John Shand Posts

March 27, 2025 / Concert Reviews

The Lounge, Chatswood Concourse, March 21 8.5/10 Ruthie Foster wasn’t just born to sing, she was probably already singing in the womb. Music pours from her mouth like water from a tap, and when she turns the tap on full, she makes an astounding sound: a huge, church-bred cry that…

March 24, 2025 / Album Reviews

Avicennia 7.5/10 Carl Dewhurst is among the great chameleons of Australian music. Were each of the manifold projects in which he’s been involved across the last 30 years to be played in adjacent rooms off a long corridor, every time you opened a new door you’d swear you heard a…

March 15, 2025 / Features

Dreams of Falling have not been idle since performing our Wilde About Oscar show in 2023-24. We’ve dived deeper into a very green pool and come up with Swift to Joyce & Beyond: Irish Genius in Word & Song. Others writers include Wilde, Yeats and Beckett, while the first half…