Over the last 20 years Fred Smith has emerged as one of Australia’s most interesting songwriters. He has been all over the joint: working on peace keeping missions in Afghanistan and the South Pacific, touring in America and travelling the Australian festival circuit.
He is the subject of the film Bougainville Sky about his time in the war-torn islands of the South Pacific where his work as a musician and radio broadcaster contributed to the success of the world’s first unarmed peace keeping force.
Fred was the first Australian diplomat to be posted to Uruzgan in July of 2009. He wrote a powerful collection of songs about the realities of life for soldiers and civilians in this difficult war, recently released on a high acclaimed album called Dust of Uruzgan.
He has put out about 10 CDs, two of which won National Film and Sound Archives Awards. Some of these were joint efforts with Liz Frencham and the Spooky Men’s Chorale.