Aussie Country Music Artists On The COVID-19 Vaccination – Part 2

October 21, 2021October 21, 2021Leave a comment

It’s been just over one month since the launch of #vaxthenation, which saw more than 400 of Australia’s biggest artists and performers join forces with leading tour promoters, music festivals, venues, ticketing agencies, record labels, comedy producers, theatre, opera and dance companies, media outlets, industry associations, peak bodies and global brands like YouTube and TikTok in a new campaign asking Australians to help ‘stop the interruptions’ and get vaccinated.

In response, Ben Mitchell released a song called Free The Nation and started a campaign of his own. Free The Nation Music has since seen over 170 vaccinated and unvaccinated musicians stand up for freedom against discrimination, segregation and fear, and promoting choice, respect and love for all.

However, the one thing we can all agree on is that the COVID-19 vaccine has left us divided.

So, we wanted to go to the source itself, and find out just what the country music community thinks about this topical subject. While it would be impossible to gauge every single opinion, we have carefully curated our twelve country artists to represent a range of different ages, genders, locations, family dynamics, life experiences as well as places they are at in their respected careers.

While not requested by the artists themselves, to allow a safe and open space to share their opinions freely without consequence, we have assigned each artist a random number and omitted key details to keep their anonymity.

In this twelve-part daily series, we asked our artists a range of taboo, topical and controversial questions to find out what the Australian country music community thinks of COVID-19.

NOTE: OPINIONS IN THIS ARTICLE ARE THE ARTIST’S OWN. PLEASE CONSIDER DOING YOUR OWN RESEARCH AND/OR SPEAKING TO A GP OR SCIENTIFIC OR MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL.

For other artists in the series, go here > https://tinselandtapshoes.com/tag/covid/

Photo by Anthony DELANOIX on Unsplash

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Aussie Country Music Artists On The COVID-19 Vaccination – Part 1

October 20, 2021October 21, 2021Leave a comment

However, the one thing we can all agree on is that the COVID-19 vaccine has left us divided.

In this twelve-part daily series, we asked our artists a range of taboo, topical and controversial questions to find out what the Australian country music community thinks of COVID-19.

NOTE: OPINIONS IN THIS ARTICLE ARE THE ARTIST’S OWN. PLEASE CONSIDER DOING YOUR OWN RESEARCH AND/OR SPEAKING TO A GP OR SCIENTIFIC OR MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL.

For other artists in the series, go here > https://tinselandtapshoes.com/tag/covid/

Photo by ActionVance on Unsplash

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An Interview with Passenger

January 5, 2021Leave a comment

Passenger will release his 13th studio album, Songs For The Drunk & Brokenhearted on January 8th. Penned by Passenger – aka Mike Rosenberg – when he was newly single, the album features that raw and authentic vulnerability that Passenger’s global fan-base has grown to love.

Fans from all over the world have the opportunity as well to tune into a very special performance of Passenger and his new record from the iconic Royal Albert Hall in London on January 10, 2021. Due to a partnership with Ecologi and the Eden Reforestation Project, a tree will be planted for every physical copy of Songs sold via the Passenger store. All physical packaging is made from 100% recycled materials.

Passenger is an multi award winning, platinum selling singer-songwriter from Brighton, England. Although still known for his busking, he long ago made the journey from street corners to stadiums – most notably with Let Her Go, which reached number 1 in 19 countries, was certified 7x platinum in Australia and has over 1.2 billion streams.

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An Interview with Paul Costa

November 12, 2018November 12, 2018Leave a comment

Multi-Golden Guitar nominated singer-songwriter Paul Costa makes a much-anticipated return with a new single Road Train off his firth studio album, Whisper in the Crowd, in the lead up to two very special shows at the 2019 Tamworth Country Music Festival. I recently spoke with the Australian country music fan-favourite about how he spends his holidays, plans for Tamworth and finding inspiration in unexpected places.

I wanted to kick off with something different before we get into touring and recording. Your birthday is fast approaching at the end of November. What do birthdays mean to you and how will you be celebrating it?

I like to spend it with my family. I don’t go overboard; it’s fairly low key. We might go out for tea or just cut a cake. A lot of people are working in one place, getting away is their holiday. For me, it’s completely the opposite – I’m away so much; being home is my holiday. There’s still work to do when you’re home, as there’s stuff that goes on behind the scenes, so I can’t afford to relax too much but I am relaxed so far as being in one on my favourite places to be.

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An Interview with Brook Chivell

October 26, 2018October 26, 20181 Comment

Splitting from his band and relocating interstate has helped define Brook Chivell as an up-and-coming solo artist to watch. After making the finals of Toyota Starmaker in 2017, he toured nationally with fellow country artist Natalie Pearson, as well as releasing his first solo single and its follow up Outta My Song last month. I spoke with Brook about upcoming music, getting dirty and being a fan boy in his own industry.

You were formally the frontman and driving force behind The Brook Chivell Band, releasing singles Drive On, Thrills N Spills and Let’s Stay In around six years ago. What was the reason behind parting as a band and how has that impacted on you as a solo artist? Because even being in the industry for ten years or so now, it must feel a little like starting over?

The main reason for the split was that I moved to Queensland. The distance made it really hard. The band all live in Melbourne and they’ve all got families. For a while we kept it together but it was getting difficult to get everyone together to play gigs. It’s easier for me to do a support gig as a solo artist, purely because I can get up there with a guitar. There’s a great, vibrant country music scene up here. Whereas in Melbourne every time you say ‘country’ it was a dirty word; up here, people love it.

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The Mount Hunter Country Music Stampede Files – An Interview with Jasmine Rae

October 6, 2018October 6, 2018Leave a comment

Jasmine Rae is a three-time ARIA nominated and multi-award winning vocalist, songwriter, actor and entertainer. Described by the Sydney Morning Herald as a ‘pocket-sized powerhouse’, she’s the only female solo artist to win the CMC Australian Artist of the Year Award and has ten #1 Australian country singles under her belt.

Let’s talk about the Mount Hunter Country Music Stampede – a festival only its second year. Held at the K Ranch Arena, just 50 minutes from Sydney airport, will feature a line up of evens such as traditional cowboy skills, equestrian events, jumping castles, food vendors, as well as showcasing new and established country music artists. You’re representing for the females on Friday’s girl power night alongside Christie Lamb and Teleisha Eade, who won the Maton Rising Star last year. What can we expect from your performance?

Friday night is the first night and people usually party the hardest on the first night, because they’ve just gotten there. I usually party the hardest on the first night of a festival, so it’s going to be fun. It’s got to be an energetic show for sure. Playing one new song makes the whole set feel fresh and shiny. It does add some extra excitement.

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The Mount Hunter Country Music Stampede Files – An Interview with Drew McAlister

October 2, 2018October 6, 2018Leave a comment

Drew McAlister has long been recognised as one of the nation’s premier songwriters and performers. He recently lent his voice in support of the drought crisis facing our local farmers and, to coincide with the release of his third single off his current album, he’s been hard at work co-organising the forthcoming three-day Mount Hunter Country Music Stampede.

You released Kissing a Girl Goodnight recently off your album Coming Your Way. In the past we’ve spoken about how important you feel it is to perform songs you’ve written yourself – however, this is a song you found through a demo – and the sound as well is quite different to things you’ve recorded in the past. Does this song resonate with your life and is that what you connected with lyrically?

It’s exactly my life. I connected to it and I think other people will too, that’s why I recorded it. I think a lot of people will be living or will have lived some similar the version of that. It’s quite a difficult song to sing because it’s so low and then so high in the chorus, so I was a bit trepidatious, to be honest, when we were going to record this vocal. I wasn’t sure how it was going to turn out, but I had to work on it for a while and sing it quite a few times to make sure it sat right and I had the right key.

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An Interview with Brodie Rainbird from The Wolfe Brothers

September 16, 2018Leave a comment

It’s been a busy year for the Tasmanian country-rock band, The Wolfe Brothers – with the release of their highly-anticipated fourth studio album Country Heart in March, its two chart-topping singles ‘Ain’t Seen It Yet’ and ‘No Sad Song’, as well as an accompanying national tour. The album debuted on the ARIA Country Chart at #2 and the ARIA Charts at #9, beating their last album, This Crazy Life, which came in at #10 on release in June 2016.

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An Interview with Hayley Marsten

September 14, 20181 Comment

Country music artist Hayley Marsten hails from Gladstone, Queensland. Her previous singles, off her latest EP Lonestar, are a tongue-and-cheek representation of her fun, flirty and quirky sides. The newly-released Coming Home, however, is an emotional punch-to-the-gut depiction of her parent’s divorce when she was just 13-years-old.

We were lucky enough to exclusively premiere the music video for you this morning, and now we share our interview with Hayley discussing emotional song-writing, new music and fun on the road.

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An Interview with Morgan Evans

September 7, 2018Leave a comment

Morgan Evans has been dubbed as an artist to watch. His debut US single Kiss Somebody recently topped the US country charts, making him only the fourth Australian to reach such momentous feat. The Newcastle born singer-songwriter now lives in Nashville with his pop-country superstar wife, Kelsea Ballerini, and is currently back in Australia on a short promotional tour of his latest self-titled EP.

I first you saw perform at CMC Rocks The Snowys in 2009. I’ve listened from the early days of your debut EP Blue Skies all the way through to your self-titled album release in 2014. So, for those of us who have been following your career, it seems like you’ve been constantly working at it, but to many others it may appear like you were an overnight success. Do you feel like everything has fallen into place and you’re only now just starting to gain some momentum and traction?

For me, it definitely feels like I’ve been doing this a long time, but, at the same time, it also feels like there’s been moments where I [thought] this is the start of something great. I think the first real moment of that here in the US, was when I met my producer Chris DeStefano.

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