Now, to mark the end of AusMusic Month, the two winning poems, and the songs that they have become, are premiered on The Music Show. Andy talks to DOBBY, Leah, and the two winning poets Cate Kennedy and
Leo Sayer is still dancing, and art and song in Warlpiri women's ceremony
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander listeners are advised that this program contains the voices of people who have died. As a post-war kid, Leo Sayer first heard rock & roll on Radio Luxembourg on a radio late at night. His career has taken some major swerves: he was an illustrator, a graphic designer (he worked on album covers for Bob Marley), then a blues harmonica player
Performing Assyrian-ness with Lolita Emmanuel
Lolita Emmanuel is a creative researcher. She’s a musician, a storyteller, and an academic (moments away from finishing her Doctor of Musical Arts) and she’s part of this year’s ABC Top Five Arts residency. That's early career researchers in the arts who’ve come to Radio National to make shows about their work. Lolita is Assyrian and Armenian, and her creative practice, which for
Guzheng, standards, and Yolngu manikay: three very different albums from Paul Grabowsky and friends
Most people would think of Paul Grabowsky as a jazz pianist. And they wouldn't be wrong, except he's much more than that. He's a composer of film scores, orchestra works and operas, a band leader (he founded the Australian Art Orchestra) and an inveterate collaborator. Just this year, he's released three albums: a recording of standards with singer Michelle Nicolle; a duo with gu
Cover Story: Both Sides Now
Both Sides Now was written by Joni Mitchell in 1966, when she was just 21 years old. She wasn't the first artist to record it though - in true folk tradition, the covers began before her own version was released in 1969, and they haven't stopped since. Both Sides Now is our most covered Cover Story song so far, with over 1,700 versions in as many styles as you can think of. Inclu
Seckou Keita retunes West African traditional music, and Rowena Wise & Didirri's couples therapy through song
Senegalese kora master Seckou Keita's relationship with the West African string instrument is delicate, thoughtful, and expansive. Through developing his own tunings, and taking his music further than the traditions of Casamance, the region of southern Senegal he's from, he's connected his instrument with jazz, classical, and other African musical traditions. He's in Australia pl
Cover Story: Reckless
In 1983, the Manly Ferry was making its way to circular quay and James Reyne was laying down Reckless (Don't Be So...) with his band, Australian Crawl, for their EP Semantics. Since then, the song has had a permanent place in lists of great Australian songs, in no small part due to some very different covers. Some by Australian music royalty (from Paul Kelly to John Farnham), and
The sound of County Clare with Martin Hayes; and Piotr Anderszewski connects Bach, Beethoven and Brahms
Martin Hayes is one of the world's most celebrated fiddle players, and a very influential figure in Irish traditional music. He draws from the musical tradition of County Clare and interprets it within a wider contemporary context, and has collaborated with an impressive slate of artists from Paul Simon to Yo Yo Ma. A longtime friend of the Music Show, Martin Hayes speaks with An
Cover Story: Time After Time
Time After Time was a last minute addition to Cyndi Lauper's debut album She's So Unusual in 1983 - a final songwriting session between Lauper and Rob Hyman filling a gap on the tracklist. Since then, it's been through the wringer with not one but two versions recorded for MacDonald's ads, turn-of-the-millennium EDM, and a turn by Miles Davis ("the most honoured I ever felt" - Cy
Come to the cabaret with Le Gateau Chocolat, and music from the borderlands of Iran and Afghanistan
All kinds of music and all kinds of musicians in conversation with Andrew Ford.
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