Helen Ryder has performed at the ARIA Awards with The Whitlams, the Darling Harbour Jazz Festival with Tina Harrod, the Americana festival Out On The Weekend and the Caravan Music Club with her one woman show Ode To Bobbie Gentry - The Girl From Chickasaw County. Helen has also opened for Vika & Linda Bull, Russell Morris and The Badloves and currently performs at venues in her hometown Melbourne, Australia.
With her early memories soundtracked by the likes of Dusty Springfield, Bob Dylan and The Beatles, Helen would spend her formative years immersed in music spanning pop, folk, country, soul and jazz. Her early experiences performing live reflected her love of experimentation and the aim to become a versatile singer, weaving effortlessly between genres.
In 2015 Helen released her debut album, Someday Love, receiving acclaim from music industry journalists such as Brian Wise and Jeff Jenkins, and strong airplay support from the likes of Radio National, RRR FM, PBS FM and 2SER FM. The album features guest vocalist Spencer P Jones on the track Lady Bird, and Kevin Bennett on True Love Travels On A Gravel Road. A standalone single was released in 2017 covering Neil Young’s 1970 track Birds, featuring Shane Reilly on pedal steel and Stephen Hadley on double bass.
Following his work on her debut, Helen again teamed up with ARIA Award-winning producer Bruce Haymes (Paul Kelly, You Am I) for her new album Love Over Hate, with Haymes also lending his skills on piano, Wurlitzer, and organ. Helen also teamed up with Roger Bergodaz (Tex Perkins, Lost Ragas) on recording, drumming and mixing duties, alongside returning collaborator Shane Reilly (Lost Ragas, Emma Donovan) on pedal steel, guitars, and string and brass arrangements, with Stephen Hadley (Tex Perkins, Paul Kelly) on bass and Stephen Grady (Songs of the Canyon) and Katie Bates (Hannah Aldridge) on backing vocals.
The first single from Love Over Hate, Magnetic Field, was released in June 2025 with a second single Josephine (Love Is Everything) in September, followed by the album in November.
Helen says of Love Over Hate “Writing for my second album and bringing together the musicians that made the songs sound just as I imagined; from my humble demos to fully realised songs has been a real highlight for me. I’m excited to be finally sharing Love Over Hate because I feel this album speaks of the times we are living in, with songs about love’s power to overcome hate on a personal and political level. It is the album I have always longed to make.”
Albums:
Love Over Hate (2025)
Someday Love (2015)
Ode to Bobbie Gentry:
The Girl From Chickasaw County
The enigmatic Bobbie Gentry was fearless and mysterious in equal parts. An icon of music, business, and fashion, she was the first successful female artist to write and produce her own records - blazing a trail through the late 1960s and 70s that would go on to inspire future superstars from Sheryl Crow and Lucinda Williams to Margo Price and Taylor Swift.
A brilliant storyteller with a unique understanding of Southern Gothic, Gentry knocked The Beatles off the Billboard #1 spot with her sprawling debut single Ode to Billie Joe - a song that has haunted and fascinated critics, scholars, fellow artists, and fans for well over half a century.
Gentry’s star shone brightly for seventeen years as she constantly reinvented her sound and her persona before she suddenly, and without explanation, disappeared from public life.
Helen Ryder brings the extraordinary story and songs of Bobbie Gentry to life in this unique two set show that includes AV footage and theatrical lighting, with a script by award-winning stage and screen writer Reg Cribb (Bran Nue Dae, The Story Of Jimmie Little, Last Cab to Darwin) and a tight band led by musical director Lachlan Bryan (Henry Wagons, The Wildes, The Pleasures) with Mitch Power (Jen Mize, Dan Brodie) and Damian Cafarella (The Wildes, The Pleasures).
