There is not much Toni Childs hasn’t done throughout her career.
She has travelled the world performing, won an Emmy and been nominated for Grammys, played shows with Bob Dylan and sung duets with the likes of Peter Gabriel and Al Green.
Her new show, Toni Childs: Retrospective, offers audiences the chance to travel with her on a look at her continuing musical journey.
The show includes classic songs from Union, the album that started it all in 1988, including Don’t Walk Away, Stop Your Fussin’ and Zimbabwe, as well as Childs’ other hits Many Rivers to Cross, I’ve Got to Go Now and Because You’re Beautiful.
The retrospective also includes songs from her two recent albums It’s All A Beautiful Noise and Citizens of the Planet, both of which have seen only limited runs and will soon be released more widely.
Childs, US-born but an Australia citizen since 2022, said even now being on stage and connecting with audiences was “the best feeling you could ever have”.
“There’s nothing better than feeling that, knowing you’re adding something dramatic, joy and delight, to people’s lives,” she said.
“I have to do it. I’m a storyteller, and it’s been my way of staying true to myself.
“You know, I’ve got that song I’ve Got to Go Now, that’s not my story. I didn’t have two kids, I wasn’t with a guy who was an alcoholic or anything like that.
“But I think we can all feel that place where we’ve got to say goodbye to something that’s not serving us in our lives, right?
“So all of my music is kind of like that. It becomes a way of righting myself, and apparently a lot of other people feel the same way, it helps them too.”
Toni Childs is at Geelong Arts Centre on Saturday, February 22.
Matt Hewson
