Shane Howard, Retrospect: Collected Songs 1982-2003,
Double CD (Cat.No.GR040405)

Reviewed by Jack Humphrys

From his time as lead singer of the band Goanna to his many years as a solo artist Shane Howard has proved himself to be one of Australia’s more interesting and committed singer-songwriters. This compilation has signature tunes such as ‘Solid Rock’ (with its theme of ‘White Australia has a Black History’) and ‘Let the Franklin Flow’, part of the important campaigns of the 1980s. For the 50-year-old Howard, the 2005 Port Fairy Folk Festival Artist of the Year, sees artists having a vital role in challenging injustice: ‘I believe the role of the artist is not just to make decorations. Craftsmen can do that, the artist and the poet have a much more important role and, yes, their role is to be social commentators.’ (The Age, 2/12/04). Only recently, with the assistance of music students and their teacher from a South Australian primary school near the Murray Mouth he has updated ‘Let the Franklin Flow’ to ‘Let the Murray Flow’ in a community music project.

This approach is also reflected in his researching of his Irish heritage and the fact that his great-grandfather was involved in the Eureka Uprising at Bakery Hill, Ballarat, in 1854. Songs such as ‘Rebel Song’ and ‘Silver Mines’ reflect these twin themes. Shane Howard was a performer at the ‘Echoes of Freedom’World Music Festival at Ballarat in December, 2004, celebrating 150 years since the Eureka Uprising that led to so much important change in the colonial society of the time.

Website: www.shanehoward.com.au