Singer-songwriter Fred Smith is a distinctly Canberran phenomenon: an acclaimed purveyor of finely crafted contemporary folk songs who is also a diligent and well-regarded public servant. Starting out in Canberra's underground arts scene during the late 1990s, Smith has gone on to carve out a reputation as one of Australia's most outstanding songwriters, winning widespread praise for his ability to capture the human experience of great world historical events. As John Huxley observed in the Sydney Morning Herald in 2011, "the music of Fred Smith comes straight from the front line … raw, ribald, but also capable of moving grown men and women to tears."
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As he prepares to launch Home, his ninth album, Smith describes his career as a process of "constructive indecision." There's been the usual conflict between the allure of a life devoted solely to making music and the need to keep a roof over his growing family's head. In the end, though, Smith's experiences as a diplomat have provided rich grist for the song-writing mill. "For me," he says, "that engagement with the real world informs what I do and keeps me relevant and involved."
The proof can be found on the records. Bagarap Empires, released to widespread acclaim in 2002, is a response to the three years Smith spent as a civilian peace monitor in Bougainville that manages to be both amusing and haunting in equal measure. Smith's 2011 album, Dust of Uruzgan, was inspired by his experience working alongside Australian forces during an 18-month posting to Afghanistan. The album, and a stage show based on the material, touched a nerve for audiences seeking a more engaged understanding of the conflict than they found in the news. The album received warm praise from critics, including favourable comparisons with Australian songwriting legends John Schumann and Eric Bogle.
His latest album, Home, marks a departure for Fred Smith. It's a much more personal record than Dust of Uruzgan or his 2009 release with the Spooky Men's Chorale, Urban Sea Shanties. "We all have some restlessness to appease and or face down before we can let it go and settle in one place with one person long enough to build a life," Smith remarks. "It's that transition I'm talking about with this album."
Recorded in guitarist Shane O'Mara's Yikesville Studio in Melbourne, Home brings together new songs with older work that Smith has chosen to revisit. They range from the malarial delirium of the Seasick Song, written in Bougainville in 1999, to the poignant Beautiful Girl, written earlier this year for his newborn daughter, Oly. The album's second track Going Home is particularly moving, capturing the relief and anxiety felt by soldiers preparing for their return to life at home after the winding up of the Australian presence in Uruzgan.
Though there's nothing as straightforward as a theme to hold these seemingly disparate songs together, there is certainly a mood: quiet, reflective, perhaps a bit nostalgic. "I've had a daughter recently and that's part of it all," he remarks. "It's been a nice time to be at home."
"Home" for Smith is currently Canberra's Inner North. Though the city of his birth only makes fleeting appearances in his lyrics, Smith credits Canberra with providing a receptive audience for his music. "I think Canberrans have a sophisticated understanding of the world that goes beyond polemic politics into something more nuanced. It's a good audience, a conversational audience that's interested in stories and the broader world." May the conversation long continue.
