Sunburnt Country Music

Courtney Keil released her debut album The Good Kind last year and since then the singles ‘All About You’, ‘Nothin’ Like a Sure Bet’ and her latest, ‘Worn In’, which she recorded with Gina Jeffreys. From her first single, 'I Just Wanna Hold You', Keil has marked herself as an engaging country-pop artist with a knack for creating memorable songs, and 'the latest is no'Worn In' is no different.&nbsp...

Kayla Mahon is a singer, songwriter, instrumentalist, music teacher and nurse from the South Island of Aotearoa New Zealand who has released music in the duo The Heartleys and as a solo artist she’s been releasing singles steadily since last year, including  'Love's Got a Witness'  and  'Little Man' . She now has an album - her first solo record - called  Right on the Money . T...

Sam Snape is a singer and songwriter from the Northern Tablelands of New South Wales. He grew up immersed in country music and learned to play guitar by ear at a young age. Although his musical journey has had starts and stops, over the past six years Snape has been performing at various venues and events in his home area, and earlier this year he appeared on Australian Idol .   During the co...

In releasing 'I'm Calling Shotgun', his third anthemic country-pop single - with its video clip garnering thousands of views in a short space of time - Wagga Wagga (NSW) artist Nathan Lamont continues the rise he started with his debut single, 'Drink You Up ’, last year. 'Drink You Up' it was hardly the work of a beginner but of an artist who had taken his time to develop the sound he wanted and t...

Eloise Rayner is a singer and songwriter from Sydney who last year released the song ‘Fallin’ for a Cowboy’ with Zara Lindeman after the pair met at the Academy of Country Music. Rayner now has a single of her own and on her own to release, ‘Can You Still Feel Me Loving You?’. During our recent interview Rayner revealed that she first thought up the initial melody and chorus lyrics for her new son...

Michael Waugh is an award-winning singer and songwriter from Victoria who has released four albums since 2015, the last being The Cast . Since then Michael has been releasing outstanding singles, including ‘We Are Here’ and ‘Fix Me’. The latest single is the title track to his new album, Beauty & Truth , which absolutely lives up to its title. In this in-depth conversation Waugh traces the arc...

Ruby Jane is a singer and songwriter originally from Victoria, now resident in Queensland, who started singing at a young age and taught herself to play guitar during lockdown in 2020. She also holds a Diploma of Music and Certificate III in Music Performance.  Ruby is a graduate of the Academy of Country Music and has released several songs over the past few months. The latest single, ‘Hoot...

The Smith & Western Jury is an alt-country duo from Melbourne with members Sam Lombardi and Simon Torcasio. They formed in 2018 and since then have been releasing singles, and are now releasing their impressive debut album, Hotel Texas .    Lombardi and Torcasio after years of playing in different bands – Lombardi in pop rock groups and Torcasio in punk bands. After being inspired by...

A note on the audio quality: Raechel lives in a country town in New South Wales and noted before the start of recording that her audio may be patchy, as it can be in the bush. While she’s understandable throughout, you will hear some ‘glitchy’ noises in places. Raechel Whitchurch’s first album, Finally Clear , debuted at #1 in the ARIA Country Music chart and later went on to have Golden Guitar no...

Chloe Styler is a singer and songwriter from south-east Queensland who has developed a unique country-pop sound that features great melodies and often wistful, always thoughtful lyrics about life and love and the choices we make in both. Already this year she has opened for Gladys Knight, Nik Kershaw and Go West, and Shannon Noll, and released the singles ‘Time Bomb’ and ‘Twenty Five’. Her latest...

Briana Dinsdale is a singer-songwriter from south-east Queensland who is a recent graduate of the Academy of Country Music and who released her debut album, Beginnings , in 2021. Since then she’s released some irresistible country pop songs, including last year’s ‘Chasing Boys’.  Dinsdale's latest single is ‘Whiskey Worked That Way’, which she wrote with Robbie Mortimer , Chloe Styler and Jen...

Listening to Sweet Talk in 2022 and the single ‘Warm Love’ last year, and I spoke to brothers Tane and Soren Walker about it at that time.  Since then Sweet Talk have carved up the Tamworth Country Music Festival and played Bluesfest, where Kasey Chambers joined them on stage. They released the single ‘Lovin’ Myself’, a collaboration with Andy Golledge and have a new single of their own, ‘Rea...

Shanleigh Rose is a singer-songwriter from Queensland's Sunshine Coast who has released several catchy country-pop singles and won the 2023 Gympie Muster Junior Talent Search as well as being a Top 10 Finalist in the Groundwater Country Music Festival KIX Start Competition. Last year Rose attended the Junior Academy of Country Music and the Dag Sheep Station Songwriting Retreat, and in this interv...

The first I knew of Andy Golledge was seeing him in the 2019 SBS series Robbie Hood . He had the role of Robbie’s dad and he played guitar and sang, and his music was an integral part of the show, which remains one of my favourite anythings and always will (and it’s still available to stream on SBS ).  At the time I couldn’t believe I hadn’t heard of Golledge, but research revealed that he ha...

Adam Harvey is the winner of 9 Golden Guitars and untold numbers of fans, with over half a million albums sold across several albums, including  The Great Country Songbooks  with Troy Cassar-Daley and Beccy Cole, and he will have a new album out later in the year. In this interview Harvey touches on the story behind his catchy new single ‘It’s Gettin’ Late’, written with hit songwriter D...

Abigail Wighton is a folk-influenced singer-songwriter from Sydney who released the EP interwoven in 2019. In recent months she has released the singles ‘letter’ and ‘if you let me’ from her new EP soon . She’s also supported Fanny Lumsden at her Sydney show and played in the National Folk Festival. In our recent interview Wighton talked about her musical journey, from an unlikely start writing so...

Tammy Moxon lives in Townsville, Far North Queensland, where she performs live regularly. She released the album Drive Me Sane in 2019 and has been steadily releasing singles leading up to her latest album, Fighting Chance , which was recorded with producer Shane Nicholson in just three days, in and around lockdown travel restrictions.  As on Drive Me Sane , Moxon shows herself to be a though...

**Mild language warning** Brooke Taylor is an alt-country singer, songwriter and guitarist from Melbourne who released her debut album It’s the Little Things in 2020. Her second album, There’s Magic in Mistakes , is not long out in the world. It is by turns pragmatic and joyful, wry and compassionate, and at its core is Taylor's inherent ability to entertain and be present in her music. As I found...

Mak & Shar are brothers from Mudgee in New South Wales who released their debut single together in 2022 - but this was far from their first release as they were members of the band Brothers3 and as such played 12 Tamworth Country Music Festivals and appeared on X Factor in 2016. They released the single ‘Leap of Faith’ earlier this year and now have a new single, ‘Best Thing’ (watch the music...

released a self-titled EP in 2020 and her debut album, Sticks, Stones and Stories , in 2022. Late last year she released the single ‘Too Far Down’ and her latest single is ‘Can’t Fake That’.  ‘Can’t Fake That’ is Brooke’s tribute to women of the land, with a lighthearted feeling that was achieved by Brooke and her producer, Rusty Crook, by deciding to re-record the song after realising their...

Jayne Denham was nominated for a Golden Guitar in 2022 for her last album, Wanted , and she returns now with Moonshine , which is an irrepressible force of an album that features Jayne’s amazing vocal power. Whereas Wanted had a spaghetti western theme, Denham chose the Prohibition era as the creative inspiration for Moonshine . Working with her Nashville-based producer Brian White, she carefully...

Melbourne singer and songwriter Jay Santilli has been immersed in music since childhood, listening to classic country artists on the radio growing up, begging her parents for a keyboard at age 10 and learning saxophone then guitar. She formed a band with friends and would go on to take part in such competitions as the (now-defunct) Telstra Road to Tamworth contest. This year she was a Grand Finali...

When reviewing Troy Cassar-Daley’s last album,  The World Today  (2021), I compared him to Orpheus, going to the Underworld in search of his wife, Eurydice, who had been taken there by Hades. But after going into the darkness to find what he was looking for then turning back at the point of rescue only to see Eurydice disappear – as the myth has it – Cassar-Daley as Orpheus turned his fa...

Hana & Jessie-Lee’s Bad Habits are a Melbourne duo who released their debut album, Southlands , in 2017 and have just released their latest album, the gloriously entertaining and thought-provoking Say What You Mean .    The longtime friends and collaborators started their performing life in punk bands over a decade ago in their hometown of Adelaide before forming Hana & Jessie-Le...

Tori Forsyth released her Golden Guitar-nominated debut album Dawn of the Dark in 2018 then followed it up with rock album Provlépseis in 2021. She now has a new country music album, All We Have is Who We Are . The album was created after Forsyth decided that if she didn’t love the process of making music, she’d walk away. Around the same time the pandemic led to her once more living on the land,...