Sparks will fly as forty-time Golden Guitar winner Troy Cassar-Daley lights up the Country Music Festival stage with a number of surprise guest performers for Welcome to my Fire.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
"My show has always been one where we try and bring a bunch of guests together to give people real variety," Mr Cassar-Daley said.
"It's an old idea, but it's one that I just absolutely love, because it's probably the only show in the year where we can bring people together like that."
The down-to-earth megastar will be headlining the concert at the Tamworth Regional Entertainment and Conference Centre (TRECC) on January 25, from 4pm, with a number of famous and not-so-famous guest musicians.
"Everyone knows there's going to be some very famous friends but there's also a lot of people like the younger kids who we've discovered in the regions," Mr Cassar-Daley said.
"And I think, as an elder statesman, it's up to me to do that [assist up-and-comers] because people did it for me."
The theme of this year's show is about bringing Australia back together around the common theme of a campfire - though the actual blaze will be a video he recorded while working on an upcoming album.
"It's a leveller. It brings people together. It doesn't matter what walk of life you're from, a fire will bring everyone together," Mr Cassar-Daley said.
The theme also extends from his 2021 hit song Back on Country because "it talks about, no matter what your bloodlines, it's your connection to country [that matters]", he said.
"Wherever you were born, for instance, where you feel good is really your country. And no matter what your bloodlines are, it's important that that gives you the will to look after wherever you come from."
You might be black, you could be white, but come and join the choir. This feeling in your belly means you're welcome at this fire.
- A verse from Back on Country
People at Mr Cassar-Daley's January 26 show in Tamworth will also get an exclusive listen of his upcoming single Let's Ride which is due out in February, and three other songs from his next album Between the Fires due for release in May 2024.
Mr Cassar-Daley wrote the album shortly after his mother Irene died in July 2022, returning to her home in Grafton NSW to mourn her. His father also died in 2019.
"Losing parents is not ideal," Mr Cassar-Daley said.
"But you just got to work out which way to best get through it and I think that's what we did - a lot of our family pulled together.
"But we also had a chance to use the album as a medicine which was really good for me, and it felt much better walking away, knowing that's what we did there."
Mr Cassar-Daley said he did not think he dealt with the death of his father very well.
"I should have gone to counselling or something, because he took his own life," he said.
"You've got to get help when you need it. And that's something I realised after mum (died). I thought, 'I'm not going to bugger this one up. I'm going to get some outside sets of ears to listen to and talk to'.
"I've never been to a counsellor before. I didn't think I'd ever need to. I've always been a pretty happy-go-lucky guy. But that [the death of his parents], in particular, was a turning point."
