Get On Your Feet with Brand’s new album

IT’S time to Get On Your Feet with Adam Brand back with a new album brimming with positivity. He got the party started at the Tamworth Country Music Festival where he kicked off his Wormall Civil Get On Your Feet tour. Today, February 10, though, fans get their hands on the album.
“I want the album to make you feel like dancing, jumping up on your seat, raising your glass in the air and waving your arms around,” Brand said.
“There is light and shade, though … and there’s a lot of fun stuff on there. There are different textures and flavours that you probably wouldn’t expect. The last thing I want is for people to listen and think that’s just another Brandy album.”

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Photo: Andrew Hennell

The singer-songwriter said that he was constantly striving to push the bar even higher on his music with each album and enjoyed challenging himself with two female producers working on the album and taking his music in new directions.

In another break from tradition, Brand didn’t write any of the songs on the album, instead opting for songs written by others that he whittled down to 10 he couldn’t stop listening to.
“I approached the song search in a totally different way and started collecting songs for about 18 months before I went into the studio,” Brand said.
“I contacted songwriting friends and people I’ve written with in Nashville and everytime they sent me a song, I’d add it to my playlist and I would play them in the car. Songs I didn’t like got deleted and, by natural selection, I ended up with 10 songs that I wanted to keep pressing repeat on – that was my album. I thought how good that you can spend a year listening to songs and the 10 songs I loved the most, that’s your album.” Continue reading

No stopping Lyn Bowtell

By Rebecca Belt
MULTI-GOLDEN Guitar finalist Lyn Bowtell is the embodiment of the show must go on mantra. Not one to let anyone down, the singer-songwriter has been unwell since mid-December and hospitalised three times since but kept up all music commitments. She directed the CMAA Academy of Country Music for the first two weeks of January then threw herself into Tamworth Country Music Festival appearances and shows.
Last Sunday, though, she was again hospitalised, spending Sunday night and Monday in Tamworth Hospital.
“I was watching Toyota Star Maker, being the 20th year since I won, and supporting all the people who has entered,” Bowtell said.
“I sat down with the students from the academy and we got to half time and I stood up to get dinner the pain hit severely.”lyn-bowtell-damon Continue reading

Matt Henry launches first album – Love Without Co-Dependency

By Rebecca Belt
THE Tamworth Country Music Festival is the ideal place to launch new product for artists, but for Matt Henry, this moment has been 20 years in the making.
Love Without Co-Dependency is an album that’s been 20 years in the making and was released on the first day of festival, January 20.matthenrylovewithoutcodependency
“It seems like it’s been a long time coming because I started recording with Shane (Nicholson) in December last year for two weeks then went back to him in May and recorded more,” Henry said. “I’ve been working on these songs for a couple of years.”
Henry said choosing the songs was a collaboration between Nicholson and himself as he wrote and sent him a bunch of songs and Nicholson chose the songs he believed were the strongest to formulate a sound and create the album.
“I was probably listening to a lot of Americana and bluegrass while I was writing, so there is more of that sound on the album,” Henry said. “In America, it’s been a really strong, solid sub-genre of its own for a long time and now, in Australia, it’s growing.”
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McClymonts show their Endless talents

By Rebecca Belt

FRIDAY the 13th is a lucky day for country trio, The McClymonts in January 2017, as they release their latest album, Endless. The musical surprises are endless on this offering as they take listeners to an even fresher place in country than they’ve ever gone, while keeping the sound undeniably theirs.

mcclymonts-endless-coverOne-third of the sister trio, Mollie McClymont, spoke to The Country Journo about the making of the album and their upcoming trip to the 2017 Tamworth Country Music Festival. It’s been a massive 12 months for the trio welcoming another member to the family, with the birth of Mollie’s first child, Ned, to husband, Aaron Blackburn, and now the birth of a new album.
“We are so excited about this album,” she said. “It feels like it’s been a long time coming.”

Produced by Andy Mak, his experience with pop albums shines through, while Brooke, Sam and Mollie McClymont retain their country style.
“He plays a lot with his brother, so got the sibling harmony stuff and this was his first country album,” Mollie said. “We were looking for producers and looking for someone new and fresh. We all just clicked and had an instant connection.”

Mollie said, prior to the release, that any nerves she experienced were outweighed by the excitement of the new offering for fans.
“Personally, I think it’s our best album yet,” she said.

The youngest McClymont sibling said she had a few favourite tracks on Endless, but was attached to all of them.
“I really love Unsaveable because it really means something,” she said. “I loved ‘Like We Used To’ the first time I heard it. Brooke wrote it with other people and I played it on repeat because it is so catchy. I love not being a writer and hearing a song and instantly having a connection to it. It was instant love for me with that song.”

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With Mollie and Brooke both being mothers now, Mollie said it had changed their outlook on life and influenced their writing.
“We wrote, Don’t Wish It All Away, about our children,” she said. “We were sitting around talking about how, when you have children, you can’t wait until they walk and talk, but this is the time we need to enjoy and just reflect on what’s going at the moment. It’s important to enjoy them and don’t miss anything – the kids were definitely an influence on the whole album because it does affect your outlook on life and your priorities in life. Family is important and makes your music better as well.”

Mollie admitted she was nervous about their Tamworth Country Music Festival show.
“We are going to be playing all these new songs and it’s such a huge show to start the year with,” Mollie said. “I’m excited to show people the new songs, though, and it’s going to be a huge Tamworth. We are so busy, but it’s a good way to start the year.”

Their Tamworth show on Wednesday, January 25 at 7pm with see them performing plenty of the new songs from Endless while not forgetting the favourites.
“It’s going to be high-energy,” Mollie promised.

The McClymonts will also perform at the CMAA Country Music Awards of Australia on Saturday, January 28 to finish off their festival commitments.
“It’s going to be awesome – we’ve got our dresses sorted and the girls will be my date,” Mollie said.

Following Tamworth, the girls will hit the road with shows promoting Endless until June and then, no doubt, they’ll add even more gigs to their calendar.

 

Keith Urban adds to Golden Guitars with Ripcord

INTERNATIONAL country music superstar, Keith Urban, has added to his Golden Guitar tally with the 2017 Sanity Top Selling Australian Album of the Year award.

Platinum-selling album, Ripcord, was the highest selling country selling album of the year based on sales figures complied by ARIA for 2016. This is the first time the award has been based on the ARIA figures and brings Keith’s Golden Guitar tally to 12.

His album finished the year at No. 2 overall with an unbroken run in the top 20 and held the top spot for two weeks on release.

keith-urban-ripcordRounding out the Top 5 top selling Australian country albums on the ARIA end of year Country Album chart are:
#2 Adam Brand & The OutlawsAdam Brand & The Outlaws
#3 John WilliamsonHis Favourite Collection
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4 Troy Cassar-DaleyThings I Carry Around
#5 Graeme Connors60 Summers: The Ultimate Collection

The Sanity Top Selling Australian Album of the Year award will be presented at the 2017 CMAA Country Music Awards of Australia on Saturday, January 28 at the Tamworth Regional Entertainment and Conference Centre.

The Golden Guitar Awards are the nation’s longest running music awards and play a vital role in developing and promoting Australian country music talent.  The awards are the pinnacle event of the Tamworth Country Music Festival.keith-urban

Tickets are on sale now and available from www.tcmf.com.au, but if you can’t make it to Tamworth, be part of the awards with the Toyota Country Music Festival live stream at www.tcmf.com.au/live.

 

Buddy Goode delights with More Rubbish

By Rebecca Belt
BUDDY Goode is back with another album of trashy music sure to tickle your funny bone. More Rubbish was released on Friday, December 16, and he has dedicated to the fans he has spoken to after shows and who have left comments on his Facebook page.
“Over the years, you tend to read Facebook and get lovely comments after the shows,” he said. “Some of the people think you’re rubbish, so I’ve dedicated this to the people who think I’m rubbish. Here is more rubbish.”more_rubbish_cover Continue reading

Beddingfield brings international flavour to Tamworth Country Music Festival

By Rebecca Belt
THE first weekend of the Tamworth Country Music Festival will have an international flavour with Eric Lee Beddingfield headlining CowboyUp.
The rodeo, ute and musical event is an initiative of the Australian Bushmen’s Campdraft and Rodeo Association (ABCRA) and is new to the festival next year. It will raise vital funds for the Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service.cowboys
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Travis Collins helps launch Tamworth festival

By Rebecca Belt
SIX-TIME time Golden Guitar finalist Travis Collins was in Tamworth on Wednesday, December 7, to help launch the festival locally and speak about what it meant to him.
Collins said, to describe the festival as a family reunion was cliché, but there was no better way to explain it.
“It is like Christmas time when we call come home,” he said.
“We break bread and have beers and talk about what we’ve been doing and plan our year. If you took that out every January, then who knows what would happen to the whole country music industry. In business terms, it’s like our AGM.”img_0249

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Rural fiction with Christmas spirit

RURAL fiction is getting in the Christmas spirit with Karly Lane’s latest novel and book launch on the NSW North Coast on Saturday, December 3.
Karly’s Christmas-themed book, Third Time Lucky, took a slightly different road to being written than her previous works and began life as a novella. Avid readers may have picked up December’s Wish, a novella that Karly wrote in 2013.

third-time-luckyAfter the success of December’s Wish, Karly has developed the story of Seth Hunter and December Doyle. The couple began as teenage lovers who were torn apart by circumstance and a town’s prejudices. After more than a decade apart, they are reunited in the town they grew up in, Christmas Creek . They’re older and perhaps a little wiser, but the course of true love never runs smooth and such is the case in the relationship of Seth and December.
“I did love their story and, with life experience, they come back different, knowing each other in the past growing up, but they were now different people,” Karly said.
Turning a novella into a novel was also not entirely smooth sailing.
“It was harder than I thought,” Karly said.
“I was assuming that it was going to be easy because I had already written the novella, but I found it difficult. I think it was more my process of writing because I don’t plot or outline anything usually and, being a novella, it felt like it was a plotted out story and each scene felt like an outline.” Continue reading

Changes and new talent for Toyota Star Maker 2017

FANS of new talent will notice a few changes to the 2017 Toyota Star Maker event with the announcement of the ten grand finalists today.

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2016 Toyota Star Maker Karin Page

Ten of Australia’s top emerging talent will vie for the honour of becoming the 38th Toyota Star Maker in a winner-takes-all, event in Toyota Park, in the leafy heart of Tamworth in January. The event has traditionally been the main feature of the first festival weekend, but this concert on Sunday, January 22, aims to make it an even more significant occasion.

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