Steve Durie is a singer, songwriter, guitarist and traveller whose music has been shaped by a lifetime of adventure, curiosity and connection with people and places.
Over the years, life has taken Steve on an unusual journey. He has worked as a railway fettler in the Oodnadatta desert, managed hotels along the NSW coast and in Papua New Guinea, lived and worked in Taiwan and Hong Kong, and travelled extensively throughout Australia and the Asia-Pacific region. Wherever life took him, a guitar was never far away.
Music has been a constant companion throughout that journey. Steve studied at the ANU School of Music and performed with Canberra experimental rock band Oak, while playing percussion in the Canberra Symphony Orchestra, experiences that helped shape his musicianship and his continuing exploration of sound and song.
Many of the experiences that now find their way into Steve's songs began long before he started writing them. Friendships formed on distant roads, years spent living in other cultures, life in Papua New Guinea during the Bougainville conflict, family history, love, loss and the search for meaning have all become part of the stories he now tells through music.
Along the way Steve and his wife Annie often performed together as a duo, sometimes gathering local musicians to form bands wherever their latest adventure happened to take them. Following Annie's passing, Steve returned to the road and began focusing seriously on songwriting. Performing as The Gippsland Troubadour, he now tours throughout eastern Victoria and NSW, blending original songs with carefully curated country, blues and roots classics.
Between tours, Steve returns to his home in South Gippsland, where he shares a small farm with family, horses, alpacas and abundant wildlife. An experienced wildlife carer and lifelong observer of the natural world, he remains deeply connected to the landscapes that inspire much of his writing.
Today, The Gippsland Troubadour project is an expression of a life well travelled. Through songs, stories and music, Steve invites audiences to journey with him through the people, places and experiences that have shaped who he has become.
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