Michael Waugh’s insightful tributes to friends, family and parenthood are simultaneously deeply personal and nationally recognisable; we see our own brothers, parents, pubs, rivers, struggles and joys reflected in the faces of those characters who live large in Michael’s songs. Michael is a songwriter’s songwriter, a compelling live performer and an extraordinary storyteller. Among his admirers are the legendary Eric Bogle, alt. country luminaries Shane Nicholson & Fanny Lumsden as well as Josh Cunningham from The Waifs. His 2019 album The Weir received two Golden Guitar nominations – Male Artist of the Year and Alt Country Album of the Year – as well as a nomination at the 2020 Victorian Music Awards. In 2022 Dirty River, Michael’s tribute to his home town of Melbourne from his most recent album The Cast, was voted Heritage Song of the Year at the Golden Guitar Awards. The album also received a Golden Guitar nomination for Alt Country Album of the Year as well as nominations in the Australian Folk Music Awards and the Victorian Music Awards.
Michael’s latest single We Are Here, the first from his forthcoming album ‘Beauty & Truth’, is a celebration of gay men through history who have stood up against persecution, sometimes at the cost of their lives, to make it safe for queer people to be visible and proud. In Michael’s words, ‘this is a thank you to all of those heroes who made it ok for me to be able to stand here in my rainbow trimmed blundstone boots and say – ‘this is who I am’’. In the folk tradition of heritage stories, We Are Here tells about how we got to be here, and how we must stand as a community to make it safe for who comes next.
Michael Waugh
