Much-loved Mutti Mutti, Yort Yorta and Nari Nari Songman Kutcha Edwards will tell his stories and share his music in a unique experience for one night only in Naarm next year.
The multi award-winning singer-songwriter and activist is bringing 60 cycles around the sun - Celebrating a Lifetime of Song and Stories to the Melbourne Recital Centre on April 17, sharing the stage with collaborators, First Nations talent and leading names in the city's alternative scene.
Born in Balranald, New South Wales, on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River, Kutcha has been a figure in Australian music since the 1990s, both as a solo artist and as a member of groups such as Naarm band Watbalimba in his early years, and later as a founding member of Black Arm Band.
His music and voice has carried a powerful message across the decades, including those of his own experiences as a member of the Stolen Generations, with advocacy and social commentary alongside personal reflections.
Since 2002, Naarm community radio station 3CR has broadcast Beyond the Bars live from Victorian Prisons during NAIDOC Week, giving incarcerated First Nations men and women a chance to share their thoughts and voices, with Kutcha a founding presenter.
At the Recital Centre in November, Kutcha will sit down in-conversation with long-time friend Brian Nankervis with a special guests list of past collaborators, contemporaries and new Indigenous talent performing and speaking to their connection with one of his songs, in the first of two sets to the evening.
MO'JU, Bumpy and Tjimba Possum-Burns are among those joining Kutcha on the reflection of his work.
Later, 21st century Melbourne alternative favourites Cash Savage and the Last Drinks will accompany Kutcha to bring a new spin to those stories.
"How do you squeeze 60 years of life into a 30 word press statement? You can't! But here we go," Kutcha said.
"A life of ups and downs; but more importantly it's been about relationships that have been forged in those sixty years that sing to the spirit.
"To hear about those relationships through songs and yarns come join me in celebrating 60 cycles around the sun on the 17th April."
Kutcha performed a similarly collaborative and reflective evening at the Sydney Opera House earlier this year.
Tickets for 60 cycles around the sun - Celebrating a Lifetime of Song and Stories went on sale Wednesday, 3 December.
Kutcha Edwards is Deadly Award, National NAIDOC Person of the Year, and Melbourne Prize for Music winner, and inductee of the National Indigenous Music Awards Hall of Fame, among other honours.
