Bush ballads and verse, and the genre's unique place in Australia's musical heritage will be celebrated as part of this weekend's Hats Off To Country.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
The annual three-day mini-festival will strum the strings from Friday July 19, with some new events and plenty to tempt the musical tastebuds.
One of the new additions is the inaugural Hats Off To the Bush concert at the Tamworth Town Hall on Saturday night.
To be hosted by Peter Simpson and Dianne Lindsay, the event promises to be 'a celebration of bush ballads and verse', and something stakeholder representative of Hats Off To Country Cheryl Brown said they hope "will build over the coming years into something very special for the balladeer association".
It follows the success of the annual Back To The Bush Spectacular, which has grown to become one of the most popular shows in the park since it was added to the Tamworth Country Music Festival program in 2017.
Now into its 24th year, after beginning as a concert to salute Australia's king of country music Slim Dusty, Ms Brown encouraged the local community to get out and embrace all that 'Hats Off' offers with more than 100 artists showcasing their talents across more than 60 events over the three days.
"This year there's some extraordinary shows on so I hope the Tamworth region people get out and about," she said.
"We also look forward to welcoming a lot of visitors to town."
Some of the event highlights she noted include Tamworth local Sally Anne-Whitten's album launch at The Press on Friday night, Shannon Noll's 20th anniversary tour concert at the Tamworth Town Hall, also on Friday night, Zac & George, Amber Lawrence and Andrew Swift, and The Bushwackers.
There's also the popular Cowboy Crawl, where patrons are bussed around three venues.
"A lot of people that come to town don't know where to go, so jumping on the cowboy crawl they get to be taken to three venues and spend an hour at each and just have a lot of fun," Ms Brown said.
More information and the full program of events can be found on the Hats Off to Country website.
