Skip to content
PodcastsMusicThe Music Show

The Music Show

ABC Australia
The Music Show
Latest episode

385 episodes

  • The Music Show

    Belinda Webster and Tall Poppies Records: a life's work

    29/08/2026 | 43 mins.
    Belinda Webster, the producer, engineer and singular force behind Australia's art music label Tall Poppies died this month at the age of 74. Across 278 releases, Webster recorded and released music by many of Australia's best classical and jazz musicians, often playing Australian music.
    In 2006, Andy visited Belinda at her home in Kangaroo Valley for a wide-ranging conversation about her passion and approach to music. 
    Music heard in this program:
    Title: Come, My LoveArtist:  Ian Munro & Jane EdwardsComposer: Katherine ParkerAlbum: CD Sampler Label: Tall Poppies Records
    Title: The TrystArtist: David StanhopeComposer: Jean Sibelius (arranged by David Stanhope)Album: David Stanhope – A Virtuoso RecitalLabel: Tall Poppies 
    Title: Heritage Overture Artist: Sydney Symphony Orchestra, David PiperComposer: Sandra FranceAlbum: Sandra France – Fluctuating States Of CalmLabel: Tall Poppies
  • The Music Show

    A concerto for accordion and orchestra & the Persian tar gets Comfortable with jazz

    28/08/2026 | 54 mins.
    With a recent concerto for amplified accordion and orchestra and another for more than 60 recorders Holly Harrison clearly loves a challenge. She shares why she enjoys writing for new instruments, and how she composed a work that will be performed by everyone from virtuosos to second-grade students.
    Hamed Sadeghi has released two albums this year, each of which fuses his instrument, the Persian tar, with different Western traditions. The latest, Comfortable, features some of Sydney's best jazz musicians, and Hamed talks to Andy about collaboration, improvisation, and poetry.
    InsideOut, composed by Holly Harrison, will be featured in upcoming concerts by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, and Western Australian Symphony Orchestra, all featuring James Crabb. The world premiere of Harrison's Frog Hollow will be performed at the Sydney Opera House on September 23, as part of the Festival of Instrumental Music.
    Hamed Sadeghi will be performing Comfortable at the City Recital Hall in Sydney on September 5.
    Music heard in this program:
    Title: Slack RopeArtist: Hamed SadeghiComposer: Hamed SadeghiAlbum: ComfortableLabel: Independent release
    Title: bend/boogie/breakArtist: Offspring Ensemble Composer: Holly HarrisonAlbum: Offspring Bites 3: En MasseLabel: Independent release
    Title: Balderdash for String QuartetArtist: Goldmund QuartetComposer: Holly HarrisonAlbum: Live Recording
    Title: Los Ojos Del CondorArtist: Hermanos GutiérrezComposer: Hermanos GutiérrezAlbum: Los Ojos Del CondorLabel: Easy Eye Sound
    Title: InheritanceArtist: Hamed SadeghiComposer: Hamed SadeghiAlbum: ComfortableLabel: Independent release
    Title: Before the StormArtist: Hamed SadeghiComposer: Hamed SadeghiAlbum: ComfortableLabel: Independent release
    Title: StrawberriesArtist: Robert ForsterComposer: Robert ForsterAlbum: StrawberriesLabel: Tapete Records 
    The Music Show is made on Gadigal, Gundungurra, and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country Country
    Technical production by Antonia Gauci
  • The Music Show

    Dolly Parton (1946-2026)

    28/08/2026 | 54 mins.
    Dolly Parton said she wrote over three thousand songs, so we can barely begin to honour her extraordinary songwriting in just one hour.
    From her early country duets with Porter Wagoner, to the extraordinary purple patch that brought us Jolene and I Will Always Love You (allegedly written on the same day), to lending her voice and country music bona fides to Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter record, her impact on the musical landscape is hard to overstate.
    Her image was genuinely iconic, modelled after sex workers in her Tennessee hometown, and her impact on literacy, public health, and human rights will be felt far beyond Appalachia for generations to come. 
    She inspired working class people, women, and the LGBTQIA+ community, and did it all by being herself, on purpose. 
    Singer songwriter Fanny Lumsden, and musician and broadcaster (and sometimes host of The Music Show) Alice Keath are Andy’s guests to unpack Dolly Parton’s musical and cultural impact.
    Music heard in the show:
    Dumb Blonde from Hello, I’m Dolly (1969)
    Coat of Many Colours from Coat of Many Colours (1971) 
    Just Someone I Used to Know from Porter Wayne and Dolly Rebecca (with Porter Wagoner, 1970)
    Jolene from Jolene (1974)
    I Will Always Love You from Jolene (1974)
    9 to 5 from 9 to 5 and Odd Jobs (1980)
    Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos) from 9 to 5 and Odd Jobs (1980)
    The Seeker from Dolly (1975)
    After the Gold Rush from Trio II (1999)
    Little Sparrow from Little Sparrow (2001)
    Long As I Can See the Light (feat. John Fogerty) from Rockstar (2023)
    TYRANT, DOLLY P, JOLENE (Beyonce, featuring Dolly Parton) from COWBOY CARTER (2024)
    Light of a Clear Blue Morning from New Harvest… First Gathering (1977)
    The Music Show is made on Gadigal, Gundungurra, and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country
    Technical production by Antonia Gauci, Tim Jenkins, and Tim Traeger
  • The Music Show

    The poetry of aja monet and Thomas Meadowcroft on composing for sound effects and orchestra

    21/08/2026 | 54 mins.
    "I think if we saw every conversation as music, we would drastically shift the course of history."  So says the poet and performer aja monet. For her latest record, the color of rain, monet worked with Meshell Ndegecello, Justin Brown, and a whole host of musical collaborators to create something that spans genre, but has seen her named as one of the early headliners of the Melbourne International Jazz Festival.
    From the quietest footsteps to the loudest explosions, foley artists craft the sounds that shape a movie, but their work usually leaves them behind the scenes. In his latest composition, Hollywood Parsifals, Thomas Meadowcroft is putting 2 foley artists centre stage with the MSO, and exploring what happens when you combine their skill at sound generation with a full orchestra.
    Rubiks Collective is presenting Thomas Meadowcroft's Love Songs Without Subjects at the Melbourne Recital Centre on August 25.
    Music heard in this program:
    Title: Love Songs Without SubjectsArtist:  asamisimasa, Ditte Marie Bræin, and Thomas Meadowcroft Composer: Thomas MeadowcroftAlbum: Love Songs Without SubjectsLabel: Sofa Music
    Title: say it with your chestArtist: aja monetComposer: Aja Monet, Burniss Earl Travis IIAlbum: the color of rainLabel: Drink Sum Wtr
    Title: i know that i don't knowArtist: aja monetComposer: aja monet, Justin BrownAlbum: the color of rainLabel: Drink Sum Wtr
    Title: for the CongoArtist: aja monetComposer: aja monet, Justin Brown, Abe RoundsAlbum: the color of rainLabel: Drink Sum Wtr
    Title: hollyweirdArtist: aja monetComposer: aja monet, Burniss Earl Travis II, Daniel Mintseris, Josh Johnson, Justin BrownAlbum: the color of rainLabel: Drink Sum Wtr
    Title: War Western Thriller Horror Romantic Comedy Crime Science Fiction, Hollywood ParsifalsArtist:  MSO, John Simpson, and Eugene UghettiComposer: Thomas MeadowcroftAlbum: Live recording
    The Music Show is made on Gadigal, Gundungurra, and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country Country
    Technical production by Harvey O'Sullivan
  • The Music Show

    James Ellis Ford made a Mercury Prize nominated record in a chemotherapy ward

    21/08/2026 | 54 mins.
    James Ellis Ford is better known as James Ford, producer for artists like Pulp, Arctic Monkeys, Florence and the Machine and Fontaines D.C. When you add the Ellis, he's a solo artist making his own music and he joins Andy to talk about his latest album Lost In Another World, and the War Child charity album HELP(2) which he made during his time as a 'boy in the bubble' of a quarantined chemotherapy ward. 
    Cafe of the Gate of Salvation are old friends of The Music Show: a gospel choir celebrating their 40th birthday. They join Andy to sing live in the studio, and look back at their history.
    And Andy remembers Belinda Webster, the producer, engineer and singular force behind Australia's art music label Tall Poppies. She died last week at the age of 74, and we'll hear her interviewed on The Music Show in 2006.
    Celebrate Cafe of the Gate of Salvation’s birthday with them (if you can get a ticket!) on Sunday 23 August at the Factory Theatre in Sydney.
    Music heard in the show:
    Title: Polonaise for keyboard in F major, BWV Anh. 117aArtist: Geoffrey TozerComposer: Bach, J.S. (maybe)Album: For ChildrenLabel: Tall Poppies
    Title: The lovely dawnArtist: Aura Go, Ian MunroComposer: Komalkova, EkaterinaAlbum: I was dancing with a gnatLabel: Tall Poppies
    Title: Did You Ever Want To Go To Your Own Funeral?, OvertonesArtist: James Ellis FordComposer: Ford, James EllisAlbum: Lost in Another WorldLabel: Domino
    Title: Sunday MorningArtist: Beth GibbonsComposer: Reed, LouAlbum: HELP(2)Label: War Child Records
    Title: Be ThankfulArtist: Cafe of the Gate of Salvation, Lisa Spence (soloist)Composer: Yancy, Marvin; Jackson, ChuckPerformed live in The Music Show studio
    Title: One StepArtist: Cafe of the Gate of SalvationComposer: Vails, DonaldPerformed live in The Music Show studio
    Title: say it with your chestArtist: aja monetComposer: monet, ajaAlbum: the color of rainLabel: drink sum wtr
    The Music Show is made on Gadigal, Gundungurra, and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country
    Technical production by Harvey O’Sullivan
More Music podcasts
About The Music Show
All kinds of music and all kinds of musicians in conversation with Andrew Ford.
Podcast website

Listen to The Music Show, Dolly Parton's America and many other podcasts from around the world with the radio.net app

Get the free radio.net app

  • Stations and podcasts to bookmark
  • Stream via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth
  • Supports Carplay & Android Auto
  • Many other app features
The Music Show: Podcasts in Family
  • Podcast Classic Flow
    Classic Flow
    Health & Wellness, Music