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Australian Folk Music Awards Solo Artist of the Year, Fred Smith “is simply the best folk/country musician working in this country…beyond writing some of the finest songs about Australians at war, he has created a repertoire that is wry, literate, witty, powerfully emotional and insightful.” (Bruce Elder, SMH).
Supported by Australia’s most sensitive accompanists, Fred will be playing songs from his rich back catalogue and his latest album ‘Look’. He’ll also be presenting his stunning song cycle ‘Sparrows of Kabul’ combining his Dust of Uruzgan songs with new material written following a stint working on the evacuation of Kabul.
Fred is the subject of an Australian Story documentary. His book, The Dust of Uruzgan, published by Allen and Unwin in 2016, was described by Channel 10 Political Editor Hugh Riminton as “as convincing a picture as we will ever have of the tragedy, hope, oddness and courage of Australia’s Uruzgan enterprise… an astonishingly vibrant piece of reportage from the heart of our longest war.”
“Fred Smith is an Australian national treasure. Diplomat, philosopher, poet and raconteur, his songs reverberate with the prophetic voice of humanity.”
(Peter Wilkins, Canberra Critics Circle)
Fred Smith
