Streets of Your Town

On my recent travels through the UK and Ireland for Streets of Your Town, I was amazed to find how strong the cross pollination between Australian and Indigenous music and Gaelic traditions were, and how it continues to evolve. While I was in Glasgow, I was lucky enough to meet Graham Mackenzie from award winning instrumental folk trio Assynt. Sitting in his Glasgow living room, his fiddle sits be...

For this episode of Streets of Your Town, wander with me Nance Haxton to County Kerry on Ireland's west coast, to discover how close Australian and Irish cultural traditions are beyond the musical sphere. Tim Hanafin has lived in Kerry all of his 85 years, in a tiny village called Inch. The town is still known by many as the location where the epic Oscar-winning movie Ryan’s Daughter was filmed, p...

It’s not often that we get to watch a musical star on the rise. A performer whose passion and talent has enabled them to rise from tentative beginnings to starring in one of the world’s most beloved musicals. Here on Streets of Your Town, we’ve been lucky enough to watch Vidya Makan’s singing and writing prowess be recognised over a few short years. We first met her in the pivotal role of Catherin...

If you thought that a play about post-apocolyptic zombies couldn’t be compatible with meaningful and hilarious social commentary and analysis of colonial occupation, then you haven’t heard of the radical new production Eat, Slay Zombie. Emerging First Nations playwright Alinta McGrady tells us on this episode of Streets of Your Town how she took her idea born in covid lockdown and created this fas...

On this episode of Streets of Your Town, we feature someone I’ve wanted you to meet on this podcast for years. I’ve written about him for national media outlets such as The New Daily and National Indigenous Radio Service, about his achievements acting as a Barrister on some of the most challenging human rights class actions across Australia.  Joshua Creamer is a proud Waanyi and Kalkadoon man...

Just before I head overseas to the land of my ancestors in Scotland and Ireland, I was lucky enough to stumble into an Irish music session in Brisbane. The Irish accents flew thick and fast, to the accompaniment of the bodran, Eilean pipes, tin whistle and fiddle. Jack O’Leary is one of the musicians who makes this weekly quest to reconnect with his homeland. He tells us on Streets of Your Town, h...

It’s not often we get an Australian jazz singer legend on Streets of Your Town, but we are lucky enough to enjoy that on today’s episode.  Vince Jones is well known not only in this country but throughout the world as one of Australia’s most renowned jazz musicians.  He tells us how the love of his craft started young, in the lively jazz surrounds of Scotland. And after half a century of performin...

For Paralympian athlete Gerrard Gosens, taking on the challenge of swimming across the English Channel is more than just a physical one. It’s also mental, as the blind swimmer confronts the elements and conditions of the day and then figures out how to overcome them.  Gerrard tells us on Streets of Your Town podcast how he is well into an intense training regimen preparing for his attempted channe...

Some people when they visit Australia, simply can’t stop themselves from coming back time and time again. So it is for Irish performer Ciaran Olohan, who is bringing his show The World of Musicals in Concert back to Australia for the fourth time. And he’s not just taking it on the well worn route to the capital cities, Ciaran and his crew are doing the big lap of Australia, taking their show that...

In this episode of Streets of Your Town Elise McCann gives us insights into her creative process, particularly of late in the musical adaptation of Groundhog Day which had a season in Melbourne.  Elise admits that despite her success as a musicals performer, like anyone, there are days that get the better of her, and that’s how she decided to create the stress and motivation app Hey Lemonade. Toge...

Broken Hill-born country singer-songwriter Raechel Whitchurch spent most of her childhood travelling in her family's country music band, before establishing herself as one of Aussie music’s most recognisable country artists.   But her path to songwriting was far from guaranteed. In fact, it wasn't until her family saw Kasey Chambers’ family group The Dead Ringer Band perform in Broken Hill that co...

New Meanjin/Brisbane band Yirinda is widening the scope of Indigenous music with a unique take blending Aboriginal language and songs with classical genres.   Yirinda combines ancient Aboriginal language performed by Butchulla songman Fred Leone with dramatic soundscapes from Samuel Pankhurst, accompanied by a string quartet, to invoke thousands of generations of story and culture through music.  ...

There’s only two people who have made it onto Streets of Your Town podcast more than once. And journo and author extraordinaire Trent Dalton is one of them.  With the Netflix series adaptation of his first breakthrough novel Boy Swallows Universe now number one in Australia and top ten in the US, it’s time to revisit this Brisbane born and bred talent, whose gritty but hopeful representations of t...

With all the agitation and conflict in the world at the moment - I thought what we need on Streets of Your Town to start this year - is whimsy. Something to make us smile and stir a sense of childlike awe in us again. And so off I meandered in Mildred the Cantankerous Kombi to the Woodford Folk Festival. It’s on every year in the foothills of Queensland’s Sunshine Coast hinterland helping hippies...

You can’t be what you can’t see. It’s a saying that prompted a former AFL player to create a children’s band, so that his kids could be exposed to more than the bland musical world they were offered. Nick Gill is the founder of children’s band The Quokkas, with a mission to show children a modern and inclusive Australia through song. After his AFL career Nick went on to become a Channel 7 news rep...

The Wandering Journo has just returned from one of the most exciting secondments of my now three-decade journalism career - from the Cathedral of Sport the great MCG, where I was part of the National Indigenous Radio Service team covering the 2023 AFL grand final. And I have brought back a glimpse of the action for Streets of Your Town from behind the scenes of the National Indigenous Service broa...

We made it Streets of Your Towners - the 100th episode of the Streets of Your Town podcast!!! This episode we return to the man who so kindly kicked off this crazy Streets of Your Town adventure! The man whose storytelling is equally masterful with words or with the palette knife -  who is bookending this series by featuring in episode 1 and 100. This internationally renowned artist - harking from...

Today on Streets of Your Town we’re revisiting Vidya Makan, who you may remember meeting on this podcast in December 2022 when we featured her as one of the talented performers in the smash hit touring musical Six.  The show broke all attendance records at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre during its 2022 season.  But this Somerville House and Queensland Conservatorium graduate has not left he...

From a shy kid on the fringes to years later bringing together an eclectic group of musicians in an orchestra bearing his name, Matt Hsu has found the power of music and passed that joy onto dozens of others. The Matt Hsu Obscure Orchestra has quickly established a following as one of Australia’s most respected ensembles, bringing together a diverse band of BIPOC, First Nations, disabled, non-bina...

This week’s Streets of Your Town takes you into the world of fast and slow fashion, and what we can all do to lessen the burden of clothes waste on the world. Have you ever looked down at what you’re wearing, or into your wardrobe, and wondered where those materials came from?  Who made your outfit, and at what cost to them compared to the cost you paid for it?  Or pondered what the true cost of t...

You never know who I am going to meet on my travels in Mildred the cantankerous kombi. In this episode of Streets of Your Town, we enter the creative wonderland of artist, teacher and jack of all trades Angus MacDiarmid.  He lives in a converted church in the little town of Boonah in Queensland’s Scenic Rim.  Despite its close proximity to the bustling cities of Brisbane and the Gold Coast, much o...

Performing in the national spotlight is far from a passing phase for Julian Kuo - whose dedication to his craft since a young age has been rewarded with a prized place in the Australian cast of Hamilton.  The multi-award winning musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda is winding up it’s Australian run with the Brisbane season ending on April 23.  Before the show continues on its worldwide run, Julian reflec...

It’s rare that a musician makes such a mark with her first EP that Rolling Stone US magazine raves and international world music festivals beckon for you to play. But that’s exactly what has happened for Brisbane born and Melbourne based artist Tiana Khasi, whose eloquent and distinctive music will grace the WOMADelaide stage this weekend. Her debut EP, Meghalaya – titled for Meghalaya, India, the...

There’s not many awards he hasn’t won for his groundbreaking musical theatre work, and now Lin-Manuel Miranda has shown he keeps his promises too. The Tony, Grammy, Emmy, Olivier and Pulitzer Prize winning creator   came to Brisbane this weekend, to watch the Australian company perform Hamilton - his worldwide musical juggernaut that combines jazz, hip hop, R&B and Broadway musical styles to t...

The long awaited bio-pic paying tribute to the incredible feats of Jessica Watson has finally been realised, highlighting the struggles she overcame to become the youngest person to sail solo and unassisted around the world. The movie True Spirit was mostly filmed in south-east Queensland, with Jessica Watson’s courageous feats navigating some of the world’s most challenging stretches of ocean now...