Tom Woodward is a Canberra-born Australian singer-songwriter and performer who writes and performs acoustic blues and gutter-poetry. He is active as a solo artist and performs regularly.

Early life and first performances

Born in Canberra in 1984, Woodward writes his first song at the age of eight. By the age of fourteen, he is performing regularly at minors nights at The Gypsy Bar, where he begins developing his stagecraft. He later forms a band called The Henchmen while at college.

Career

The Henchmen go on to release a self-titled feature album and tour Australia. Woodward then turns to solo work and releases a six-track EP, 32-20 Blues, in 2006 on Alice Moreau Records. The title track is named after an old Robert Johnson song and is the only cover he records.

In the second half of 2006, he sets up his own label, Bayonet Records. His debut solo album, Blue Day Requiem, is self-produced, recorded on Bayonet Records and features a number of Australia’s best musicians. Woodward writes more than 500 songs from childhood onward, and can still perform at least a quarter of them.

Style and themes

Woodward describes his work as acoustic smut for the damp and sodden, with songs inspired by suspicion, mortality, melancholia and the macabre. His writing also reflects ideas about existential wonder, human creativity and the freedom for people to imagine and create without limiting others. Blue Day Requiem is presented as both celebratory and mournful, and as a view of life that accepts darkness as part of human experience.

Live work and releases

Woodward performs regularly and appears at the Australian National Folk Festival, followed by a run of shows across Australia. Blue Day Requiem is described as a nationally released record and as one that costs him considerable sleep and manual labour to make.