AUSTRALIAN INDEPENDENT COUNTRY MUSIC
ARTISTS OF THE YEAR
CARTER & CARTER - 2007
* CARTER & CARTER
Golden Guitar Winners Carter & Carter have created history as independent artists with their multi-award winning albums and chart topping hits. They received honours in 2004 with the APRA Most Performed Country Work. Carter & Carter have been voted CMAA Independent Entertainers of the Year and Australian Independent Country Music Artists of the Year at the Southern Stars Australian Independent Country Music Awards three years running, plus numerous other awards for Single of the Year, Album of the Year and more. They have released 11 singles, all of them making the National Top 10, including six #1's, and four albums to date, Dance Away The Night, Every Minute, Acoustic Gospel and their latest Leap Before You Look.
PAUL COSTA - 2006
One of the hottest new acts on the scene — Paul has a rich and powerful voice with a fresh and exciting sound. Hailing from Robinvale near Mildura, Paul is well known from his band The Costa Bros and has now branched out on a solo career. In January he released his debut solo album in Walkin’ In These Shoes, produced by Rod McCormack, to excellent reviews, and it already has produced two Top 10 hits - I Think I Like It and House Of Mirrors. Paul has co-written with Rod McCormack, Adam Harvey & Gina Jeffreys. He has featured on television shows such as CMC and A Little Bit Of Country. His Album It’s Good To Be Me, was released in 2006, again recorded with award winning producer Rod McCormack.
TRAVIS SINCLAIR - 2005
It’s been an amazing journey for TRAVIS SINCLAIR since the release of his debut album Rhythm of The Highway. A Golden guitar, nine consecutive Top 10 chart singles including the most recent, Rush cracking the #1 spot, and his new album Rush selling up a storm have pushed Travis to the top. The combination of Travis and his producer and often songwriting partner GARTH PORTER has proved extraordinarily successful, and this year has plenty of surprises still in store for the talented Victorian. Travis was a finalist in APRA/AMCOS Independent Single of the Year, One Stop Entertainment Independent Album of the Year & Independent Male Vocalist of the Year.
FISK & CRISTIAN - 2004
Popular Melbourne Duo Donna Fisk & Michael Cristian not only won the APRA/AMCOS Australian Indpendent Single of the Year and the One Stop Entertainment Australian Independent Album of the Year, they also took off the 2004 Australian Independent Artists of the Year.
CARTER & CARTER - 2001 , 2002 & 2003
In June 2000, a press release heralded the release of the debut country album from Merelyn and David Carter, the highly talented duo Carter & Carter, with the simple statement that Dance Away The Night was a collection of songs that embraced country music.
Just over a year later, Australian country music fans and radio have returned the favour and totally embraced the talents and music of this exciting couple. The awards, the accolades and the reviews speak for themselves.
The 2001 Tamworth Country Music Festival was a fertile breeding ground for the new album, with Carter & Carter scoring six finalist nominations in the prestigious TSA Songwriters' Salute Awards and winning Song of the Year and also Gospel Song of the Year with A Little Place Called Love (penned with Rene Ford). The duo was also a finalist in the Duo of the Year at the TIARA Awards, received 3 nominations in the Peoples Choice Awards, and scored a Judges Top 10 in the Country Music Awards of Australia.
Add in 9 Finals nominations in the 2001 Victorian Country Music Awards in February, including wins in the Victorian Album of the Year and Female Vocalist of the Year, and it's an impressive scorecard.
Carter & Carter's live performances have a distinct energy that sets them apart, and their vitality drew strong reaction during the Tamworth Festival. But the real catalyst for all the hype is the superb album that kick-started the hype last year.
Dance Away The Night is a breath of fresh air in this new millennium of Australian country music with its combination of original songs and contributions from international writers like Gretchen Peters and Steve Bruton and an A-team of Australian musicians, production by Ramrod's Herm Kovac and David and Merelyn's vocal performances sparkling with emotion and drive.
It's a highly impressive record of achievements for Carter & Carter thus far, and the good news is that it only gets better from here and if you haven't already embraced the talents of Carter & Carter, it's high time you did.
PAT DRUMMOND - 2000
Born at Macdonaldtown, NSW, Pat started his career as an entertainer working in acoustic bands with his brothers. From playing in the folk scene in the '60s, he moved to playing solo in the emerging Sydney pub scene of the '70s and built up a strong personal following which continued into the '80s.
He released his first album in 1979 and has followed up with over a dozen LPs, singles and CDs in the following years. He has toured New Zealand and Japan and has appeared in numerous television and radio programs.
With the release of his Tales from the Local Rag in 1990, Pat adopted the on-stage persona of an old-time newspaperman (complete with a 'Tamworth Daily Leader' press card in the hat band), highlighting the narrative nature of many of his songs. Eric Bogle summed Pat up as "an original and witty songwriter. His deft lyrical and melodic touch, allied to his clear-eyed yet compassionate view of the human condition ensures that his songs have a quality that sets them apart from, and above, most other songs you will hear. He plays a mean guitar and sings not too badly as well."
A regular performer in the '90s at folk, bush and country music festivals, Pat was joint winner of Male Vocal of the Year at the Australian Bush Music Festival in 1993 and grand finalist for Album of the Year, Producer of the Year, Heritage Award and Song of the Year in the 1994 Country Music Awards of Australia.
Although well known for his comic repertoire including The Sao Song, The Spider Song and The Toilet Paper Linedance, it has been the powerful lyric writing in songs such as The Blessing, Vertelli's Wire, Margaret And Joe and Good Morning Josie which has impressed both the critics and his peers in recent years.
The Sao Song was probably the track which first brought Pat Drummond to national prominence. The song was catchy enough to make airplay lists all over the country and thoughtful enough to impress critics of the ilk of Philip Adams.
In 1999, Pat was elected as a board member of the Country Music Association of Australia (CMAA) and within a few months was working actively on the CMAA's Independents Sub-committee.
BRIAN LETTON - 1999
Australia's premier country music balladeer Brian Letton received another major accolade when he was named as the inaugural Independent Artist of the Year at the 1999 Australian Independent Country Music Awards in Mildura.
The award was added to the five existing recording categories in 1999 to recognise the achievements of independent artists across the full spectrum of the country music industry. The selection criteria took into account recording, performing and profile aspects of the artist's career in the preceding twelve months, and if the reaction of the capacity crowd at the Awards concert was any indication, the announcement of Brian's award was an immensely popular one.
There is no doubt that the decision was totally deserved. Over a fully professional career that spans more than a decade, Brian has become the virtual prototype of the successful independent country music artist. His career has combined almost non-stop touring with a long-lasting recording history with his good friend and producer Lindsay Butler at the LBS Studios in Tamworth. The LBS connection has seen nine highly successful albums from the ground-breaking debut of "The Man From W.A." to his most recent "By Request", and a host of recording awards and accolades including 10 Golden Guitar finals nominations.
What gained Brian this prestigious award was a year that saw an increase in Brian's already daunting schedule that produced two albums - his concept album "For The Farming Families" that secured yet another Golden Guitar nomination, and the fan-driven "By Request". The latter was notable because it is was a release strongly demanded by his legion of fans. The powerful voice and charismatic stage presence of this big-voiced balladeer have won him a huge and devoted army of "Lettoneers" throughout Australia, and often it's Brian's emotional interpretations of classic songs like "Danny Boy" and "I Believe" that brings crowds to their feet as much as his own self-penned originals.
Brian continues to write songs that are distinctively Australian, bringing observations on Australian life from his own broad experiences, and he's not afraid to make a stand as his song "Will We Still Really Be Australian" demonstrates. Possibly the best description of Brian Letton and his music is "passionate". He is totally committed to his music, his songwriting, his recording label, and most importantly, his fans.
It's his commitment to his fans that sees him travelling tens of thousands of kilometres each year, traversing Australia from far North Queensland to his native Western Australia. It's a journey that sees Brian renewing old friendships and forging new ones and he takes his own brand of intimate concerts to major centres or small country towns. He really is a man of the people, and is certainly perceived by his peers as not only a proven achiever, but also an excellent example to emerging artists of the very positive aspects of the independent artist's place in the Australian country music industry.
In Australia we have hundreds of singer/songwriters, musicians and performers forging their individual careers on a combination of talent, determination, commitment and plain hard yakka, and Brian Letton stands tall as a shining example of the success that is possible. There are certainly many more wonderful independent artists that stand alongside Brian with their own achievements, but as the recipient of the first Independent Artist of the Year award, it is hard to think of anyone more deserving.
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