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2015 – Helpmann Awards Acceptance Speech

September 28, 2023 5:01 am Published by Comments Off on 2015 – Helpmann Awards Acceptance Speech

EVERY STEP OF THE WAY Every step of the way there’s someone with you. Maybe it starts way back as a kid when your parents make you have piano lessons without asking whether you feel like it or not. A little later on your older brothers and sisters start bringing records into the house. Your second eldest sister teaches you your first chords on guitar – I’m In Love with a Big Blue Frog by Peter, Paul and Mary. Every... View Article

2018 – Birany Birany Speech

September 28, 2023 5:01 am Published by Comments Off on 2018 – Birany Birany Speech

Plaque Ceremony for M Yunupingu. Birany Birany, June 7, 2018 27 years ago I sat around a campfire just over there with a guitar and a man with a big smile who wanted to write a song about making a treaty.  We were working on other songs too that my friend had written for Yothu Yindi’s second album and every once in a while we’d come back to the Treaty Song and pick away at it. By the time we... View Article

2007 – APRA Speech on Grant McLennan

September 28, 2023 4:57 am Published by Comments Off on 2007 – APRA Speech on Grant McLennan

I was driving the first time I heard Cattle and Cane. I had to pull over and stop the car it was so good. I could smell that song. The Go Betweens hit me at a time when I was trying to figure out how towrite my own songs, brew my own flavour. I studied and stole from them. Every time I play my song Careless I think of their song Apologies Accepted which gave me the chord sequence. Grant... View Article