When Karen Knowles appeared on Young Talent Time (YTT) in the 1970s in living rooms around Australia, she was warmly embraced as wholesome, pure, and the girl next door. Nothing’s changed. Or, so it seems.
Performing Songs and Stories of Australia at The Majestic Theatre in Pomona on Friday night as a personal tribute, Knowles proves she is still a force of love to be reckoned with.
“When you talk about Songs and Stories of Australia, it could be an anthology, it could go on forever, but in this show, I’ve chosen songs that have touched me along my journey, my career, songs that I just really love from a song writing perspective that have got incredible lyrics and melodies, and that touch me deeply about some kind of expression about what it means to be Australian,” Karen said.
Entering the stage like a beacon of joy, she instantly outshines the spotlight with that famous smile framed by those unmistakable twin dimples, setting the Australiana tone with a hauntingly smooth rendition of The Church’s ‘Milky Way’. Backed by pianist Tash Koch, with special guest Justin Brady on mandolin, Karen opts for a slower approach, drawing out the emotional depth of the lyrics that grips the audience, culminating in a round of applause.
But the idea for the show was not just a celebration of being Australian, it was also sparked by the deaths of three musical icons.
“The impetus before this show was when Judith Durham, Olivia Newton John and Archie Roach all passed away within 10 days of each other,” Karen said.
“That just flattened me to the core because they were three icons in my life as a singer, and as an Australian, and I thought to myself, I’ve just got to sing this out for myself and for everybody else! So, the show has been built around that, but it’s become broader since then, and I’ve brought my own music in as well. Yeah, it’s a real, full expression of my journey, and what it means to be Australian,’’ Karen said.
As the pace increases, Karen invites the audience into sharing her love for Olivia Newton-John, with ‘If You Love Me, Let Me Know’, ‘Let Me Be There’, ‘Evita’, and Tash’s favourite, ‘Totally Devoted to You’, which Karen grew up singing songs to on YTT.
The packed theatre, wrapped in winter clothing, comes to life with the warmth of the repertoire, as Generation X sways, claps, and sings along to the familiar hits. The Silent Generation does not remain silent, either.
She then tenderly delivers a more poignant track of Olivia’s, ‘Let Go, Let God’ released in 2006 on the Grace and Gratitude album, a spiritual song about healing and personal surrender during Olivia’s remission.
Karen’s voice retains its expressive power throughout in this specially curated concert, demonstrating an empathic connectedness to Country comes from deep within.
“I think it’s about holding space for all people and all of creation, and just acknowledging and appreciating how special this country is – not just for Australians, but the whole world. It’s a very, very beautiful and sacred land and everybody that has been a musician of all the people that I sing songs from, and my own songs, have been touched by this place, and it’s infused into the music that we know and that we recognise ourselves through,’’ Karen said.
This is powerfully resonated in her rendition of the late Archie Roach’s song, “Took the Children Away,” as she emphasises the verse, ‘Because the spirit is in the land’ with passionate conviction, as though seeking to educate the audience.
“We are all native born, so it’s all ours,’’ Karen said.
Another song from Roach, ‘One Song’ she dedicates to the People of Gaza, declaring the song has never been more poignant.
When Karen was invited by Wiradjuri Elder Min Mia of NSW to record the language of the Wiradjuri People, she was honoured to receive permission to co-create the 2019 album Solid Ground. This is duly expressed with her performances of ‘Shipwreck’, ‘Listen’, ‘Nungenna-Tya’, reflecting the long-held respect Karen has for First Nations people – a world apart from the YTT days.
But Karen’s evolution is also something sacred.
In fact, Karen says she was asked four times to sing ‘’Nungenna-Tya”, which means ‘Mother Earth’, a gift to the women of Australia to “sing the land back to health”, as she recalls NSW Aboriginal Elder Min Mia, whom Karen has known for 15 years, telling her, ‘The ancestors have asked you to sing it.’ ”
This part of Karen’s journey of being an Australian is explained through an epitome she experienced while overseas.
“I was missing a lot about Australia, but one thing that I did think about when I was over there was – and this was back in ’94 after I had left The Seekers – I felt like there’s more work to be done in bridging the connections with the average person, and with Indigenous Australians.
“I felt like we were living in a way just on the surface, like we wouldn’t just really grow roots deep into the ground until we’d actually come with our full hearts and attempted to build bridges across all of the history and across how we are going to move forward together,” Karen said.
It was with this very mindset that led to her appointment as an inaugural ambassador of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation in 1998.
This concert could not have come at a more profound moment. As Prime Minister Albanese promises a $75 million funding package at the Garma Festival for Native Title reform on Saturday, the latest update to “Closing the Gap Annual Report 2025” reveals Australia is on four of its 15 assessed targets, with self-harm now being the most frequent cause of death among the 15 to 39 age group.
But with poise, Karen still stands as the voice of our time.
Wearing a long dress with earthy hues is fitting as she sings her original song ‘The Opening,’ inspired by the ancient rocks she felt drawn to while sitting on a beach at Magnetic Island, her eyes starry, like she feels right at home.
Another original song, ‘Fallin Into You,’ from the Sanctuary album, is Karen’s tribute to Mount Gulaga, NSW, where she says she climbed up five hours to write it, bringing her instruments along to record, but was rained-upon, drenched on the way down.
Reflecting fondly on her time as lead vocalist with The Seekers, Karen sings ‘Hey Georgie Girl’, prompting the crowd to whistle along, before launching into ‘The Water is Wide’, one of the songs she learned from new music during her time with the group. This is followed by classics: ‘The Promised Land’, ‘I Know I’ll Never Find Another You’, and ‘Morning Town Ride’, her favourite song in primary school, as the audience joins in, adding to the nostalgia of this heart-warming evening.
She then sings ‘Kumbaya’, a hymn she sang at ‘Carols by Candlelight’ (both as a soloist, and with The Seekers) at the Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne – one of her career highlights where she was in awe of the huge crowd holding candles.
Karen then moves into what is arguably Australia’s unofficial national anthem, ‘I Am Australian’, a title also often given to ‘Waltzing Matilda’.
“A lot of people, when they come up to me and talk to me about their memories of the early days on YTT, they’re from migrant families, and they say, ‘You made me feel like an Australian’,” Karen said.
Thrown into the eclectic mix are John Farnham’s ‘A Touch of Paradise’, Cold Chisel’s ‘When the War is Over’, and Icehouse’s ‘Great Southern Land’.
“I’m just so grateful, and I feel like it’s a full embodied presence and expression on my part that I absolutely love all of these songs and love singing them to Australians,’’ Karen said.
Watching Karen sing is something to behold. It is as though she is having an out-of-body experience that draws you into another dimension, leaving you wanting more. She is Australia’s understated angel.
Multi-instrumentalist Justin Brady, who has played on some of Karen’s albums, has been working with Karen ever since they met on the musical set of Big River in 1989, when Karen was nominated for a Green Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Mary Jane Wilks.
Best known for playing in the ARIA Award–winning folk-rock band Things of Stone and Wood, Justin plays harmonica and electric mandolin, delivering a raw performance of his original piece, ‘After the Smokes’.
As an intro, he reveals the track is an attempt to capture what happened during Black Saturday in Mallacoota, Victoria, in December 2019, when the home he built, including all his belongings, were engulfed in flames.
During an intense ember attack, thousands flee to the shore through thick smoke, including Jason in a canoe, but he eventually gets into a drifting hire boat, without a life jacket, until he is called back to shore.
With a backdrop image of Justin standing amid the ruins of his charred home, few would dispute his courage as he acknowledges the emotional toll, prompting him to consult grief counsellor Bob Gordon.
“I was told it takes 20 years to recover – I’ve had it for five years,” Justin said.
Karen openly admires his resilience before lifting the energy, moving straight into the upbeat song ‘Red Robin,’ with Justin soon joining her on harmonica.
That is the power of Karen Knowles – where black clouds loom, she is the sunshine that seeps through. It is no wonder she is drawn to the sky, just as Australia has been drawn to this star for five decades.
After six years on Young Talent Time, Ron Tudor signs Karen to Fable Records in 1980. She releases three albums, becoming the first Australian schoolgirl to earn a Gold-record with her first Top Ten hit, “Why Won’t You Explain,” which she spontaneously receives from Johnny Young on national TV – a moment she still treasures as her favourite highlight.
Amplifying the nostalgia, she then sings the song. It is also a pinch-me moment for many audience members, who reminisce seeing this live telecast, as Karen leads the crowd in a collective “La, la, la, la, la…..”. No explanation is needed. Karen knows how to mesmerise audiences, with warmth, grace, and dignity.
With her final song of the evening, she pays special tribute to Judith Durham, with The Seeker’s ‘The Carnival is Over’, bringing more than a tear to the eye.
“I thought Young Talent Time was amazing, I didn’t realise I’d have an adult career. Ron Tudor enabled that for me as a recording artist. But after that, I felt like a big fish in a little pond, and just wanted to go overseas to feel into what I wanted to say, and who I wanted to be, as an artist,” Karen said.
“I felt like I had sort of grown up with everybody knowing who I was, but I hadn’t really grown into myself, without an eye on me, if you know what I mean, and I just wanted to become myself,” she said.
During her time in London, Karen met many influential people, including George McFarlane (‘The Rhythm of the Jungle’) who she co-wrote with, and another writer, who wrote for Laura Branigan.
But when Karen was offered to audition for a record company with a five-year contract, she felt compelled to decline the opportunity.
“I thought it was a huge thing as I was missing home a lot, and noticing at the time there was such a difference, even though I loved England in so many ways, and how they respected musicians,” Karen said.
“But I didn’t like the class structure, like I felt just getting on a train, there were people that had lived on that side of town and they would never get into Kensington because they just weren’t of that class. And really, as an Australian, this did not fit right with me, and it was 4’o’clock in the afternoon, and it was dark, and I couldn’t see my big sky. And so, I just made the decision to come back home,” she said.
It is this inherent sense of natural justice which drew to her to choosing another career pathway.
“When I was doing YTT I never thought it would go on this long. Like, I thought, I’d better go and get something else under my belt as a back-up. I was always interested in law from a societal perspective,” Karen said.
Karen went on to study law but found it difficult to juggle both a music career and university, causing her to postpone her studies until she graduated via correspondence, before working as a lawyer in Melbourne in the late 90s.
“My pianist was very, very patient. I would play cassette tapes in the car while driving with him around the country, and often I’d fall asleep,” Karen said.
“And he’d say: ‘I don’t need to know about Contract Law’, so he’d keep nudging me to stay awake,” she said, laughing.
In 2014, it was a natural progression for Karen to establish WIILPA, a solutions-focused initiative addressing social issues faced by First Nations Peoples, grounded in holistic, humanitarian principles.
“WIILPA is still active. We’re reinventing and repurposing it at the moment. I see that holistic perspective as an overview of a vision of how things can be as a really beautiful space to hold, and the arts can definitely play a role in opening up people’s eyes to what’s possible, so I really do love doing that. It is finding the right forums and events that work,” Karen said.
Both as a performer and as a person, Karen has always been deeply attuned to her own senses, with an intrinsic connection to the Australian environment.
“As Peppie Simpson does with the whales and dolphins, something opens within you when the time is right,” Karen said.
“So now, I go to places when I’m touring, and I just sit on a beach, wait for the song, wait for what’s coming. And I feel because I’ve been singing all my life, and it’s such a natural thing for me, it’s like an open channel to express what is needed to be said, or what’s needed to be sung,” she said.
After the concert, attendees express their joy over seeing Karen. Two fans remarked:
“You have retrospectives of visual artists lives, but this show felt like a retrospective of a singer’s life. But because she’s in the public eye, it meant that we’re kind of part of it. I didn’t know she was a singer-songwriter. When I realised her connection with Indigenous Peoples, her music felt even more moving, and real,” Sheryl said.
“I found the show emotional. I went to the same school as Karen and hadn’t seen her in nearly 50 years until I bumped into her recently at Tin Can Bay markets. She’s so talented, and a real angel, just like she was at school,” Jessica adds.
The girl next door who lovingly calls our backyard home has plans to develop community projects on the Sunshine Coast.
“I’m talking to a few people up here about events at the moment involving music and wellness practices,’’ Karen said.
“I’ve always been interested in the fullness of expression, and I feel that wellness practices help you open up. I’ve always used them to feel fully able to open up when performing. So, I just love sharing that love around, really!” Karen said.
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