Joy McKean

Joy McKean is a country music pioneer.  Together with her husband, Slim Dusty, Joy helped create Australia’s own unique brand of country music that is still as popular today as it ever was.  She was composing hit country songs and touring regional and remote Australia at a time when the perceived role of women was that of home-maker and mother, with little expectations of an independent career or artistic expression.  Joy McKean has had a stellar career both as a performer and as a songwriter, spanning more than 70 years.  She is a Roll of Renown and ARIA Hall of Fame inductee, and won the first ever Golden Guitar in 1973 for writing LIGHTS ON THE HILL.  Never one to rest on her laurels, Joy went on to compose some of country music’s most celebrated songs including THE BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT, RINGER FROM THE TOP END, WALK A COUNTRY MILE and INDIAN PACIFIC.  In recent years, Joy has been active with The Slim Dusty Foundation and the newly established Slim Dusty Centre in Kempsey NSW, and is the subject of the full length documentary ‘Slim and I’.  Joy turned 90 in January 2020 and the industry celebrated this amazing milestone with an all-star event, THE CONCERT FOR JOY, held in Tamworth during the annual country music festival.

Saturday @ 2:15 pm – The Australian icon and her incredible ‘stickability’

Jerry Salley –  USA

Referred to by Billboard Magazine as “One of Music Row’s greatest veteran tunesmiths”, Jerry Salley has had an incredibly successful, multi-award winning songwriting career.  Nominated in 2019 for the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, Salley is the 2018 & 2019 IBMA (International Bluegrass Music Association) Songwriter of the Year and was named the 2003 SESAC Country Music Songwriter of the Year.  Salley has had over 500 different songs recorded and his songs have sold in excess of 18 million records worldwide.  As an artist, Jerry has performed worldwide.  As well as having the honor of performing as a soloist many times on the world famous Grand Ole Opry, he has appeared on Late Night with David Letterman, Regis and Kathy Lee, and NBC’S Today Show, where he was honored to sing as backing vocalist for the legendary Linda Ronstadt.   

Internationally, he has penned no less than nine #1 Country hits in Australia.  

Multi-Grammy award winning producer, musician and songwriter, Carl Jackson says of Jerry: “Jerry is not only a friend, in the truest sense of the word, he is also a songwriter’s songwriter – an artist that completely understands the idea of “painting a picture” using the marriage of lyric and rhyme; someone that fully grasps the art of crafting a song, rather than throwing words against the page.  His paintbrush is a pen, his canvas a legal pad, and his goal always another masterpiece.” 

Sunday @ 11:30 am  Writing Grammy award-winning songs

Kim Richey – USA

Two-time Grammy-nominated Kim Richey is a storyteller.  Kim has released ten critically acclaimed albums, been listed in the ‘Top 10 Albums of 1999’ in Time Magazine for her album ‘Glimmer’, received 4-stars in Rolling Stone Magazine and named ‘Alt-Country Album of the Year’ in People Magazine for her album ‘Rise’.  She has written two #1 singles and had four others hit Top 10.  Her songs have been recorded by Trisha Yearwood, Mary Chapin Carpenter, James Morrison, Brooks and Dunn and many others.  Kim has contributed backing vocals on albums by Trisha Yearwood, Ryan Adams, Shawn Colvin and Jason Isbell to name a few.  In 2020 Kim won a Golden Guitar award naming ‘Chain of Joy’ (which she wrote with Felicity Urquhart) as Song of the Year.  Kim’s songs have been featured in films and television series over the years inclucing NASHVILLE (three songs) and Bones, to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dawson’s Creek and many more.

Saturday @ 9:30 am  Getting songs cut, and cutting through as an artist

Sara Storer

One of Australia’s most-loved singer-songwriters and a multiple Golden Guitar winner, whose crisp observations of the Australian landscape and its people provide the solid foundation stone for her music.  Living for a time in western Queensland where she wrote her first song, and working as a schoolteacher in Katherine in the Northern Territory, Sara Storer writes from the heart.  “I think I write at my best when I say it as I see it, or feel it.  And I have to write that because it is the truth for me.  Of course I love to sing about the rain because it draws so much emotion out of me.  I have a soft spot for people who work on the land.  I grew up with that, my family still do it, I see all the struggles and the triumphs.  I love writing about those people because they are such colourful characters.  But how lucky are they to get to live out in the bush?’’ Sara Storer was born to sing about real people, honest emotions, and the land she loves.

Saturday @ 3:15 pm  The art of telling a good yarn in song

O’Shea – USA

Multi-award winning husband and wife duo O’Shea, are one of Australia’s most exciting musical exports.  Based in Nashville for the last nine years, O’Shea have graced some of the world’s most famed stages, from the Grand Ole Opry to the Sydney Opera House, since beginning their musical together journey together in 2007.  

Mark and Jay come from different musical backgrounds. Mark’s country rock roots provide an edgy contrast to Jay’s soulful, powerful voice – making them a dynamic and unique combination of singer/songwriters. 

The influences of their two homes are all over their latest record, appropriately titled  61-615  in homage to both Australia and Nashville.  The resulting album is deeply personal, deeply felt and is the duo’s most powerful release to date.  It’s one that will send listeners on a poignant journey, regardless of where they call home. 

O’Shea have already had an impressive run in their ten years playing together: there are seven Golden Guitars on the mantle; they serve as ambassadors for charitable organisations like World Vision and Heart Kids and; they host the QANTAS in-flight radio show ‘Big Country’.  On top of that, they’ve clocked up more than 11 #1’s on the Aussie Country charts.  Their Australian hit TV show O’SHEA USA has just been renewed for its sixth season. 

Sunday @ 9:30 am  From the bush to music city and about a thousand songs inbetween

Felicity Urquhart

With 13 Golden Guitars and 2 ARIA nominations, Felicity Urquhart has long been one of the best-loved and most decorated singer-songwriters in Australian song.  In a career encompassing seven studio albums, two EPs, and countless soldout headlining shows and capacity festival appearances, Felicity definitely knows a thing or two about the art of song.  Her seventh solo studio album ‘Frozen Rabbit’, collected five Golden Guitars at the 2020 CMAA’s and was also nominated for a 2019 ARIA Award in the Best Country Album category.  These accolades acknowledge the strength of the album, Felicity’s first stand-alone album release in over a decade, and her first since signing a new record deal with ABC Music.

Saturday @ 10:30 am  Zoom co-writing 101 – if we can do it, anyone can

Kevin Bennett

Kevin Bennett, well respected singer/songwriter with Sydney roots band The Flood, mulitiple CMAA Golden Guitar winner and ARIA nominee in 2006 (with The Flood for Best Group) and 2011 (with Kasey Chambers for Vocal Collaboration), writes relevant, contemporary Australian music containing elements of blues, rock and country-telling stories of where he’s from and where he might be going.  He sings his life.

Saturday @ 11:30 am Chords and Melodies – Using your voice for good

Melanie Dyer

Sunday @ 2:15 pm Hit Singles and how to make them

Pete Denahy

When Pete Denahy talks about his his own show, he says “It not rocket science; I’m not the best singer, fiddle player or guitar picker in the world, but as far as I know, no one else is doing my show.”  Which is true; there isn’t another show like it!  He takes you on a journey that travels from the gold rush days of the mid 19th century to buying toilet paper at your local supermarket.  It’s perhaps not a show formula many managers would suggest their acts follow, but it seems to work for Pete.  He blends fiddle tunes, bluegrass style original songs and madcap comedy to provide the audience with an escape from reality most of them feel is worth their while.  In addition to touring Australia-wide throughout the year, Pete also hosts twice-yearly music tours to Japan to explore the bluegrass scene from Hiroshima to Tokyo.

Sunday @ 10:30 am Comedy songs are no laughing matter