Feel the air move under the weight of the electric bass, the truncheon ring of the rhythm guitar, the sheer purpose in the singer’s invocations of unyielding nature and boiling human passions. Yeah. Peter Garrett’s back. It could not be anyone else.

“The guitar had been sitting in the corner looking pretty forlorn,” Garrett says, after his decade as the Labor member for Kingsford Smith. “Towards the end of writing the book, I started to feel like an invisible hand was directing me across there and a few little melodies and themes started to pop out.”

In an echo of a process going back decades, it was a trip to the outback that fanned the flames of the project. Between the stars and the red dirt campfires of the western desert, Garrett played Rotsey his first few ideas and found the encouragement and a trusted sounding board to push forward.

There was no intention of assembling a supergroup spanning several generations of Australian rock. But by the time they convened for two weeks at Garth Porter’s Rancom Street Studios (“in my old electorate,” Garrett notes with a characteristic taste for poetry in action), that’s kind of what they had.

An appreciation of Courtney Barnett and The Drones’ records cemented engineer/ producer Burke Reid. The powerful keyboard component of The Jezabels led to a call to Heather Shannon. Garrett picked Mark Wilson’s sinewy bass from a collection of new music that came his way. Jamie Hutchings from Sydney outfit Infinity Broke added guitar to several tracks. RocKwiz drummer Pete Luscombe was the pro all-rounder who could lay the beats down fast.

With the crunch of Oils guitarist Martin Rotsey at his back and his three daughters singing back-up, the tone is both distinctively strident and unexpectedly tender as one of our most thoughtful, deliberate artists reflects on the world inside and out to find his resolve – surprise –­­ utterly unbowed.

A homecoming in so many ways, A VERSION OF NOW is simultaneously the work of a new man and the artist we’ve always known, as songs of gratitude and dissent, high passion and staunch resistance collide, as always, with a steely eye on a better future.

 

Peter Garrett & The Alter Egos – ‘A Version of Now Tour’ – on sale now

With special Guest Abbe May (all shows except Darwin*)

For all ticketing please visit www.petergarrett.com.au

 

THU 21 JULY | ARTBAR, PERTH WA

FRI 22 JULY | SETTLERS TAVERN, MARGARET RIVER WA

SAT 23 JULY | QUEENS PARK THEATRE, GERALDTON WA (ALL AGES)

FRI 29 JULY | THE TIVOLI, BRISBANE QLD – SOLD OUT

SAT 30 JUL | SOLBAR, MAROOCHYDORE QLD

SAT 06 AUG | THE GOV, ADELAIDE SA – SOLD OUT

SUN 07 AUG | DARWIN FESTIVAL, DARWIN NT (ALL AGES) w/special guest Gawurra *

THU 11 AUG | THE FACTORY THEATRE, SYDNEY NSW – SOLD OUT

FRI 12 AUG | BELMONT 16’S, BELMONT NSW

SAT 13 AUG | UNIVERSITY OF WOLLONGONG, WOLLONGONG NSW

SUN 14 AUG | THE PLAYHOUSE, CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE, ACT – SOLD OUT

WED 17 AUG | ATHENAEUM THEATRE, MELBOURNE VIC (ALL AGES) – SOLD OUT

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