Bill Chambers-taught Charlie Fittler is playing five gigs at the Tamworth Country Music Festival

And he has just released an EP with two original songs he wrote and recorded with country music star Kasey Chambers' dad Bill, and another with his own brother, Tom Fittler, called Dying Breed.

During the 10-day Tamworth Country Music Festival TCMF, 19-year-old Armidale local Charlie Fittler has five gigs lined up at the Post Office Hotel on Peel Street.

He will be playing the two originals Gypsy Soul and the up tempo Buckin' Luck which he debuted at last year's Toyota Star Maker.

Charlie first met Bill Chambers a couple of years ago, and has since been driving often to the NSW coast to work with the megastar on the two songs.

Gypsy Soul is about a girl who "is a bit of a gypsy" and "she's heading off but he's staying behind, thinking, in the end, they'll end up together," Charlie said.

READ MORE:

The emerging star looks into the distance of his family's Merino sheep property and lowers his head, black cowboy hat half shadowing his face, hands clasped together lightly resting on the back of a farm buggy, as he talks.

His other original Buckin' Luck was based on lyrics Charlie wrote for a farewell but could never finish. He brought them out when Bill started talking about the next song.

"We thought 'geez, it's got legs'," Charlie said.

"Buckin' Luck is an old rodeo song about a bloke getting busted up. It is all about luck; he could be winning, he could be sitting in hospital."

And the EP includes a three-minute country music ballad Battle of the Road dedicated to the memory of Australian country music legend Slim Dusty (1927 - 2003).

Bill taught Charlie how to properly structure and match up lyrics and to incorporate the language he would naturally use back home on his family's farm.

"These days it's kind of hard to talk about country music because there's a lot of different songs that you think could be pop that ends up being country," Charlie said.

Charlie is an emerging salt-of-the-earth country music singer-songwriter-guitarist who has grown up on his family's fifth-generation Merino sheep farm located on the outskirts of Armidale.

He talks about his mother who works at the local hospital and his brother and father who are wrapped up in their family's plumbing business, while his sister lives in Newcastle.

And he is equally at home among the herd of two-month-old baby calves he and his brother Tom bought and who they simply call "the pod", horses, dogs, sheep and deer, as he is up on stage entertaining thousands of country music fans.

He draws inspiration from traditional country music singing legends such as Chris Strait, Merle Haggard and others.

The nineteen-year-old started busking after school hours while still a primary kid, shortly after guitar lessons at the ripe young age of eight with locally renowned teacher Steve Tafra.

During his high school years, he was in Tamworth and Guyra every Friday and Saturday afternoon playing gigs.

"My goal is just to write good music for people, go with the flow and see where that goes," Charlie said.

"I'd love to do more touring around Australia first. I love playing at bush pubs, camp drafts, races and rodeos."

Charlie is at the Post Office Hotel on January 18, 20 and 21^st January as part of the Tamworth Country Music Festival.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: