JILL SCOTT To Whom This May Concern (The Orchard)   THE SCOURGE OF MODERN AUSTRALIA, John Howard, once said during his years in the political garbage bin that “the times will suit me” as he waited for selfishness, xenophobia and greed to come back in style. We didn’t need him, we didn’t really deserve him – well, not all of us – but we got him, that cultural dose of salts, and the stains have not been washed away yet. At the other end of the cosmic righteous spectrum, as the

The wind cried Richard Clapton. Photograph by Stuart Spence Here we have the next instalment in What Comes To Mind, an alternative series in the Wind Back Wednesday space, based on the work of the brilliant photographer Stuart Spence. Each time, he will dig out a photo from his archives going back almost 50 years and challenge me to respond with what comes to mind when I look at that image. It might be serious or ridiculous, personal or historical. It might be short and bruta

Genre arguments? Putting them behind me says Maren Morris at the Enmore Theatre. Photo by Josh Groom MAREN MORRIS Enmore Theatre, February 7   DONNA SUMMER’S Love To Love You Baby  as the play-on music for a multiple Country Music Association-winner with three number one singles on the country chart? Why the hell not. Not least because apart from Arlington-raised Maren Morris’s all-glitter-all-shimmer-disco-in-Enmore dress fitting the bill, that Giorgio Moroder classic has a

They were meant to be together. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN Find more combinations in playlists like this by searching for me on Spotify.

SAM SHINAZZI On A Highway Somewhere (Stanley Records)   BEFORE WE GET TO THE GOOD or bad, let’s establish the lay of the land, because your propensity for or resistance to a certain style, certain motifs, certain, shall we say, familiar routes, will play a big part in whether On A Highway Somewhere  is a keeper or a loser. The first clue is in that title and the cover image of a desolate road fringed with power poles and weeds. Off the main byways, caught between towns whose

Like the idiots who declare there’s been no good music released since whenever it was that they were 20 – essentially revealing they haven’t listened to music outside their collection/classic hits radio/prejudices – the tut-tutters and bemoaners, the “where are all the protest songs” crowd, have been out in force again in the past weeks. Events in Minneapolis, Palestine, an Invasion Day march in Perth and the death of Midnight Oil’s Rob Hirst have inspired them to wonder and

... but you'll get it all the same. Along with moves and moments. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN Find a gallery of hundreds more playlists made by these same hands at Spotify.

SOME OF YOU THINK because a person is softly spoken that they are always amiable and quiet, the kind of person who will suffer in silence, maybe resent you but not hit back. At most maybe they’ll write a passive-aggressive song one day – ooh, don’t hurt me! – so you’re safe from any stray Canadian singer/songwriters with gentle voices and cherubic faces. Hmm. Ron Sexsmith would like a word, and he has his most recent album, Hangover Terrace , as exhibit A for the Ron Has Had

No wings of desire for Ron Sexsmith. WE DON’T SEE Ron Sexsmith around these parts all that often. It’s not that he has a problem with Australia and New Zealand – we’re nice people, he’ll tell you, and while he’s not exactly Bryan Adams or Drake or Grimes level sales-wise, he’s got fans here in decent numbers for a Canadian singer/songwriter whose style is classicist pop, whose influences are Ray Davies, Paul McCartney and Gordon Lightfoot, whose beats are rhythmic but not tec