UPCOMING GIGS
Ember Lounge @ Memo Music Hall
Wed 22 April 2026 7.30pm
80A Acland St, St Kilda VIC
Book Here
TableLands Folk Festival 2026 (TBC)
Newstead Live Folk Festival 2027 (TBC)
PAST GIGS
Australian Tour 2025
with Mal Webb & Kylie Morrigan duo
Thursday 3rd April ARC Switchroom, Yinnar
Saturday 5th April Stratford Courthouse
Sunday 6th April Bar 303, Northcote 4pm
Friday 11th April The Muddie, Mallacoota
Sat 12 April Goulburn Workers' Club
Sunday 13th Smith's Alternative, Canberra
Kangaroo Valley Folk Festival October 2024
National Folk Festival Easter 2024 "Songs for Social Justice" concert
Woodford Folk Festival New Year 2023-24
Denmark Festival of Voice 25-26 June 2022
National Folk Festival, Easter 2022
GANEAA Festival, Wangaratta 29 April 2021-1 May 2021
The Supper Club @ Tamworth Country Music Festival 17-26 Jan 2020
THE STRANDED ASSETS
Penelope's searing songwriting and soaring vocals are artfully underpinned by Mal Webb on bass and vocals and Kylie Morrigan on fiddle and vocals. Their award-winning material will leave you both satisfied and thoughtful.
Penelope has been articulating the human condition for over 30 years. She has ten solo albums under her belt, plus five with Mal in their feel-good extravaganza band Totally Gourdgoeus. Penelope won the 2019 Alistair Hulett Songs for Social Justice Award with her song “Cambridge Analytica” which explores the impact of social media propoganda on democracy. She then went on the be short-listed for the 2020 prize with “The Ides of March in Christchurch”, a skilful and compassionate dissection of the Christchurch massacre and aftermath. The recordings of both songs feature The Stranded Assets.“The Ides of March in Christchurch” was showcased by a number of New Zealand radio stations on the first anniversary of that event and garnered a personal thanks from Jacinda Adern.
Penelope Swales and the Stranded Assets made their debut performance at the awards ceremony at the National Folk Festival in 2019. They went on to wow audiences at the 2020 Tamworth Country Music Festival and headlined at GANEAA Festival in Wangaratta in April 2021. In 2022, they opened the Budawang stage at the National Folk Festival and featured at Denmark Festival of Voice in Western Australia. They have since played Woodford Folk Festival, CObargo olk Festival, Kangaroo Valley Folk Festival and others as well as touring the Eastern states.
LIVE ON THE BUDAWANG, NFF 2022
LIVE PERFORMANCE REEL
VIDEO GALLERY
GETTING BACK ON
(Swales)
FACTORIES IN CHINA
(Morrigan)
PASSIONFLOWER
(Swales)
Footage from GANEAA Festival Wangaratta (2021)
HUSH
PHOTO GALLERY
NEW ALBUM FROM PENELOPE SWALES
After a long hiatus from solo recording, Penelope Swales explodes back into musical life with Captains of Industry. This punchy and gutfelt album features long-time musical collaborator Mal Webb on bass, backing vocals, beatbox and brass and the consummate ex-Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Kylie Morrigan on violin and backing vocals.
Swales's songwriting has lost none of its power. As always, she delivers compassionate insight and withering commentary in equal measure. Captains of Industry cracks open the modern zeitgeist tackling issues such as the fossil fuel lobby's drag on climate action, the impact of disinformation on democracy and race relations in a deeply divided Australia. She also addresses themes of love, sex, ageing and confidence.
"Captains of Industry, although album number 16, is the first offering from Penelope in quite a long time, but it's been worth the wait. These songs remind us of how she's been honing her craft over years of life experience and putting that into words.
There's a lot of thinking material on this, as it runs a gamut of political and emotional topics from the Highland Clearances in Scotland in the 18th and 19th Centuries, to big business vs climate action, Indigenous rights ad love and sex.
This is an album of modern day protest songs, skilfully tacking hard truths and emotional issues in the time honoured folk tradition. A very accomplished production from Penelope Swales with superb instrument and and vocal backing from Mall Webb and Kylie Morrigan...each track packs a punch."
Trad&Now magazine, issue 167, Dec 2024.