WOMAD

Deborah Conway & Willy Zygier

From Australia

Deborah Conway enjoys a career that encompasses recording, performing and writing songs and has done so ever since her first band Do Re Mi topped the charts in 1985 with the single Man Overboard and album Domestic Harmony.Conway’s first solo album String Of Pearls (1991), reached platinum sales, the second, Bitch Epic (1993), achieved gold sales. This was Conway’s debut collaboration with Willy Zygier. They went on to make Ultrasound (1995) a band project with the late Paul Hester of Crowded House; My Third Husband (1997) written and recorded in London; Exquisite Stereo (2000) featuring a duet with Neil Finn; PC – The Songs Of Patsy Cline (2001) and Only The Bones (best of, 2002). Summertown is Conway’s 8th solo studio album but the first where Zygier has put his name on the front cover.Conway has also made high profile screen and stage detours along the way: director Peter Greenaway (Draughtsman's Contract) cast her in his film Prospero's Books as the goddess Juno, singing the score by Michael Nyman; Pete Townshend of The Who cast her in his musical, The Iron Man, alongside Nina Simone and John Lee Hooker; and Geoffrey Rush directed her in his Belvoir Street theatre production of Aristophanes Frogs alongside Toni Collette. In 2001 Conway starred as the title role in Always… Patsy Cline, touring nationally to rave reviews.Conway demonstrated yet again what a consummate performer she is when “Dreaming Transportation”, (composer Andrée Greenwell, Librettist Jordie Albiston) enjoyed it’s world premier at the Sydney Festival 2003, was recorded by the ABC for broadcast and ran another season at the Sydney Opera House in March 2004. The last few years have seen an increasing depth and variety of collaborative work; from writing with classical composer George Dreyfus, to recording with Brisbane band george; from appearing with Paul Grabowsky and the Australian Art Orchestra to reinterpreting Paul Kelly for the Women At The Well compilation. Conway is one of those rare artists who are constantly reinventing themselves. Summertown, released in 2004 with Zygier, is a return to an acoustic based sound and their most seductive offering of songs yet, rendered with warmth and charm. Most recently Conway has devised, produced and performed in Broad, a piece exploring singers and songwriting starring alongside, Katie Noonan, Clare Bowditch, Sara Storer and Ruby Hunter. Her latest production of Broad has just toured nationally, it featured Mia Dyson, Ella Hooper, Kate Miller-Heidke and Melinda Schneider. The shows were sell out and received standing ovations in all of the 6 cities played.