PORT Stephens Libraries are presenting a rare opportunity for residents to experience Australian stories in song form.

Michael Fix and Mark Cryle join forces, creating a unique musical perspective on Australian history.

People and events are brought to life in song; whether singing of the Aboriginal fast bowler Eddie Gilbert, or the doughty St Patrick Day’s protesters confronting police batons in Brisbane in 1948, or Ronald Ryan, the last hanged man in Australia.

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When Mark sings about visiting Sideshow Alley at the Brisbane Ekka as a child and a Dad, every word rings true without any cloying sentimentality.

Both Mark and Michael are multi-instrumentalists and seasoned performers, and both are passionate about keeping Australia’s chequered history alive – the good, the bad and the ugly – revealed through a catalogue of important original songs.

The result is a powerful insight into the thoughts and feelings of the people involved, as well as a unique and fresh understanding of the events themselves.

Mark Cryle was once described by the Courier Mail’s Noel Mengel as “one of the best songwriters in Australia”, has a PhD in Australian history and first came to prominence in the 1990s as the principal songwriter with the band Spot the Dog.

When you put an acoustic guitar into Michael Fix’s hands and the emotional possibilities of music are suddenly released.

Over the past 30 years, he’s released 16 albums, several DVD’s, songbooks, and EPs, and has established himself as one of Australia’s finest guitarists and composers, (with over 1000 published works), performing regularly at festivals across Australia, Europe, UK, and Asia.

Michael has won numerous awards for his music, including three Golden Guitars for Instrumental of the Year.

You can enjoy this free event at Raymond Terrace Library on 22 April from 11am-12.30pm and at Tomaree Library from 3.30pm-5.00pm.

Mark Cryle told News Of The Area, “This is the first time we have been performing in this area and it is a show that we are putting together which is based on songs from Australian history, we are taking the stories and characters on the road, it might not be the stories you are expecting but the history is woven into the stories.”

By Marian SAMPSON