Neil Young. Markus Zusak. Stereo Story.

Which Neil Young song has helped Markus Zusak, author of The Book Thief, get words on the page for his next book, a novel that has been a dozen years in the making?

Postcard from the mixing desk

Stereo Stories now has postcards, designed by none other than Chris Rees (the man behind the fabulous Footy Enigmas designs).

Almanac Music: church, childhood, Dave Graney

Hobart graphic designer Chris Rees is known to more than a few Almanackers for his artwork, especially his images of footy enigmas from the 1970s and 1980s.

Chris is also a dab hand at telling a story, as he shows in his debut Stereo Story, inspired by the Dave Graney song That’s the Way It’s Gonna Be.

Almanac Music: Chuck Berry at Festival Hall 1975

The sweat, smoke, and cold misery of thousands of defeated fist-fighters never seems to leave the suspended air of Melbourne’s Festival Hall. Even though the venue’s famous boxing ring has been disassembled for tonight’s show, the hall’s echo-enhancing walls still reverberate with the tolling clang of the bell. It’s a big, bloodied, booming cavern.

I’m here as a wide-eyed 13 year old anticipating the presence of true rock’n’roll royalty.

Almanac Music: Cattle And Cane Stereo Story

John Butler (the pioneering Almanacker, not the muso with a trio) makes his Stereo Stories debut with a story inspired by Cattle And Cane by The Go-Betweens: a series of finely-crafted vignettes stemming from a trip last year to the Far North.

Almanac Music: Racing In The Street Stereo Story

As a teenage boy in a dark suburban room, I was a long way from the turnpikes of New Jersey. I didn’t have a job, a car or a girl, just an Apollo 10-speed bicycle and a dungeon I called my own. What on earth was I connecting with here?

Stereo Story: first time I heard State Trooper

Vin Maskell recalls the first time he heard Springsteen’s State Trooper, from the Nebraska album…the sixth song began, its guitar line pulsating like a fresh bruise.

Stereo Story: Rick Kane. Ben Lee. Good grief.

A mix tape for mourning? Rick Kane’s latest Stereo Story is typically candid and insightful.

First kiss: New Year’s Eve poem for an unknown song

Vin Maskell shifts the goalposts a little in this short poem about a long ago New Year’s Eve, a kiss, and table-tennis.

Stereo Story: Status Quo and Black Saturday

Rick Parfitt, singer and rhythm guitarist with Status Quo, died on December 24, aged 68.

Our partner site, Stereo Stories, pays tribute via a story about listening to Status Quo in the aftermath of surviving the Black Saturday bushfires.

Stereo Story: goodbye George Michael

The death of a musician always drives us to their back-catalogue. On hearing the news about George Michael, like millions of others, Lucia Nardo spent the day listening to his albums again, and the song They Won’t Go When I Go in particular.

Stereo Story: making sense of Making Gravy

As a young teenager Cassandra Atkinson enjoyed but misunderstood the Paul Kelly song How To Make Gravy. Then things changed.

Almanac Music: Rick Kane and Culture Club

Rick Kane first heard Do You Really Want To Hurt Me? many years ago. The moment still resonates. This Soundcloud recording of Rick recalling that moment, accompanied by the Stereo Stories Band, is from a show at the Willi Lit Fest in 2015.

Almanac Music: ‘Smokie’ Dawson and The Stereo Stories Band

‘Smokie’ Dawson’s Stereo Story about young love and Before Too Long is always a hit at Stereo Stories concerts. Here is Smokie and the band at the 2016 Williamstown Literary Festival.

The Ilfracombe scoreboard

Scoreboard Pressure welcomes aboard Sasha Lennon, whose first contribution to the unofficial national register of scoreboards is the rugby league scoreboard in Ilfracombe, central west Queensland.

Almanac Music: Final Stereo Stories concert for 2016

Our final show for 2016 is a 60 minute concert at the grand and gorgeous Geelong Library and Heritage Centre.

The show, on Sunday 20 November at 4pm, is part of the 2016 Word For Word Festival, a celebration of non-fiction writing.

Mental Health Week – a son’s tale

Jesse Maskell puts in his two cents’ worth about mental health. “I made this little video not for me but in the hope of reaching out to others who might need it.”

Almanac Music: Nankervis, Frampton, Hudson.

Got nine minutes to spare? Take a look and have a listen to this Stereo Stories performance featuring Brian Nankervis and The Stereo Stories Band – with a little help from Frampton, and a brief nod to Peter Hudson.

It’s a story about travel, romance, music and, fleetingly, footy.

Twin flags for FIDA Seagulls

The Williamstown FIDA Seagulls capped off a stellar season by winning two premierships on Sunday 28 August at Central Reserve, Waverley.

Almanac Music: Anson Cameron, friendship, and The Kill Devil Hills

Anson Cameron’s debut Stereo Story is honest to the bare bones: Rare times, he writes, a hole opens in a life and a song appears from nowhere to fill it, explain it, exploit it.