Legendary Australian songwriter, Don Walker, returns with his fifth solo record, Love Songs, a deeply personal and beautifully crafted new album set for release on Friday, 7 August.
The Love Songs Album Tour kicks off at Melbourne’s Memo Music Hall on Friday, 16 October with four other dates announced so far. (See below).
Across his work with Cold Chisel, Catfish, Tex Don & Charlie and his acclaimed solo recordings, Don Walker has long been recognised as one of Australia’s most evocative storytellers, and Love Songs may well prove to be his masterpiece.
Love Songs is available for preorder on 180g Vinyl, CD, Digitally and Bundles at donwalker.com.au/store. As part of the bundles, a limited-edition Love Songs Album T-Shirt will be available only via pre-order.
The album’s first single, ‘Let’s All Get Together’, sets the tone, combining Walker’s unmistakable voice with a hot tamale performance from the Suave Fucks and The Harmonettes and is available on streaming services now from HERE.
Across the album’s nine songs, Walker moves effortlessly between sparse, piano-led storytelling and beautifully layered arrangements of guitars, steel, horns and harmonies. The result is a record that feels both timeless and immediate — a collection of songs that reveal new emotional shades with every listen.
Among the album’s standout moments is Could You Still Be Here, an intimate recording captured in Walker’s own basement straight to DAT around the turn of the century — a haunting time capsule that sits naturally alongside the more recent studio recordings.
Love Songs brings together an exceptional group of musicians.
Luck and Fly Away were recorded in 2022 with the late Roy Payne on guitar. Shannon Bourne provides guitars across the rest of the album. Garrett Costigan paints the horizon behind the stories with his peerless pedal steel while bassist Michael Vidale and drummer Hamish Stuart drive it all home.
Additional musicians include Mark Punch on guitar and backing vocals, Charlie Owen playing lapsteel on Deeper Light, Juanita Tippins singing backing vocals on Luck, and Sam Lemann playing guitar and mandolin on Darwin.
A horn section of Melbourne brass-slingers Michael Fraser, Gianni Marinucci, David Palmer and Paul Williamson punches through the album opener, Let’s All Get Together, while The Harmonettes — Amanda Roff, Erica Dunn, Brigitte Hart, Felicity Cripps and Alexandra Scott-Douglas — provide backing vocals throughout.
Love Songs Tracklisting: Let’s All Get Together / Breakfast in Paris / Deeper Light / Luck / Fly Away / Could You Still Be Here / The Girl I Used to Know / It Will Always Be You / Darwin
The Love Songs Album Tour kicks off at Melbourne’s Memo Music Hall on Friday, 16 October before heading to the Eureka Hotel in Geelong (Saturday, 17 October), Sydney’s Factory Theatre (Saturday, 24 October), the Imperial Hotel in Eumundi (Friday, 30 October) before closing at the Old Museum in Brisbane on Saturday, 31 October.
Supporting the shows will be Jimmy Dowling. A storyteller who writes with the keen eye of a poet, blending the overtones of a jazz sensibility with simple structures, a conciseness and depth of lyric, space and a natural swing. Sometimes he plays the accordion and whistles. If you don’t like what Jimmy Dowling does there’s something wrong with you.
Tickets to the Love Songs Album Tour go on sale everywhere at 9.00am local times on Thursday, 7 May from donwalker.com.au/live.
Love Songs album is released on Friday, 7 August, through MGM Distribution and is available for pre-order now from donwalker.com.au/store.
LOVE SONGS 2026 TOUR ON SALE FROM 9.00AM
ON THURSDAY, 7 MAY AT
donwalker.com.au/live
With Special Guest Jimmy Dowling
Friday, 16 October 2026
Memo Music Hall, Melbourne VIC
Saturday, 17 October 2026
Eureka Hotel, Geelong VIC
Saturday, 24 October 2026
Factory Theatre, Sydney NSW
Friday, 30 October 2026
Imperial Hotel, Eumundi QLD
Saturday, 31 October 2026
Old Museum, Brisbane QLD