Sunburnt Country Music

From the first interview I did with  James Johnston , a little over three years ago, it was clear he had put in the time to learn his craft as a songwriter and a performer, writing dozens of songs before even recording one, and playing at any venue that would have him even if he was just playing to bar staff. It took years, and his patience meant that when he started releasing songs he knew w...

Songs mentioned in this episode – with links to listen/watch Lyn Bowtell – ‘Paper Cut’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YLu7Naws1E Kasey Chambers ft Shane Nicholson – ‘The Divorce Song’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cafdtL4Sa88 Jenny Mitchell – ‘Square & Plain’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ls-0mQyVOeE     Aleyce Simmonds – ‘Things I’ve Learned’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lc...

**Stay tuned to the end to listen to 'Birdwatcher' from Waiting fror Lily ** There’s something to be said for family harmonies. Anyone who has heard Fanny Lumsden sing live (or recorded) with her brother Tom, or who is rapt in the voices of The McClymonts, or a fan of The Buckleys, will appreciate that there’s a particular magic when family members sing together.  Ken Kunin is an American mus...

What happens when you combine the talents and experience of 2022 Blues Music Victoria Hall of Fame inductee and award winning producer / bass player Barry Hills, three other award-winning musicians in the forms of Brian Fraser on lap steel, electric and acoustic guitars, vocals; Roland Kretschmer on electric and acoustic guitars, mandolin, banjo, Dobro, ukulele, vocals; and drummer and vocali...

**Listen to the end to hear the song 'Lullaby of a Breaking Heart' After releasing the EP  Original Son  in 2018, Victorian artist  Rose Zita Falko  found herself in an enforced break from recording and releasing music due to the pandemic and all the upheaval it wrought. In 2022 she released the single ‘The Plan’ (which is a heartbreaker itself) and actually had another song up...

Jack Nolan  is a Sydney singer and songwriter who has a storied music career which began in the 1990s – back when Sydney had a plethora of live venues around the city and audiences to go with them – has included six solo albums and one LP with The Kelly Gang in 2004.  Nolan’s latest album is  Songs for Hemingway , which includes the single ‘Mother of All Storms’, which had its ...

The  first time I interviewed  Flora Smith and James Arneman, the members of  Small Town Romance , I learnt a lot about their respective musical backgrounds and we also spoke about making music videos, which is Arneman’s specialty. Partners in life as well as music, the pair both grew up around instruments and performance. In Arneman’s case it was as part of an Australian country mu...

Although I’ve  interviewed   Brittany Elise  before, we didn’t meet in person until September this year and it was in Nashville, where the native Queenslander has been spending time writing, recording and performing. It was not only lovely to meet her but she was so generous with her insider tips about the best places to find live music in the city that is full of options for that....

One of the benefits of being able to interview an artist more than once is that I can not only hear from them about the new things they’re up to but start to see connections between things they might have been doing a while ago and where that activity and those ideas have led them. Gold Coast rising star  Chloe Styler  has had a big year, taking home Breakout Artist of the Year &nbs...

Over the past couple of years Queensland artist  Billie Rose  has been releasing alluring, swirling, sometimes mystical singles including ‘Can’t Bring Back the Dead’ and ‘Black Dress’. Her latest is ‘Slaying Ghosts’ and it’s also the name of the EP that captures those single releases and marks the conclusion of that creative chapter in her life. Themes unintentionally emerged amongst the...

Shara Rose  is an all round entertainer who is not only a singer and songwriter, but a dancer as well. And as a result of all those skills, she is in demand, touring with Jason Owen, and Tania Kernaghan, and opening for Tones and I. She has also been releasing heartfelt country pop songs and the latest is ‘Finding My Way’.  As she says in our interview, Shara was determined to release fo...

Some songs arrive quickly; others take years to gestate, waiting for the songwriter to find the right moment to bring them fully to life. For her latest album,  Fighting Chance , Townsville artist  Tammy Moxon  wrote several new songs, but in the case of her new single, ‘What Am I To Do’, she discovered a song she wrote a decade before, in the wake of her first break-up, in some old...

After releasing their singles ‘Best Thing’ and ‘Leap of Faith’ earlier this year, brothers  Mak & Shar  have done what they most love to do: made new music, and this time, with new single ‘Untamed Heart’, they are paying tribute to their late father, who died when they were young. ‘Dad was a performer,’ they say. ‘He played Dodger in Lionel Bart's  Oliver  when he was young...

Here’s the thing about 22-time Golden Guitar winner  Sara Storer : she is both a country music icon – and she has been since she released her debut album,  Buffalo Bill , in 2000 and impressed audiences with her unique stories and clear-eyed view of humanity – and she’s an artist who is constantly in search of the next turn in the creative road, not so much restless with what she’s achie...

Laura Frank  is a multifaceted artist – singer, songwriter, performer videographer and much more besides – who lives in Queensland’s Scenic Rim area when she’s not on the road with Tom Curtain and his Katherine Outback Experience. Curtain’s tour goes for several months across the wet season (so he’s not in the Northern Territory then) so Frank was on the road when we spoke recently about her...

Well before the release of her previous single, ‘Wiley Blue’,  Adele Oliver  had established herself in the music scene in the beautiful Western Australian coastal town of Broome, playing her own shows and supporting touring artists. After the release of that single she supported Troy Cassar-Daley on his recent national tour, and we talk about that in this new interview, along with her l...

No two interviews are the same and if I haven’t interviewed an artist before I never know quite what to expect, even though I do my research. There was absolutely no evidence in my research on Melbourne artist  Suzie So Blue  – who has new singles ‘Bend’ and ‘Fall in Love’ – that indicated quite what an amazing life in music she’s had since her childhood. From playing cornet in polka and...

With an impressive nine Golden Guitar awards and over half a million albums sold,  Adam Harvey  is one of Australia’s most successful, and beloved, country music stars, and even if all you ever did is see Harvey play live, you’d understand why: he is a great entertainer, a superlative singer, and a performing artist who always gives the impression that there’s nowhere else he’d rather be...

Jim Morgan is an Australian who has been resident in the United States for several years and who for most of those years has overseen the operations of the International Songwriting Competition and the Unsigned Only Music Competition.  Morgan hails from Canberra, where he first discovered his passion for music as a drummer. After venturing to the United States he worked with the Boston Music...

When  Sara Berki  released her debut single, ‘Fallin’ Off the Heartline’, it was clear she was an artist with great songwriting talent and the voice to deliver those songs in an unforgettable way. Since then she’s been on impressive journey which has now led to her signing with Warner Music Australia and releasing ‘twice’, her first single with that label, as well as announcing a tour in...

Kaitlyn Thomas  is one of the most dynamic artists in Australian country music, with songs that are musically rich as well as entertaining and powerfully delivered. Her latest example of this is the single ‘Hell of a Long Time’, which she wrote with Troy Kemp, and MSquared – Michael Paynter and Michael DeLorenzis. The song was written during the pandemic, and it captures the essence of c...

I sat down with country-rock artist  Will Day  to discuss his recent single ‘Home Town’, his experiences writing and recording in Nashville, and the unique joys of being a festival performer. [NB: He’s since released the single ‘My Kinda Crowd’ – it took me longer than usual to post this interview due to the fact that, well, this is a solo operation and sometimes I can’t keep up!] Day, w...

Dylan Wright  is one half of the country duo Sons of Atticus, along with Matt Joyce, and after appearing at this year’s Tamworth Country Music Festival Wright went quickly on to appear in  Australian Idol  – and then to win it. He released a half-EP,  Half a World Away Pt 1 , a few weeks ago and now the full EP is out, along with the single ‘Mess of a Man’.  The songs on t...

Rusty Pickups  are a four-piece ensemble from Queensland's Darling Downs with members Michael Cook, Lee Fielding, Ayden Roberts and Waylon Katz, who each have a different musical background and found their way not only to each other but to a musical identity that takes advantage of their differences and has led to something uniquely theirs. And that is fun – and fun is certainly what I had wh...

Wren Bellette spent over a decade in bands, including Adelaide Americana outfit The Heggarties, and is now a solo artist, releasing her rich album  This Love Will Die  a few weeks ago.    The album’s strength comes from Bellette’s willingness to be open about her experiences – which include heartbreak – and her experience as an artist, using her voice as an instrument to convey...