Archie Roach performing in Ballarat on Tell Me Why tour

The tour is in support of his new memoir Tell Me Why: The Story of My Life and My Music and companion album of the same name.

The memoir has been described as an 'intimate, moving and often confronting account of his resilience and strength of spirit, and also of a great love story'.

The accompanying 18-song album, considered to be Mr Roach's masterpiece, reimagines 11 songs that define his career, two previously unreleased songs, two early influences and three brand new recordings.

Mr Roach said it was good to come back to Ballarat after a long time.

"I'm looking forward to getting to Ballarat again. It's been a couple of years but I've always loved going and playing in Ballarat and just being there. So it'll be good to get there again," he said.

Mr Roach will be performing alongside musicians Steve Magnusson and Sam Anning and singer Sally Dastey.

"A lot of the songs, the guitarist and the double bass player, we re-recorded the songs from Charcoal Lane at my kitchen table actually a year or so ago so we'll be doing them as we interpret them now and a new song or two," Mr Roach said.

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"I think it's great what we're doing around the state, in particular, a lot of good shows, great crowds, it's just been really positive.

"We have this great relationship between me and whoever it is that comes and listens to us sing and telling yarns on stage so that relationship has been strong and good.

"I always tell stories and yarns to give background on the songs. The songs are about what they mean in particular to me and I tell stories about growing up around Fitzroy and Collingwood."

Mr Roach's memoir won the Prize for Indigenous Writing in the 2021 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards in February while the album also won the 2020 National Indigenous Music Award for Album of the Year.

The memoir has also been placed on the shortlist for the Australian Book Industry Awards' Audiobook of the Year.

Mr Roach said he approached the memoir and album as one large project.

"The memoir was great. Great to do that. It was different than writing a song but it was worth it," he said.

"You know, you write a song, you've got that music and melody and instruments to buffer whatever your subject might be with the song, but doing a book is different.

"It's rather stark because you don't have that buffer there you have with music but it was a great experience and it's been received well so I'm glad with that. I see them both as part of one project because the songs came from my life as in the memoir so I see them as one project."

Mr Roach will be performing at Civic Hall on Saturday night from 7.30pm. Tickets are available at the Her Majesty's Theatre website.

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