The Music Show

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 some from further afield (Laura Mvula singing about Aussie landmarks in her Birmingham accent).Andy's guests are University of Western Sydney musicologist John Encarnacao and ABC Classic's Vanessa Hughes.

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 Andy ahead of his 2026 Australian tour.Piotr Anderszewski is a famously exacting pianist from Poland who only performs pieces he feels he can contribute to in an original and personal way. He has performed with many of the world's great symphony orchestras, and is on tour in Australia throughout November performing repertoire of Brahms, Bach and Beethoven. And for Aus Music Month, a new song from Stella Donelly's brand new album Love and Fortune.

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" - Cyndi Lauper; "he could have farted it and she'd still have loved it" - Andrew Ford). Andy's guests are Iain Grandage and Michelle Nicolle. 

All kinds of music and all kinds of musicians in conversation with Andrew Ford.

All kinds of music and all kinds of musicians in conversation with Andrew Ford.

Inni-K, the alias of singer songwriter Eithne Ní Chatháin, blends Ireland's rich music traditions with her own playful compositional voice. Her new album Still A Day deviates from the traditional material she's focused on in the past, and these original songs are sung in English and Gaelic, with her voice and fiddle at the centre.Touring relentlessly and releasing music since the early 1980s, Joe Camilleri and The Black Sorrows are taking stock with a new album of ‘quintessential songs’ that celebrate their four decade contribution to Australian music.  Part of the band’s success is down to embracing eclectic musical styles. You’ll find jazz, blues, rock, zydeco and pop on this album. The Sorrows have also welcomed a rotating cast of musicians over the years—people like Vika & Linda Bull, Paul Grabowsky, Michael Barker and George Butrumlis. Joe speaks to Andrew about longevity, singing with his saxophone, and how he never knows when something’s going to be a hit.Plus, music from the border of Iran and Afghanistan, from Badieh. They'll be on The Music Show next week. 

The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face was made famous by the version Roberta Flack recorded for her 1969 album First Take, which was then used in Clint Eastwood's 1971 film Play Misty for Me.  But it started life as a relatively simple folksong British folk singer Ewan MacColl wrote for and delivered to American folk singer Peggy Seeger down a phone line at the start of the 1960s. From folksong to torch song to torture device (sorry, Barbra Streisand), it's a song that has robustly weathered many interpretations. Poet and folk artist Kate Fagan and soprano Rachel Mink of Luminescence Chamber Singers are our critics in the first episode of a new series of Cover Story. 

Composer Christopher Gordon is being handed the Distinguished Services to the Australian Screen award at this year's Screen Music Awards. Responsible for big scores to films like Mao’s Last Dancer, Ladies In Black, and Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Christopher has also written for television, ballet and the concert hall. He tells Andrew about catching his first big break (a score for miniseries Moby Dick) and how he’s kept up such a varied composing and conducting career.Forming in Brisbane in 1978, The Apartments have been releasing music on-and-off for over 40 years, with singer songwriter Peter Milton Walsh the only constant member. The latest album spends a lot of time looking back, balancing joys and sorrows, and arrives like a declaration: That's What the Music is For.

Ahead of new episodes of Cover Story (dropping very soon!) we bring you one of our favourites from season one.Singer and rapper Ziggy Ramo and musician and broadcaster Alice Keath look at Bob Dylan’s The Times They Are A-Changin’ – a political anthem just vague enough to apply to the US civil rights movement, the Velvet Revolution, Perestroika, and in some cases seemingly nothing at all.

When was the last time you gathered around a piano to belt out showtunes with friends or strangers? Marie's Crisis Cafe is a beloved New York City sing-along piano bar that's been bringing musical theatre lovers together for decades. The bar is popping up in Melbourne and Sydney and we'll meet resident pianists Kenney Green-Tilford and Adam Michael Tilford who'll perform a couple of showtunes live.Fritz Hart (1874 - 1949) was an English composer, conductor and teacher (and critic, poet, novelist and painter), a friend of Gustav Holst and Ralph Vaughan Williams, who was active in Melbourne (and Hawaii) in the first part of the 20th century. He composed a great deal of music, including no fewer than nineteen operas, but is these days better known for his teaching work, his students including Peggy Glanville-Hicks, Margaret Sutherland, Linda Phillips and Esther Rofe. Hart's biographers, Peter Tregear and Anne-Marie Forbes, join Andy to discuss this flamboyant, not to say rakish, figure in Australian music.