You can’t have a conversation about Australia’s most important musicians without mentioning Kutcha Edwards.
From his work as a member of Blackfire in the ’90s to fronting the Kutcha Edwards Band with dozens of collaborations in between, the acclaimed Mutti Mutti, Yorta Yorta, Nari Nari Songman has touched generations of fans with his message of empathy, understanding and peace.
Now, Melbourne Recital Centre is hosting a one-night-only event celebrating Kutcha Edwards’ 60 Cycles Around The Sun. Full of storytelling and song, the show sees Edwards look back on his life, from his childhood as part of the Stolen Generation to his career as one of Australia’s most prominent figures.
Kutcha Edwards – 60 Cycles Around The Sun
- 17 April 2026
- Melbourne Recital Centre – Elisabeth Murdoch Hall
- Tickets here
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“The first half will be the Roast and Toast of Kutcha Edwards – individuals interpreting about six or seven songs of mine in their own way with my band,” he tells me.
Some of the musicians involved include Wiradyuri and Filipinx artist Mo’Ju, who will be taking on the track I Know Where I’m Going, and Noongar singer Bumpy, who Edwards says he has known “before she was born” – he met her grandfather, Uncle Noel Yarram, while working at the Central Gippsland Aboriginal Cooperative as a teenager.
The second half of the night sees Edwards take to the stage for a musical performance alongside Cash Savage and The Last Drinks.
“When I first met Cash, it was because of Jack Charles, my dear first cousin,” says Edwards. “We’d grown up not knowing our connection because of interference, if you know what I mean by that. And once I found out how close we both are genealogically, I’d jump at any opportunity.”
Charles brought him along to see Cash perform, and Edwards says it immediately felt right. “Just being in Cash’s presence, something resonated, something clicked.” In the years since, they’ve worked on multiple projects together.
“When Melbourne Recital Centre asked me to, in effect, do something there, we jumped at the opportunity to do it with Cash Savage and the Last Drinks again.”
As he prepares for the event, I ask if he’s been feeling sentimental. He tells me sentimental isn’t quite the right word.
“When I go back into not my memory, but back into my spirit, as that young kid in that institution, denied my rightful journey in life… You know, I explain it in a way that’s like redirecting a river – the river in me. Being born on the Murrumbidgee and at 18 months old being removed from that river, metaphorically, the river in me was redirected. It’s not my natural course to live here in Melbourne,” he says.
As he muses on the path that’s brought him to where he is today, he also reflects on the purpose of his work and what it means to him.
“When I really think about my job, my job is to drop that imaginary pebble in the imaginary pond. And what that does is it creates the ripple. The ripple of hope in dropping that rock, that pebble in the water, creates thought, creates an energy, evokes, hopefully, empathy,” he says.
“Once you start questioning the validity of why governments do what they do, then it can create change, and it can create empathy. And if you don’t know what it’s like to be me, ask me what it’s like to be me. That’s what performance is really all about.”
“But I’m not a performer,” he continues,” I don’t consider myself a performer. I’m a Songman who’s telling the world what it is like to be me. I’m not putting on a show. When I’m being me, my true sense of me, all I’m doing is creating a conversation that may never be had again.”
Nearly the entirety of his discography is autobiographical, telling the story of himself and his family. “I’m here to fight for the dignity and respect of my mother and my father. I can’t imagine anybody doing what they did to my children.”
Edwards tells me he’ll have plenty of his people there on the night for both celebration and support.
“It’ll be a beautiful night. A lot of my family will be in attendance again. We’ve gone over and above our allocated comp tickets, and I’ve bought about – I don’t know – 50 tickets myself… The emotions will ebb and flow, and they will understand why,” he says.
“Listening to the lyrics that explain my journey, they will understand why the lyric is that lyric, because they’ve seen me through those moments.”
For more information and to get your tickets to Kutcha Edwards – 60 Cycles Around The Sun, head here.
This article was made in partnership with Melbourne Recital Centre.
