Former Goanna frontman Shane Howard is playing at Newport on Friday, marking the re-launch of the Newport Fiddle and Folk Club’s Live at Newport music series.
The Shane Howard Trio will perform songs from the Deeper South album, a fusion of folk and Celtic genres.
“It’s a bit like Ulysses returning from the Trojan War, you know,” Howard said. “He’s older, he’s wiser, he’s riddled with self-doubt, he’s not quite sure about his place in the world and he’s not quite sure where the world is at. And I guess I feel a bit like that myself.”
Howard recently entered the spotlight when the Reclaim Australia group used Goanna hit Solid Rock to promote its cause.
Howard, a descendent of Irish refugees, had just returned from a six-week stint in Ireland when told about the use of his song at Reclaim Australia rallies.
“I was confronted and upset by that … it was a song that spoke out strongly about the racism that Aboriginal people had experienced,” he said. “I did some research on Reclaim Australia and there’s some very disturbing philosophy at the back of that.
“My people came here from Ireland in the early 1850s as refugees from the Great Hunger when 1.5 million people starved to death and 1.5 million fled,” Howard said.
“For us to turn our backs … and say we don’t want refugees coming into our country is an absolute dereliction of our history.”
The Shane Howard Trio performs at Newport Bowls Club at 7pm.
Details: www.nffc.org.au
