Overview

A living songbook more than four years in the making, Andrew Ford's hymnal brings together the words of sixteen contemporary Australian writers – poets, essayists, and folksingers. Born in a time of fire and darkness, grief, and loss, and then fragile, tender hope, Red Dirt Hymns are songs of awe and praise, dedicated not to a god, but to the land. Red Dirt Hymns is performed by the ever-daring voices of Luminescence Chamber Singers alongside local youth choirs, and two category-defying instrumentalists: electric guitarist Harley Coleman, and cellist Freya Schack-Arnott.

Songs that span art music, folk song, country ballad, and Aussie rock, unfold to the evocative imagery of Sammy Hawker, whose art is created within the fabric of country itself: saltwater, limestone and eucalypt. From Ellen van Neerven's dark clouds to John Kinsella's abundant gardens, Red Dirt Hymns does what a hymnal is meant to do: it draws us closer – to each other, and to the light and shade of our wide brown land.

Red Dirt Hymns is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW. This project has also been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body. Red Dirt Hymns was premiered at the 2024 Canberra International Music Festival, at the National Museum of Australia, and was awarded a 2024 Canberra Critics Award.