Roo Arcus became a singer unintentionally – he didn’t know he could sing until he was somewhat strong-armed into it in a group setting. The cattle farmer from the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales has been on the land all of his life and spent his formative years listening to what he calls ‘the golden era’ of country music.

Arcus spends a lot of time in the United States of America where he’s asked, ‘How can you talk like an Aussie and sing like a Texan?’ His singing voice developed, he says, due to what he was listening to and singing along to when he was younger.

His first album was called Station Boy and it’s not available on streaming services, although the albums since are – including his fifth, The Man I Am, which was created in the wake of a devastating fire on his property, which destroyed not only farm vehicles and equipment but instruments and his children’s belongings. (This is captured in the song ‘Just an Old Shed’ on the album.)

The recording of the album in Texas was booked, however, and Arcus pressed ahead with it despite not having all the songs ready. What emerged was, perhaps, the truest expression of where he was in his life because he didn’t have time to think about it much or try to edit himself. The resulting album is not raw so much as honest, and Arcus too is honest about the impact of that time in this interview.

We also talk about his longtime affection for the US, where he travels several times a year, and especially for Texas, which is his second home.

Even after three decades in music, Arcus says he still feels like ‘a cattleman that sings … I don’t know how I ended up in this business.’ While that may be true, he’s stayed in it because he writes songs that reflect his experiences and they connect with people, as does his voice, and you’ll find out all about the development of both in this chat.

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‘Songs can become our best friend. And sometimes songs can save a life.’

Laura T Davis, a singer-songwriter from northern New South Wales, says this a fair way into our interview. The reason for the interview was her latest single, ‘Not Your Fault’, and the story behind that song is that Davis is a victim-survivor of extreme sexual violence perpetrated upon her in her teens. So when she talks about songs saving a life, she’s talking about what songs have meant to her and also what writing this song has done for her.

We talk at length about this part of her story, in particular, and also the other parts of her life, such as her beloved animals – horses and dogs – who are, she says, ‘part of my healing’. We talk about her musical background, being classically trained in piano and voice, and the time she spent performing for hours each day on ships on Sydney Harbour. About how, she says, there is a calling for music in her heart.

Davis released a single in 2020 called ‘Make It Till Christmas’, which was partly about how people on the land will hold on – to make it to Christmas, for example. It was inspired by what she saw around her, in the region she lives in, which is also an area that has been so badly affected by floods. By these acts of God that have been visited upon the residents. Acts that are not their fault any more than what happened to Davis was hers.

‘You have to tell yourself it’s not your fault,’ she says of the realisation she came to after years spent in the aftermath of the violence done to her. ‘You have to forgive yourself … That was the catalyst for this [song]. It was probably the only way that I could heal ... I didn’t want to suffer in silence any more.’

Davis is no longer suffering in silence but she is also incredibly self-aware and articulate about what it has taken for her to arrive at the place where she could not only write this song but record it and release it. For anyone who has been through a similar experience – and I sincerely hope you have not – I believe her story will give you heart. For anyone who has not, I hope you will listen to her with an open heart. That’s what she is offering to the world, when we have no right to expect it of her.

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Each interview I do is, obviously, different because each artist is different – they have unique backgrounds, sounds and stories. Some of them turn out to be packed with lots of interesting elements – subjects I could have pursued for much longer conversations, except I’m mindful of trying to keep the chats relatively short and focused on music.

This interview with Jo Page, a country music artist from Port Lincoln in South Australia, was one of those. I start off asking Page about Port Lincoln – which is Australia’s seafood capital, which I didn’t previously know. Page also mentions that she won Port Lincoln’s Got Talent as part of Tunarama at the age of 20 – and, well, I had to ask her about something called Tunarama! You’ll have to watch/listen to find out what she said …

Page has been performing live since that time, although, as she says, at school she was ‘always the nerdy choir chick that would give up lunchtimes to do music stuff’. But it was the competition which led to her being introduced to a local producer with whom she formed a duo and then a band. She has only recently started writing songs, however, because she only started playing guitar three years ago. Now she’s written hundreds – as she says, you need to write a lot in order to find the gems – and one of those is ‘Fire In His Eyes’, which she wrote with Kevin Bennett and recorded with Matt Fell at Wilder in Tasmania. The character in the song, says Page in the interview, is based on how she envisages her grandfather, who was a cowboy – and there’s more to it but, again, you’ll need to watch/listen to find out!

Page is pursuing her music while also being a frontline domestic violence worker and mental health advocate. We talk about how she takes care of her own mental health, and a lot more besides. Maybe next time I’ll get to pursue those other subjects in more detail, but I certainly enjoyed this chat and hope you do too.

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Earlier this year Melbourne-based singer-songwriter Tom Nethersole released a country single, ‘Ardmona Rd’. I hadn’t heard of Nethersole before that – his previous releases were mainly pop songs – but I loved the song and therefore was happy to chat to him about it. It was a great pleasure to interview him, so when he told me that he had a new folk-tinged song, ‘Holiday Spirit’, written and recorded with fellow Victorian Kye Arnot, of course I wanted to talk to them both.

Arnot has developed quite a following on TikTok, and we talk about that aspect of being an artist these days, as well as his single ‘Common Things’. Nethersole has also released an EP, Father, Son & the space in between, since we last spoke and it’s been on high rotation for me, because he has a certain way with melody and words so that his songs don’t let you go.

‘Holiday Spirit’ is no exception. It’s an ode to loved ones lost, and how that loss affects what is supposedly a festive season. In our interview Nethersole and Arnot talk about how they came to write together, and how the recording worked – and they reveal that there is, in fact, another recorded version of the song in existence, which frankly I would very much like to hear!

While there is nothing at all country-music about ‘Holiday Spirit’, one of the benefits of Sunburnt Country Music being an independent enterprise, and me being the only person here, is that I can cover what I like if I think it’s worth telling you about. I value your time and attention, and this enterprise keeps growing – across multiple platforms – because of it. These two artists are special, I think, and they’ve made something special together. I hope you enjoy meeting them, and listening to their song.

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Last year singer-songwriter Saralyn won the Mothertone Gympie Muster Talent Search, which was a terrific achievement – but she was also working on something else significant at the same time, and it wasn’t until this year that we found out what it was.

Auditioning on the hit TV show The Voice, Saralyn turned the chair of judge Ronan Keating and joined his team. Although she didn’t make it through to the finals, she cherishes the experience, as she told me in this recent interview. It turned out she applied for the show two years ago and wasn’t selected to audition; this time around she was approached instead, and it was, she says, the right time. She has in competitions from a young age, and performing in festivals for several years. The Voice offered something that allowed her to deepen her already extensive experience.

Now Saralyn has released her version of ‘If Tomorrow Never Comes’, a song written by Garth Brooks and very popularly covered by Keating. It’s a song that is tied to and emblematic of her time on The Voice, and now she has her own unique version of it.

It was clear during our chat that Saralyn was invigorated and motivated by her experience on The Voice, ready to step even more fully into her creative life, which has included some really lovely singles, such as ‘White Butterfly’. If you hadn’t heard of her before The Voice, there are some great songs to catch up on – and, no doubt, to look forward to.

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Team Love are a six-piece alt-country and folk band (full list of members below) from Victoria who released their first album during the pandemic. Since then lead singer and songwriter Ruby McGrath-Lester and partner/bandmate Shaun Stolk have become parents, so they’ve had a little bit on their plate. But as I found out when I chatted with McGrath-Lester recently, they have been writing songs – and there were around two dozen which were candidates for their second album, the recently released Now Things Ain’t Coloured Rose.

The band worked up all of the songs before making a decision on which to record, and the resulting eleven songs are in part McGrath-Lester showing us some fairly tender parts of herself. Being vulnerable in art usually requires not only a commitment but a leap of faith for the artist, and part of what’s great about these songs is that in acknowledging that there are some things that aren’t ‘ideal’ (depending on how that is defined), she’s not going to change them. There’s a comfort in that for the listener – a reassurance that, no, we don’t all have to fix ourselves all the time. Because maybe we actually don’t need fixing – we just don’t to be more self-accepting.

The band’s tenth anniversary is looming, and there may well be some live shows in honour of it, so keep an eye on the band’s socials for news of upcoming gigs.

And a note on the audio: towards the end my wi-fi connection became unstable (as Zoom likes to say) so I had to cut the part where I’m attempting to say goodbye to Ruby!

Team Love are:

Ruby McGrath-Lester (vocals, acoustic guitar)

Ruby Cattell (violin, vocals)

Monique Bricknell (keys, vocals)

Shaun Stolk (guitars, vocals)

Paddy McGrath-Lester (drums, vocals, guitars, percussion, mandolin)

Tom Thomas (bass, additional keys)

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Country-pop artist Courtney Keil started her musical life in Melbourne and now lives on the Central Coast of New South Wales, where she is an integral member of what has long been an established country music community (which includes Lyn Bowtell, Kasey Chambers, Felicity Urquhart and Josh Cunningham, and previously Beccy Cole and Shane Nicholson) and which now has more venues opening and, therefore, more opportunities for artists to perform.

In our chat about her latest single, ‘Friends for Life’, I asked Keil about what’s happening with music on the coast, and we talked about the organisation Central Coast Music and Arts, which I was very pleased to learn about! We also talked about Keil’s other musical project, the duo The Midnight Black, and her next album, which she’s working towards.

‘Friends for Life’ was recorded in Nashville, with Keil’s longtime producer Rod McCormack – who, along with his wife, Gina Jeffreys, is also an important part of that coast country community. The song was written with McCormack and Sally Barris, with whom Keil has written before, and it’s all about honouring friendships – and as Keil mentions, given she had a rocky start to this year, her friends have been a great support. We also talk about her decision to record in Nashville – and it transpires it’s been five years in the making …

This interview was recorded towards the start of November, and Keil already had her Christmas tree up, so of course I had to ask her about that – and it turns out she will be performing on Christmas Eve at The Entrance, so if you’re in the area make sure to pack your picnic rug and get along! And she’ll be appearing at the Tamworth Country Music Festival on 18 January at the show That’s Where the Faith Comes In – tickets available here.

It's always great to chat to Courtney Keil – this interview was no exception – and if it’s your introduction to her, I hope you enjoy it and the song!

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Tom Mac is a country music artist from south-east Queensland who has extensive experience as both a performing and recording artist, whose story – as I found out during this interview – has many strands to it, all of them weaving together to form the artist who is now releasing the songs he’s always wanted to bring to people, including his latest single, ‘Nomadic’.

Mac was in his car when we spoke, with his guitar, Maton ECW80 cutaway, in the back seat, so I decided to start the conversation there, and he certainly had some stories to tell about it! However, Mac’s first instrument was piano, which he started playing at eight, encouraged by his mother, who was a primary school music teacher who also introduced him into musicals at school, including Grease and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. The experience in musicals stands him in very good stead as a performer today, in large part because of the singing involved and the confidence to do it. As he says, ‘A lot of people can sing, they just don’t know that they can.’

By his late teens, though, Mac wanted to play Bruce Springsteen and Bon Jovi – and also play an instrument that was of his own choosing. And ‘Stairway to Heaven’ was the first song he learned to play on guitar.

Mac started playing gigs – lots of gigs – and developed his repertoire of covers, before moving into original music, and his experiences there were not straightforward. He released music in a genre other than country music, under a different name, but it wasn’t the direction he really wanted to be in. It’s only in the last couple of years that he’s started releasing country songs, and the latest of those is ‘Nomadic’, which started life as a riff Mac heard on social media – performed by a busker in Byron Bay – and became a song inspired by some of the many adventures he’s had, travelling around Australia and performing.

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