Premiering as part of the Shepparton Festival, a new concert invites audiences to rediscover the old through the lens of the new.
The performance will blend humour, heart and a reverence for the strange and beautiful stories woven into Australia’s musical past.
On Friday, April 11 from 7.30pm to 9.30pm, Creswick musician Archer will premiere a new show in Shepparton with a string quartet to bring his rich, poetic songs to life on the Riverlinks Eastbank stage.
The concert will feature reimagined Australian duo Broken Creek, promising “banjo, ballads and a singing magic man”.
Hailed as ‘Australia’s Woody Guthrie’, ‘Old-Time Singsong Man’ and the ‘Magic Man’, Archer is described a “rare and compelling presence” in the Australian music landscape.
Alongside him, Broken Creek will breathe new life into old tunes with a fiddle, a fretless banjo and snippets of rare archival recordings.
Their latest show draws from the repertoire of bush singer and fiddler Sally Sloane, uncovered in the National Library’s folk archives.
“I wanted to know what kind of songs my great-grandmother would have sung,” Broken Creek’s Erin Heycox said.
“We found these incredible recordings of Sally that were in danger of being forgotten — songs full of wit, grit and beauty.”
See them live at the upcoming Shepparton Festival and buy a ticket at tinyurl.com/archerandbrokencreek
For volunteering opportunities and event details, visit the Shepparton Festival website at sheppartonfestival.org.au/