An Interview with Drew McAlister

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Drew McAlister has long been recognised as one of the nation’s premier songwriters and performers. A singer from the age of 7, he’s worked as a commercial composer for TV and radio, performer, recording artist and songwriter.

As a teenager, he travelled the country with the cast of the Broadway hit, Jesus Christ Superstar, alongside John Farnham, Jon Stevens and Kate Ceberano in the principal roles. He later performed as part of Johnny Cash tribute show, Aussies Walk the Line and with various bands over the years. Originally being signed as a pop-soul artist with EMI, a trip to Nashville shifted his focus, steering him towards his home-grown roots in country.

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An Interview with Casey Barnes

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Following the success of his last single, Just Like Magic off his 2016 release, Live As One; teetering on the edge of commercial pop and rock, with a blend of American, modern-country sound, Casey Barnes has once again teamed up with Michael Paynter and Michael Delorenzis from MSquared Productions with the equally catchy, follow-up single, The Way We Ride.

Your latest single, The Way We Ride was written and recorded with Michael Paynter and Michael Delorenza from MSquared Productions who you worked with on your previous single, Just Like Magic. Tell us about the new single.

The current album feels like it’s only been out for a short amount of time. Because that album included new songs [and] some tracks off my previous EP, I thought it was the right time to start moving forward and concentrating on brand new stuff. Because things worked so well with Michael Paynter and Michael Delorenzis from MSquared Productions, we decided to keep going in the same direction.

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The Broadbeach Country Music Festival Files – An Interview with Tom Wolfe from The Wolfe Brothers

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County music favourites, the Wolfe Brothers this week their latest single hit #1 on CMC coinciding with the one year anniversary release of their third studio album, This Crazy Life. Gearing up to grace the stage alongside over 25 acts during the July 28-30 free Broadbeach Country Music Festival – I caught up with Tom Wolfe to chat about new music, touring with Lee Kernaghan and all things Broadbeach.

Last time we spoke you were on the This Crazy Life mini festival tour (alongside Gord Bamford, Caitlyn Shadbolt, Christie Lamb, Craig Heath, Troy Kemp and Jody Direen). Is it safe to assume you guys are working on new material at the moment?

We are putting a lot of new stuff together. What we’re trying to do at the moment is find a new sound that takes it into 2017 and to the next level. We’re not going to rush – we did three albums and a live DVD in four years and a hell of a lot of touring! We want to take our time, make sure we’ve got the right songs and make it our best one yet. We’re going back to Nashville in July for another writing trip and I can foresee us going back into the studio and doing more demos. We don’t really know how to stop. Once we stop, we get too bored. We get a week off and we’re like, “Let’s do something!” (laughs)

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The Broadbeach Country Music Festival Files – An Interview with Troy Cassar-Daley

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Troy Cassar-Daley has had a mammoth year! Continuing the success of his 2016 release, Things I Carry Around and the autobiographical book of the same name; he took home the Golden Guitar for Album of the Year and was named the 50th inductee into the Australian Country Music Roll of Renown, Australian Country Music’s highest honour. With over 20 years in the industry, he’s headlining alongside one of the band’s he used to open for at the Broadbeach Country Music Festival.

You’re playing at Broadbeach Country Music Festival on July 28th-30th, 2017. What makes the festival so special and unique?

The best thing is – it’s free. It’s got something special going on there. They set this festival up so that it’s accessible for everyone. It’s really important to show everyone where country music is. You can see the whole broad spectrum of where the genre sits. I’m very excited, not only to be a part of that, but it gives people a good introduction of our music. If you’re going to get people to come along, and experiment with your music and with our genre; if it’s free, what a great way to get people to a show to start with!

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