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Kate Hennessy

Kate Hennessy

Kate Hennessy is a freelance writer and editor based in Sydney. She writes about music, arts and travel and teaches at the Australian Writers' Centre. 

Kate Hennessy reviews 'The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic' by Jessica Hopper

June–July 2016, no. 382 25 May 2016
Chicago-based music critic Jessica Hopper disdains introductory tedium. Were I to mimic her style, we'd be off and running by now, or grappling with a question that shoots straight to the topic's heart. When this anthology's forty-two think-pieces, reviews, and ephemera first appeared in Village Voice, Chicago Reader, SPIN and elsewhere, a few words of context may have preceded each of them. Here, ... (read more)

Kate Hennessy reviews the Barunga Festival

ABR Arts 19 June 2015
Opposite the outdoor basketball court, the Karungkarni Arts Centre is selling dot paintings by Gurindji woman Biddy Wavehill. Later at the riverside acoustic stage, Peter Garrett steps unexpectedly from the long grass to sing ‘From Little Things Big Things Grow’ with Paul Kelly – a song about the Wave Hill walk-offs in the 1960s lead by Gurindji man Vincent Lingiari. At the Barunga Festival ... (read more)

Laura Jean

ABR Arts 28 April 2015
For every transcendental moment live music delivers, there are keenly felt disappointments. Like loving an album down to its last breath, then finding the lyrics inaudible at a gig – muddied by bad sound or over-loud strumming. It seems a churlish reason to feel deflated but who hasn’t felt it? Being able to hear the words is especially important for the folk music of Melbourne’s Laura Jean ... (read more)