Bernard Fanning is beloved in Australia for his empathetic vocals and versatile songwriting. Born in 1969, the Brisbane native dabbled in music as a teenager and became the lead singer of Powderfinger after meeting guitarist Ian Haug in college. The alternative-rock band earned five straight Australian No. 1 albums, starting in 1998 with Internationalist, and were known for anthemic hits such as 2000’s solace-bringing “My Happiness.” Fanning dipped his toes into solo work with the somber piano ballad “Shelter For My Soul,” featured on the 2003 soundtrack for the movie Ned Kelly, before debuting officially on his own with the 2005 full-length Tea & Sympathy. After Powderfinger broke up in 2010, he continued onward with solo work, collaborating with Kasey Chambers in 2014 on the melancholy “Bittersweet” and adding soul, folk, and Americana flourishes to the sturdy rock compositions found on 2016’s Civil Dusk and 2017’s Brutal Dawn.