The Bushwackers break down barriers on The Voice for older acts

Maitland's Roger Corbett, 71, and his Bushwacker bandmate Dobe Newton, 75, performed The Seekers' classic I Am Australian in their blind audition on the Channel 7 program on Monday night.

Despite the TV show usually targeting young and up-and-coming pop acts, all four judges - Jessica Mauboy, Guy Sebastian, Rita Ora and Jason Derulo - turned for their bush-folk performance. In the days since the episode screened, The Bushwackers have been overwhelmed with media interviews and a YouTube video of the performance has been viewed 159,000 times.

The Bushwackers are hardly new to publicity. Across a 50-year career the band's mix of Australian bush-folk balladry and progressive politics has seen them become a festival favourite.

In 2021 they were inducted into the Australasian Country Music Roll of Renown. However, the appearance on The Voice has opened their music to a new and younger demographic, which Corbett hopes will inspire others.

READ ALSO:

"If you manage yourself reasonably well, you can keep on having a career into what would normally be post-retirement age for a lot of people," Corbett said.

"So we're poster children for having a long career, I guess. That was one message I thought was worth mentioning when we were on The Voice.

"Singing genuine Australian music, genuinely connects with genuine Australian people."

Corbett admits he and Newton weren't initially convinced the reality TV show was right for the band when the offer was made.

"They seemed so genuinely interested in having us on, that we agreed to an audition and went to Melbourne to meet everybody and they were all so lovely and respectful and supporting," he said.

"We kept saying, 'isn't this for young people?' and they said, 'it's for people of all walks of the musical life to come and do the show'."

Newton co-wrote I Am Australian with The Seekers' Bruce Woodley in 1987. The song has since become a favourite of ABC promotions and various commercials.

"We've been doing it for 15 years and we thought it would be a great time to acknowledge Dobe's long career in music and would be a lovely thing if he could get some recognition for writing that song," Corbett said.

The Bushwackers chose to join Jessica Mauboy's "team", in a poignant moment for the duo given their role in nurturing the Indigenous star's early career. Mauboy, 34, was 14 when she won a competition in Tamworth for a scholarship at the Academy of Country Music, where Corbett and Newton were teachers.

"She was a delightful young student and she tells a story of driving all the way from Darwin," he said.

"She brought her whole family and they just rocked up and did the course with all the other kids.

"We always thought she was pretty special and she turned out to be really special."

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: