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Special Guest: What She's HavingHot off the heels of a new album, an appearance at Kangaroo Valley Folk Festival — and an aborted national tour due to a family illness — Canberran gothic country songwriter Tom Woodward will be performing his stripped back fingerpicked acoustic songs at Smiths Alternative, every Sunday afternoon in May.
Tom Woodward has been writing and releasing his unique brand of baroque folk-rock, cosmic country psychedelia, and fuzzed-out lo-fi gems on numerous albums and EPs for the last two decades.
Tom honed his craft in the thriving arts & music scene of Canberra and Melbourne in the mid-2000s before taking his original songs to audiences around Australia, Japan, and the USA.
In 2023, Tom put down the guitar and embarked on a two month walk up the east coast of Australia, ending with a hospital stay and a hard-earned respect for the fragility of life. A year and a half later, he got deported as an illegal alien from the USA. Since then he has released two albums, toured Australia both solo and with his band, the True Delusions, and has just finished recording an album of 11 new acoustic songs, “Wastrels”.
The first single will be launched on the final night of his May Residency at Smiths.
Tom's mid-2010s album Beautiful Shadows received critical acclaim in publications such as For Folk's Sake and The Huffington Post and earned him a Canberra Critics Circle award. 2025’s Come Come Karma!!! received great reviews across Australia and North America. He has performed at the National Folk Festival, The Multicultural Fringe Festival, and racked up for supports for such luminaries as Tim Rogers, Abbe May, The Drones, Mikelangelo & the Black Sea Gentlemen, Cash Savage & the Last Drinks, Machine Translations, Steve Poltz, and many more.
PRESS
"It's folk rock, but there's nothing quaint about it. It's got the dusty snarl of Dylan's Highway 61, the grizzled edges of The Band, and the weary, fatalistic sneer of someone who's seen the eviction notice more than once."
BMA Magazine on 'Termination Day'
"It’s a hypnotic journey that grapples with the uncomfortable truths of survival."
Country Music News International on 'If You Wanna Stay Alive'
"The driving rhythm of the song suggests the relentlessness that Woodward is pushing against, while the layered vocals in the refrain, especially towards the end, suggest we’re not alone in what’s happening, that we have company."
Sunburnt County Music on 'Termination Day'
"A chaotic, punk-charged shot at reinvention."
Honk Magazine on 'Phoney Messiah'
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Event Venue
Smith's Alternative, 78 Alinga St, City ACT 2601, Australia, Canberra
Tickets
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