An award-winning music documentary and live music tour is visiting Shoalhaven, Eurobodalla, Bega Valley and Cooma.
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The show is intended to provide a fantastic night out for regional communities in the aftermath of COVID, fire and floods.
Even better, the shows are free, thanks to funding from Foundation for Rural & Regional Renewal.
They are also partnering in these events with the NSW Rural Fire Service Association (RFSA).
The RFSA's board is travelling with them, using the tour as a way to meet and thank their volunteer members by putting on a free feed.
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Part-time musicians, full-time removalists
For the last six years, Grace Hickey has been pushing an upright piano across Australia.
She has been writing songs with her co-producer and piano-pushing partner Hugh Scott Murray and bringing those songs to life with the help of local musicians.
In the aftermath of the Black Summer bushfires they collaborated with the community of Nymboida in Northern NSW to write a song based on the residents' stories of survival and recovery.
They then performed that song a year on from the fires with the help of musicians from the region.
Their journey to a song became the international award-winning feature film 'Up Armidale Road'.
The power of music
The 'Up Armidale Road Screening and Live Music Tour' has toured extensively throughout NSW and is about to pull up in the South Coast.
The tour will visit Lake Conjola on October 21, Moruya on October 22, Cobargo on October 23, Nethercote on October 24 and Cooma on October 25.
They took to the road to screen their film to recovering communities to showcase the power of music and how it allows for human connection even in the wake of utter devastation.
They loaded up their half-tonne piano and a projector to give 25 communities a big night of film and live music.
Mr Murrray said that at every hall, theatre and festival they have toured, they have found someone to help them.
"You pull into town and you know no one but by midnight you've made a bunch of new friends, passionate, community-minded people," he said.
Each show became a fundraising opportunity for local community needs such as for flood relief.
They have had to deal with last-minute postponements and once had to evacuate in a deluge in the early hours of the morning when the Clarence River might have broken its banks.
When the sun came out they dried out their upright piano and stuck the soles back on their boots.
People can register for the events on their website www.graceandhugh.com/tour
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