In the face of an increasingly fragmented music scene riddled with samples, it is easy to lose sight of the songbook that binds us, or any semblance of meaning in its lyrics.

This was rammed home by the recent COLORBOND® commercial, which featured only a fragment of Sarah Blasko singing the refrain from GANGajang’s Sounds of Then (This is Australia), thereby obscuring songwriter Mark Callaghan’s “brick veneer drama” and the culture shock he experienced as a teenager after moving from England to Bundaberg and his parents’ marriage crumbled.

Thank goodness, then, for Michael Paynter, whose genuine love for the Australian songbook has motivated him to take it down off the shelf and give it a good dusting, restoring it to its pride of place and reminding us what gems it contains.

Michael Paynter in the Great Australian Songbook Live 2026. Photo © Hayley Stafford

Starting out as seven concerts piggybacking of Jimmy Barnes’ recent tour, Paynter’s self-promoted solo show was a leap of faith that has certainly paid off.

Now extended to 25 shows, the song lineup changes night after night, with Paynter chopping and changing as he dips into his repertoire of over 50 songs. So, while Sounds of Then doesn’t feature at this performance, it could well turn up in the future.

Paynter makes it clear that this is not THE great Australian songbook, but rather his own playlist of songs that meant something to him growing up, that he enjoys playing … or that caused him to run a red light when he heard them for the first time, as in the case of Silverchair’s Straight Lines.

“It’s a bitch to sing,” he says, introducing the 2007 chart topper. He nails it, later admitting to having been starstruck when he got to work with the Presets’ Julian Hamilton who co-wrote the song.

The entire concert is stripped back, with just the bare minimum of live mixing that showcases what a master at his craft he is. It also draws out the beauty of the melodies and the poetry of the lyrics, which can sometimes get “buried in production”, as he says of Sia’s Chandelier, which he more than does justice to.

Special Guest Mahalia Barnes and Michael Paynter in the Great Australian Songbook Live 2026. Photo © Hayley Stafford

Paynter’s artistry is flawless. As he moves from keyboard to guitar and back again, his electrifying rock tenor is on full display, threaded with soulful riffs and a sultry croon. It’s all underpinned by a pop sensibility that draws on the intimate, polished sheen of R&B and the raw, improvisatory power of Gospel – a combination that never compromises his pitch-perfect intonation, clean attack or stratospheric upper register.

As the concert unfolds, it becomes clear that the chosen songwriters captured as much of the Australian identity as, say, the novels of Ruth Park and D’Arcy Niland. Paynter proves a worthy custodian of that legacy, as did playwright Kate Mulvany in her adaptations of Niland’s The Shiralee and Park’s The Harp in the South and Playing Beatie Bow for Sydney Theatre Company.

The original works are handled with tender loving care, their currency and relevance maintained through nuanced reimaginings that preserve them for generations to come.

From the outset, Paynter has us hanging on every word as he sings a fragment of I Am Australian by the Seeker’s Bruce Woodley and the Bushwackers’ Dobe Newton.

He then holds us in thrall for the next 90 minutes, his artistry matched by his disarming personality and humility.

Michael Paynter in the Great Australian Songbook Live 2026. Photo © Hayley Stafford

Along the way we are treated to Jimmy Barnes’ Working Class Man and Cold Chisel’s Flame Trees – both a show of gratitude for the support Barnes has shown Paynter over the years.

We hear Paynter’s favourite John Farnham song, Age of Reason (by Dragon’s Todd Hunter), which he says he used to play during every warmup before Jesus Christ Superstar. Sung at the keyboard with a hypnotic bass-clef pulse in the left hand, it immediately reveals the song’s anthemic quality.

Switching to guitar, he then performs Crazy in honour of Iva Davies, whose invitation to join Icehouse rescued Paynter from “wallowing in his own sickness” when he lost his record deal.

After a moment of levity in which he acknowledges the fist-pumping response of the audience, Paynter loses himself in the moment and keeps us on the edge of our seats as he draws out the song’s haunting harmonic ambiguity and chord progression.

Wolfmother’s The Joker and the Thief finds its way into the lineup thanks to Paynter’s wish to include a 12/8 shuffle song. He surprises us with a bluesy rendition of the rock banger and follows it with another Farnham classic, Angels.

It is truly remarkable how Paynter can evoke Farnham’s style, phrasing and attack without resorting to mimicry. His ability to capture the Aussie icon’s spirit and way of inhabiting a lyric bodes well for Paynter’s upcoming star turn in STC’s Whispering Jack – the John Farnham Musical.

Special Guest Mahalia Barnes in Michael Paynter’s Great Australian Songbook Live 2026. Photo © Hayley Stafford

Elsewhere, Paynter shifts gears with a deeply affecting and soulful reading of Natalie Imbruglia’a Torn. This is followed by Bachelor Girl’s Buses and Trains and Alex Lloyd’s Amazing, dedicated to the audience.

Bringing the audience to its feet, Mahalia Barnes, who was instrumental in Paynter being cast in Jesus Christ Superstar, makes an unheralded guest appearance (each concert features a special guest).

She joins Paynter in two extraordinary duets, including a transcendent rendition of Farnham’s A Touch of Paradise and Boys in Town – the first of two Divinyls’ hits on the program.

The second is the final encore Pleasure and Pain, which Paynter first sang when its co-writer and producer Mike Chapman was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. “The lyrics hit me in the face”, Paynter says, before proceeding to sing it at the keyboard, his backing just two pulsing chords and a goosebump-inducing progression.

It is the pinnacle of an afternoon spent at the summit of Australian songwriting with one of the finest voices this country has ever produced.

Michael Paynter’s Great Australian Songbook Tour 2026 is at The Foundry, Sydney, 22 & 23 April; The Regent Theatre, Richmond, NSW, 24 April; Lefty’s Music Hall, Brisbane, QLD, 2 & 3 May; Playhouse Theatre, Canberra, ACT, 8 May; Athenaeum Theatre, Melbourne, VIC, 15–29 May; Astor Theatre, Mount Lawley, Perth, WA, 3 June; Story House Theatre, Geelong, VIC, 13 June; Festival of Voices, Hobart, TAS, 10 & 11 July.