Sunburnt Country Music

Camille Trail is a Queensland artist who was nominated for a Golden Guitar for Best New Talent after releasing her impressive debut album,  River of Sins , in 2021. The album was top 5 in the ARIA Country chart and also led to a Queensland Music Award nomination.  Since then Trail has played at Folk Alliance at Kansas City and released a new song, ‘Gotta Get to Know You’. When she wrote...

Kaylens Rain was formed by siblings Glen Harrison and Kaylee Stewart. They released two albums of great country pop, In Our Blood in 2016 and Found in 2018, then took a long break to focus on their young families. Kaylens Rain have now returned with Stewart's husband, Joel, as a member and a new song called, appropriately, ‘One Song Brings You Back’. The song was originally pitched to the band in...

Felicity Dowd is a singer-songwriter from the south coast of New South Wales and CMAA Academy of Country Music graduate who released her first single, ‘Blue Skies’, last year. Her latest song is the quite lovely ‘Honeycomb & Glue’. 'This song has seemed to connect well with so many different people. It’s about the couples that don’t make sense on paper, they’re a bit abrasive, but no matter wh...

Tammy Moxon released the album Drive Me Sane in 2019 then the brand new single ‘Fighting Chance’ earlier this year. At the same time as writing and recording music she keeps up a brisk performing pace in her hometown of Townsville in Queensland. Moxon now has a great new follow-up single, ‘Comfy’. 'It was the first song I wrote in that three months of the initial pandemic shutdown,' says Moxon. 'I...

Luke O’Shea has won a lot of Golden Guitars – sixteen – and two of those were won this year for the song ‘South East Queensland’ and its video, which O'Shea co-directed with Jay Seeney. The last time O'Shea won a Golden Guitar for a video it was only last year, for ‘Long Way round’, performed with Ashleigh Dallas and the video also co-directed with Seeney.  O'Shea has now reunited with Dallas...

Catherine Britt and Lachlan Bryan have so many awards and nominations between them that you'd be reading for a while if they were listed, but suffice to say they are two of the most eminent singer-songwriters in Australian music and luckily for us they decided to work together as The Pleasures.  They have released several singles, including 'Every Story Has Two Sides, and have now released th...

This year Queensland artist Brittany Elise has been named a finalist at the Independent Country Music Awards for Female Artist of the Year and Album of the Year, and she has recently returned from performing at CMA Fest in Nashville. Last year she was a Grand Finalist in the Toyota Star Maker competition and released her second album, Just Be. She has just released a brand new song, ‘Something Abo...

A few months ago country-pop artist Chloe Styler released the EP Side A , always with the intention of releasing Side B , which she now has. Side B is more introspective in tone that its sister release, with first track and current single 'Hometownless' leading listeners deep into Styler's heart. 'These five songs mark the end of a six-year chapter of my life, and to be honest, I’m really looking...

Earlier this year Matt Joe Gow released his fourth album, the excellent Between Tonight & Tomorrow , then he set out on a tour of his homeland, Aotearoa New Zealand with compatriot Kerryn Fields and they released the song ‘Your Heart of Gold’ . There will be more releases from the pair but Joe Gow has also returned to the title track of his album and with longtime collaborator Andrew Pollock r...

Chris Carrapetta is an alt-country artist from Sydney who released the EP I’m Not a Stranger last year and recently released the album Nothing Left to Lose , which contains the singles 'This is Not the End' and 'Golden Mile', and showcases Carrapetta's soaring vocals.  'The title Nothing Left to Lose is mostly about expressing the idea that once you get to a certain point in your life where y...

TC Cassidy released the album Travelling Heart last year after a long absence from country music (and we talked prior to its release). It was nominated for a Golden Guitar for Traditional Country Album of the Year, which was quite the comeback. And the theme of a comeback is also present in TC’s latest single, ‘Alive Again’. Once again Cassidy recorded with Angus Gill , who produced Travelling Hea...

Jade Holland has released two albums, Dream Wild and Leather & Les Paul , and followed them last year with the completely infectious single ‘Oh My Heart’. She now has a new single, ‘Wild in Me’, which is captivating in a different way. The song was written by Holland with Alys Ffion, and is, says Holland, 'a story about how sometimes we carry our heartbreaks through to the next relationship an...

Megan Baragry is a singer and songwriter from Goulburn in New South Wales who released her first single, ‘How Can I Not’, last year and has recently released her second, ‘Me and Carrie’. The song was inspired by Carrie Underwood, and almost didn't happen after Baragry had early doubts, as I discovered when we chatted recently. And during the course of our chat I learned that Baragry is also inspir...

Melburnian Clint Wilson released his debut album Dark Water in 2018. Another Death in the Family followed in 2020, reaching number 12 on ARIA Australian Country Charts and number 2 on the iTunes Country Albums Chart.  For his third album, LA , Wilson left Australia to record in California - as the album's title suggests - although this came about mostly through happenstance. While the country...

Jessica Luxx is a country/folk singer from regional South Australia who released her debut single, ‘Heavy Lifting’, last year. She has a new single, ‘The Temple’, ready for release soon. We talked about her music, of course, and the conversation also took an unexpectedly esoteric route ... but it all comes back to music in the end. Luxx is a passionate artist who loves live performance, and on 18...

There is a saying, 'A rising tide lifts all boats', and it's probably been used too much, or maybe I've heard it a lot lately, but it has another use and that is to in part describe Fanny Lumsden, eight-time Golden Guitar winner, ARIA winner, singer, songwriter, bandleader, video maker from the Upper Murray region of New South Wales. And that is because Lumsden is a rising tide.  Through her...

Nathan Seeckts is a singer and songwriter from Geelong in Victoria who released his first album, The Heart of the City , in 2019. He has been releasing some great singles over the past few months and they can be found on his new album, the richly layered, life-affirming Something Rare and Beautiful . Seeckts has said of the album: 'I was at a stage where personally things were heading in a more po...

Sari Abbott lives on the beautiful Sunshine Coast in Queensland, where she plays regularly. She was a finalist in this year’s Toyota Star Maker and has won or placed in several other competitions.  Her latest single is ‘Feels Like Home’, which was added to ABC Country, ABC's Grass Roots program and Australian Country Radio, and has had airplay on KIX Country, ABC Sunshine Coast, Sea FM, Zinc...

Billie-Jo Porter was a Grand Finalist in the 2022 Toyota Star Maker and has been steadily releasing singles over the past few months, including 'Upside'. Recently she released her self-titled debut album, which is a ray of musical sunshine. Says Porter of the album, 'As I geared up to record my album, I couldn't help but wonder - what if this was my only shot at leaving a musical mark on the world...

Josie is an artist from Queensland who has just released her first single, 'Down Here', although she's already had a long involvement in country music, attended the Junior Academy of Country Music, as a finalist in the 2019 Gympie Music Muster talent search and reaching the Top 10 of the 2022 Groundwater KIX Start competition. Says Josie of creating 'Down Here', 'I took to streaming services to ha...

Living and working mainly in Katherine, NT, singer and songwriter Tom Curtain has been playing musical instruments since childhood and writing songs for almost as long. He won Golden Guitars in 2018 for his song ‘Never Never Land’, which was on his third album,  Territory Time . He released his fourth album,  We’re Still Here , in 2019 and his fifth,  Nothin’s Gonna Stop Us , last y...

Darlinghurst are a four-piece band each of whose members has an extensive background in music. When they combined their talents they immediately captured listener attention and chart success. They released their self-titled album in 2021 and won the Golden Guitar for New Talent of the Year in 2022. Their latest single is 'Pretty Doesn't Make You Good'.   Recently I spoke to singer Cassie...

Travis Collins has released seven studio albums and one acoustic album of his last record,  Wreck Me . He has had number 1 albums and won eight Golden Guitar awards and is one of the most dynamic live performers you’ll ever see. He now has a new album,  Any Less Anymore , which debuted at #3 in the ARIA album charts, #2 in Australian artists and #1 on the country chart.    The...

Charlie Fittler played his first TCMF at the age of 13 and attended the Academy of Country Music in 2018. He’s just released his debut EP, Dying Breed , which is a collection of four original songs and one Slim Dusty cover. Fittler lives and works on the land and brings this experience to his country music, which is a testament to how much he has developed his craft from a young age.   Fittle...

Sometimes an artist finds themselves in the middle of a cultural moment, in the right place at the right time. Sometimes that moment is on its way to being movement. Sometimes the artist helps create the movement. With her second album,  Girlhood , Hayley Marsten has created something that is both moment and movement, and an excellent piece of work as well. It is about self-conception and mis...