Next Wednesday evening in Bicentennial Park, bush ballads will take centre stage.
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Thirty balladeers, will all perform a song each at one of the festival’s major events, which promotes the bush ballad genre.
“The idea of it is not to promote any particular artist, it’s to promote the genre,” organiser Peter Simpson said.
The genre began in the early days of Australian country music, when Tex Morton and later Slim Dusty recognised the appeal of first-hand accounts about experiences in the bush.
“For quite some time the bush ballad genre hasn’t had the proper exposure, and it’s not anyone’s fault in particular,” Peter said.
“The bush ballad genre has a great big following, but sometimes it’s put to the side and people don’t really understand it, but we feel it’s part of our culture, it helps restore our history and maintain some of our culture.
“And it has a great following. Of the 30 artists have on it, 90 per cent of them are full time touring artists and they do very well through the year.”
While individual bush ballad shows have always been popular at the festival, Peter said it was not until the Back to the Bush concert was first held in the park two years ago, that so many artists came together to play ballads in front of a crowd of thousands.
It was first held at the 2015 festival after Peter, and his wife Dianne Lindsay, put the proposal to Tamworth Regional Council.
Peter said the concert had helped bring back some country music fans to the festival.
“There was a certain element (of fans) that were turning away, saying we can’t get the music we love and our idea is not for everyone to sing bush ballads, but to have every genre covered well, and respected,” he said.
Tamworth Regional Council Manager Events Barry Harley said he was excited that bush ballads would appear in the 2017 Toyota Country Music Festival, more prominently than ever before.
“We expect this to be a very popular event, so be sure to get down to Toyota Park early,” Barry told Talkin’ Country.
“The festival is unique in that it celebrates the new wave of talent coming through in many genres, but also stays true to its beginnings.
“Many relate to bush ballads as they were the beginning of the country music industry and we ensure that we pay tribute to this important style of music.
“In addition to the concert at Toyota Park, there are several venues around Tamworth dedicated to the delivery of bush ballads including the Bush Balladeers Homestead, Oasis Hotel and many others.”
The backing band includes Slim Dusty’s longtime producer Rod Coe on bass, Stuie French on lead guitar, Michel Rose on steel, Mike ‘Fettler’ Kerin on fiddle, Doug Gallagher on drums and Amos Morris on acoustic guitar.
All the singers volunteer to play at the concert, which starts at 7pm.
The line-up includes Brian Letton, Jeff Brown, Chad Morgan, Graham Rodger, Reg Poole, Lynette Guest, Anne Kirkpatrick, Keith Jamieson, Peter Coad and The Coad Sisters, Shaza Leigh and plenty more.