Fred Smith and band will be launching his brand-new CD, Home.

Since 1998, he has released eight albums. Interestingly, they are all good. As Sydney morning Herald critic Bruce elder wrote:

“It is about time Australia caught up with Fred Smith. This remarkable singer-songwriter - who at various times reveals influences that range from Paul Kelly via Lou Reed to Loudon Wainwright III to Leonard Cohen - keeps releasing amazingly accomplished albums... He is also very funny.”

But it was not until his 2011 release Dust of Uruzgan that Australia did finally catch up with Fred Smith. Written while working for 18 months in southern Afghanistan, the album earned him critical acclaim and comparisons with the great Australian songwriters Eric Bogle, Don Walker and John Schumann.

Fred went back to Afghanistan for six months in May last year and returned in November to finish the aptly named Home. Home was recorded in the backyard studio of Shane O'Mara in Yarraville Melbourne. The renowned guitarist and side man of choice to artists like Chris Wilson and Tim Rogers, O’Mara has brought to the fore the delicate fingerpicking chops that has long been the backbone of Fred's writing, and added some of his own sublime licks.

Said Fred: "it's an album about coming home and calming down. Compared to Dust of Uruzgan I would say: ‘more personal, less war and death’”.