You may remember Shane Howard as a member of enduring outback pop sensations Goanna. Having forged a tidy solo career, Howard returns with his musical memoir of sorts. Goanna Dreaming chronicles Howard’s life in music and his love for his country and kin, in suitably red and yellow hues of acoustic blues-folk poetry. Thankfully, in his middle age Howard hasn’t resorted to plain old acoustic sentimentalism; this is a thoughtful and beautiful-sounding record of highly personal statements, recorded to subtle perfection by veteran blues producer Kerryn Tolhurst (Jeff Lang). In an album littered with dusty Australiana imagery, you might fear copious references to native fauna and wattle blowing in the breeze – but here the Aussie-isms are left to his own personal mind’s eye rather than cultural cliches. Come Down Moses is beautiful, a dusty outback gospel spiritual, and Clancey Dooley & Don McLeod tells the rousing tale of native workers fighting for their right for fair wages and decent living conditions. Howard’s love of Aboriginal culture and his experience with both the whitefellas’ and blackfellas’ world is what gives these songs an emotional maturity, and a melodic simplicity that is far more satisfying than the musical Australian postcard one might expect.