The Music Show

Pop music is an art, it’s a science, it’s an industrial complex. Ring in the new year with some of your favourite pop hits, and a favourite conversation from 2023.

New albums from some of the most iconic voices of 2023: Hozier chats about Unreal Unearth, and Benjamin Appl on Forbidden Fruit. 

Two friends of The Music Show drop by the live music studio with performances from their 2023 releases.

The Music Show on RN Summer revisits conversations with Don Walker and Rob Hao.

Andy Irvine is the quintessential Irish traditional musician and songwriter, but he was born in 1940s London. Since then he’s been a huge part of the wave that popularised Irish music and folk music more broadly, and he joins us in The Music Show studio to play and reflect on a life on stage.

The Sound of White was Missy Higgins' debut album and includes tracks written in her teenage bedroom, on her post-high school backpacking trip, and in LA studios sponsored by her new record label. She rocketed to stardom back in 2004 and as that breakthrough record is about to celebrate its twentieth anniversary, Missy talks to The Music Show producer Ce Benedict about how it came together and how she looks back on it now.Judith Hill is one of the subjects of the documentary 20 Feet From Stardom, having been a backing vocalist for many years. Now she’s about to head to Sydney Festival and her parents – who met when they joined the same 70s funk band – are on tour with her.  These days, she is very much a frontwoman, and she tells Andrew about her life as a hardworking musician and finding her own sound whilst working with stars like Michael Jackson and Prince.And composer, dramaturg, director, writer, collaborator, and friend of the Music Show Felix Cross talks about a project that has been simmering away over the last few years that is coming to fruition early next year in India. Working with the Akshar Trust, Felix is creating new musical opportunities for children with hearing impairment, and devising a stage adaptation of the short film Vishwamitri Villas with his collaborator in life and theatre, Kristine Landon-Smith.

Richard Mills finishes up thirteen years at the helm of Victorian Opera at the end of this year, and his opera Galileo gets its concert premiere as a kind of farewell. He’s got plenty to look back on and to look forward to as well as opera in Australia and worldwide goes through a kind of sea change.And we look back at some of The Music Show’s favourite live sessions from the year with jazz piano, classical chamber music, monk punk and a vacuum cleaner plugged into a clarinet. Not to mention the banjos – multiple banjos. Music from Throat Pleats, Party Dozen, Buddhadatta and Shogo Yoshii, Mike Nock, members of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and Abigail Washburn and Bela Fleck.

2023 marks the centenary of Hank Williams' birth. Even if you’re allergic to country music, the music you listen to would likely be somehow traced back to this seminal singer and songwriter. In fact, there might be quite a few songs you’ve heard by some of your favourite legendary singers that were actually written many years earlier by Hank. Get to know Hank’s music, his life and his legacy through archive interviews with his biographer Colin Escott, a chat with Lucky Oceans from 2019, and a story from Billy Joe Shaver that he shared in 2002.And Emily Granger joins us in the live music studio with her harp to talk through the ins and outs of her instrument and share some very handy tips about writing for the harp. Emily was raised in Missouri but has called Australia home for the last seven years, and he’s just released an album of duets for harp and Sally Walker’s flute called Something Like This. She has been appointed Principal Harp at the Queensland Symphony Orchestra and is about to head down to the Mornington Peninsula for their annual Peninsula Summer Music Festival. 

British violinist Anthony Marwood returns to our shores where he’s playing a series of concerts in duet with accordionist James Crabb for the Australian Chamber Orchestra.As a soloist, chamber musician, orchestra director, and festival director he’s a man with many strings to his bow, but we’ll try not to let that horrific pun get in the way of a good, in-depth conversation between Anthony and Andrew.They talk about working with composers like Thomas Adès, Sally Beamish, learning from Emanuel Hurwitz, and collaborating with Sinead O'Connor. 

Following the release of her second studio album Hertz, Perth-based singer-songwriter Carla Geneve chats to Andrew about channelling the experiences of her bipolar diagnosis into her music and resisting the temptations of becoming the “tortured artist”. Describing the record as a “concept album,” Hertz is a continuation of her previous release Learn to Like It, but takes on a new, raw sound that still maintains an authentic Aussie twang.Reflecting the melting pot of Adelaide, Nexus Arts Orchestra adds new dimensions to the idea of “Contemporary Australian Music”. The group is made up of performers from varying musical backgrounds, and include instruments like the guzheng, shamisen and santur alongside a string section, vocals and flamenco guitar. They have just released a three-track EP, featuring co-composed music and songs by Ngaanyatjarra singer-songwriter Vonda Last.And we remember one of the greatest Irish songwriters and frontman of The Pogues, Shane MacGowan, who died this week at the age of 65. He was renowned for the powerful sound he derived from Irish traditional music and punk.