Stephen Cummings will celebrate 50 years of Australian songwriting with his new EP Joy, a collection of four reimagined classics from Spectrum, Pel Mel, Jess Ribeiro and Dag, to be released on November 21, 2025, through Cheersquad Records & Tapes.
Joy features Cummings’ profoundly moving interpretations of songs spanning 1971 to 2021, recorded with his long-time collaborator Robert Goodge and an ensemble of seasoned Melbourne musicians. The EP draws on both the breadth of Australian musical history and the depth of Cummings’ own creative resilience following a life-changing stroke in 2020.
Produced by Goodge, Joy finds Cummings’ distinct voice surrounded by a team that includes Leah and Andi Senior on harmonies, Sam Lemann on guitars, Graham Lee (The Triffids) on pedal steel, Bill McDonald (Paul Kelly Band) on bass, and Michael Davis on drums. The result is an intimate record that bridges generations with warmth and honesty – unmistakably Stephen Cummings.
‘Joy’ Tracklisting
Living In The Balance (Dusty Anastassiou, 2021 – originally by Dag)
Unfamiliar Ground (Jess Ribeiro, 2015)
No Word From China (Jude McGee & Graeme Dunne, 1980 – originally by Pel Mel)
Fly Without Its Wings (Mike Rudd, 1971 – originally by Spectrum)
Cummings’ take on Living In The Balance (originally by Brisbane indie outfit Dag) introduces the EP with a reflective stillness that only deepens through his interpretation.
Unfamiliar Ground, from Jess Ribeiro’s 2015 album Kill It Yourself, retains its haunting quality but acquires new weight through Cummings’ phrasing and phrased restraint. On No Word From China, Cummings revisits the 1980 underground classic from Newcastle’s Pel Mel, while Fly Without Its Wings – first recorded by Spectrum in 1971 – reconnects him to the early era of Australian progressive rock that shaped his formative years.
The project reunites the same creative circle that surrounded Cummings’ acclaimed 2023 album 100 Years From Now – a record praised for its grace, fragility and emotional truth.
That album marked his return to music after a stroke in 2020, which initially left him unable to play guitar or sing with his previous control. Working with Robert Goodge (Essendon Airport, I’m Talking) and producer Simon Polinski (Steve Kilbey, Ollie Olsen), 100 Years From Now became a testament to survival and artistic persistence.
“Things aren’t going to be the same, but they can still be good,” Cummings said at the time. “I learnt that if I sang more slowly and more quietly, it sounded better. I have to focus more and keep to different parameters.”
Those parameters have become his new musical fingerprint. On Joy, Cummings delivers restrained, deeply felt performances that highlight his interpretive brilliance rather than vocal force. The harmony work from Leah and Andi Senior brings a luminous lift, and Goodge’s production maintains a stripped, organic sound – a hallmark of Cummings’ later career.
Stephen Cummings remains one of the great chroniclers of Australian life in song. His career stretches back to the mid-1970s with The Pelaco Brothers – a short-lived but influential outfit that also included Joe Camilleri – before forming The Sports in 1976.
The Sports delivered hits such as Who Listens To The Radio, Don’t Throw Stones and Strangers On A Train, cementing Cummings as a key voice of the Australian new wave movement.
Following The Sports’ split in 1981, Cummings built one of the most consistent solo catalogues in Australian music. Albums such as Lovetown (1988), A New Kind Of Blue (1989) and Good Humour (1991) established him as an artist of quiet endurance and emotional intelligence. In 1990 he won the ARIA Award for Best Adult Contemporary Album for A New Kind Of Blue.
More than four decades after his first release, Joy continues that story – not as nostalgia, but as renewal. These are not just covers; they are conversations across time between Cummings and the lineage of Australian songwriting he helped define.
Joy will be available on 12” vinyl and digital platforms from November 21, 2025, via Cheersquad Records & Tapes.
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