Sunburnt Country Music

Shanleigh Rose on tackling scary subjects in song

Shanleigh Rose [https://www.shanleighrose.com.au/] is an award-winning singer and songwriter from the Sunshine Coast hinterland in Queensland who has been releasing music for five years. Her latest single, ‘Like My Mama Loves Tobacco’, is the most personal song she has put out – and, as she tells me in this new interview, the one she almost didn’t. The chorus was written when she was sixteen, in a music room at school, after discovering the songwriting of Melody Moko and Fanny Lumsden. She wrote it, filed it away, and didn't quite know what it was about. A few years later, after a break-up, she understood.  ‘What I feel for this person is actually more like an addiction than love,’ she says.  That realisation gave her the metaphor at the centre of the song, with the tobacco of the title standing in for the kind of relationship you know is poisoning you but can’t walk away from. ‘You’re poison, but it’s all I’ll ever want’, she sings in this powerful tune that has already won the lyrics-only section of the Tamworth Songwriters Association Awards before the melody was even finalised. It was the response from other songwriters at the awards night convinced that convinced Shanleigh to release the song.  ‘Like My Mama Loves Tobacco’ was produced by Michael Muchow who, in a lovely piece of symmetry, is Melody Moko’s producer (and husband), with vocal production by Nyssa Ray, who pushed Rose through four hours of takes to find her most emotionally open performance.  ‘You can be sadder,’ Ray told her. ‘You can have more emotion.’ Rose has also recently released ‘Down to Your Grave’, a collaboration with Cate Jamieson and Bethany Walsh, written and recorded as a university assignment that the three decided the world needed to hear. More collaborations and more original releases are planned, alongside a growing focus on stagecraft and the live experience.  Shanleigh plays regularly across Southeast Queensland. Keep an eye on her socials for details. ‘Like My Mama Loves Tobacco’ is out now. NB: At around the 22-minute mark, I had a coughing fit and had to pause the recording, so after that point my voice sounds different. Thanks to Shanleigh for patiently waiting out the coughing! I’ve had a cold and persevered with interviews as I don’t want to cancel on the artists – and thankfully they do most of the talking – but it does mean my voice sounds raspy and sometimes shaky. Listen to ‘Like My Mama Loves Tobacco’ on Apple Music [https://music.apple.com/au/album/like-my-mama-loves-tobacco/6766234391?i=6766234392&itscg=30200&itsct=music_box_link&ls=1&app=music&mttnsubad=6766234392&at=1001lryz] Listen to ‘Like My Mama Loves Tobacco’ on Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/track/6jGGTcLZn31dDN9t0ULoIG?si=f85aa5c78ed94d7f] Listen to ‘Like My Mama Loves Tobacco’ on YouTube [https://youtu.be/cG4WaPoKd-8?si=G9XMTrNbQUcWPwpJ] For more Sunburnt Country Music: Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/sunburntcountrymusic/] Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/sunburntcountrymusic]  YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@sunburntcountrymusic] website [https://sunburntcountrymusic.com/]  Substack [https://sunburntcountrymusic.substack.com] ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Jayne Denham: raised to a higher key

Jayne Denham [https://www.jaynedenham.com/]’s two most recent albums, Wanted and Moonshine, both reached number one on the ARIA country chart. She is one of Australia's most dynamic live performers and most beloved country rock artists. Her new single is ‘Hillbilly Halo’, and it is the beginning of something considerably larger. As Denham tells me in this new interview, her management arranged a meeting with Nashville producer Marti Frederiksen – known for his work with Aerosmith, Carrie Underwood, Faith Hill, Sheryl Crow and Def Leppard – with the understanding that they would write and record one song together, and then decide whether to continue. The song was ‘Hillbilly Halo’, co-written with Australian songwriter and Nashville resident Kylie Sackley. Denham loved the result, assumed it might be the only song they made together, and planned to release it as a single regardless. Then Frederiksen said he wanted to do more. Denham ended up spending two months in Nashville across three trips, recording a full album. Frederiksen’s brief from the start was clear: write and produce for a big live crowd, stadium-ready, anthemic. ‘Hillbilly Halo’ delivers exactly that: it’s a country-rock party song about the good girl who loves to bend the rules just enough, built around major chords that give the chorus its lift. But the more significant development for Denham may be what happened in the recording booth … Frederiksen pushed her vocals into territory she hadn’t previously reached, raising keys and urging her through takes until she hit a note she didn’t know she had.  ‘The desperation in my voice actually matched the lyric,’ she says.  It’s now one of her favourite vocal performances she’s ever committed to record. As for the other songs she recorded in Nashville: singles will be released every four weeks, with the album due in January. Then, Denham says, it will be time for a big show. As Denham tells me: ‘Marti said, “Your songs need to be anthemic for a big crowd – let’s write and produce so that when it’s live, it totally nails and kicks it out of the park.’ ‘Hillbilly Halo’ is out now. And a note about this interview: I had a heavy cold, so my voice sounds scratchy.  Listen to ‘Hillbilly Halo’ on Apple Music [https://music.apple.com/au/album/hillbilly-halo-single/1889715547?itscg=30200&itsct=music_box_link&ls=1&app=music&mttnsubad=1889715547&at=1001lryz] Listen to ‘Hillbilly Halo’ on Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/track/1MM4hnqE7QuHkuhayXA0He?si=b9924bfcfb5147e0] Listen to ‘Hillbilly Halo’ on YouTube [https://youtu.be/_f_LGVto4hw?si=2pgme_kEnPA4-4up] For more Sunburnt Country Music: Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/sunburntcountrymusic/] Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/sunburntcountrymusic]  YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@sunburntcountrymusic] website [https://sunburntcountrymusic.com/]  Substack [https://sunburntcountrymusic.substack.com] ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Beth Lucas on new single ‘What I Deserved’

Beth Lucas [https://www.bethlucas.com/] is an award-winning country music artist from Queensland who has been releasing music for several years. She has a new single, 'What I Deserved', and it is one of the most personally courageous songs she has written. Lucas grew up on the Sunshine Coast and has been based in the Brisbane area for around two decades, and part of its appeal has long been the possibilities it offers her as a musical artist. Her path to country music was not direct. She came from the emo and alternative scenes, playing in bands, and it was only after having a daughter and stepping back from music that she returned with a new perspective and a clearer sense of what she wanted to write, as she tells me in this new interview.  ‘Old bandmates were basically like, your songs are pretty much country, so just make them more country,’ she says.  That was six years ago, and she describes the time since as the most successful period of her musical life. ‘What I Deserved’ is a song about first love and its aftermath – specifically, about a mistake Lucas made at sixteen, the weight she has carried since, and the long process of forgiving herself for it. She is careful to take responsibility for her own part in the story; ‘I know that I got what I deserved’ is not a line of self-pity but of reckoning – and then, ultimately, of release.  The song won the 2026 Geoff Mack Commemorative Award before it was even released, and has become one of the songs in her live set that audiences connect with most. Lucas has twice attended the CMAA Academy of Country Music – the second time on a Keith Urban Scholarship – and has a string of competition placings to her name, including winning the country music section of the Brisbane-based Ekka Talent Search. She is also one third of Three Birds & the Truth, which she formed with Amber Kenny and Jo Caseley following the 2023 Academy. An EP is in the works for the end of the year, with a new single in production in the meantime. ‘What I Deserved’ is out now. Listen to Beth Lucas on Apple Music [https://music.apple.com/au/artist/beth-lucas/517381732?itscg=30200&itsct=music_box_link&ls=1&app=music&mttnsubad=517381732&at=1001lryz] Listen to Beth Lucas on Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/artist/5HSb9t2ZO2KVAh8avj55HG?si=zAAvQXG-Th-b9GJ5hdoXCg] Listen to Beth Lucas on YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npVVKVkyoHY&list=RDnpVVKVkyoHY&start_radio=1] For more Sunburnt Country Music: Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/sunburntcountrymusic/] Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/sunburntcountrymusic]  YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@sunburntcountrymusic] website [https://sunburntcountrymusic.com/]  Substack [https://sunburntcountrymusic.substack.com] ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Rachael Fahim on her blockbuster debut album, Who You Are

At the start of this interview with country-pop artist Rachael Fahim [https://www.rachaelfahim.com/], I say that she released her first album, Iconic, in 2019. Later in the chat she mentioned that Iconic was technically an EP, which makes Who You Are – released today, 1 May – her debut. The reason why I called Iconic an album is because it has seven songs, and they’re substantial songs. So to me it’s always felt like an album. Substance is also apparent on Who You Are. Fahim has the ability to create songs that are eminently danceable but which also make you stop and think. There’s a lyric that evokes a feeling, or it’s the nuances in her vocal, and always the sense that she’s not hiding herself in any of these songs, not trying to be the upbeat artist who’s always about a good time if a good time has not been had. That means we know we’re getting a sense of who she is and what she wants to tell us in these songs, which makes us connect to them more. The album is the result of several years of writing, as we talk about. It’s also being released about a year after Fahim decided to leave full-time employment and commit herself fully to music. In that time she has played dozens of dates supporting Pete Murray on a national tour, and there have been plenty of other shows in that time. In other words: creating the time and space for more music in her life has worked. Having seen Fahim live, it’s no surprise that these opportunities are coming her way. Now hearing the new album, she’s offering even more reasons for audiences to seek her out. The songs on Who You Are are entertaining and memorable, and while I still maintain that Iconic should be called an album, as a debut album this is a powerful statement. Who You Are is out now through Universal Music Australia. Rachael Fahim is touring the album, with dates in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Newcastle, Gosford and Wollongong. Details at: https://www.rachaelfahim.com/#tour [https://www.rachaelfahim.com/#tour] Listen to Who You Are on Apple Music [https://music.apple.com/au/album/who-you-are/1858761436?itscg=30200&itsct=music_box_link&ls=1&app=music&mttnsubad=1858761436&at=1001lryz] Listen to Who You Are on Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/album/2X3DZEzld6U84Jdo7tdAGZ?si=RIKNNYOkTj6r1TnS0nNQjw] Listen to Who You Are on YouTube [https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1gjT4_M_SU5J6eN1Ra5rhRdtATF77zGR&si=EP-NoTmeaALIuZD6] For more Sunburnt Country Music: Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/sunburntcountrymusic/] Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/sunburntcountrymusic]  YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@sunburntcountrymusic] website [https://sunburntcountrymusic.com/]  Substack [https://sunburntcountrymusic.substack.com] ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Nikisha Priest on the Ace Up Her Sleeve

Nikisha Priest [https://onepagelink.com/NikishaPriest] is a country rock artist from the Lake Macquarie area of New South Wales who, at twenty years old, is already drawing on a remarkably deep well of musical training. Her new single is 'Ace of Spades' – and no, it's not a cover. Priest began singing lessons at six, privately with a family friend who within a year concluded she couldn't teach her anymore and referred her to the Conservatorium of Music in Gosford. She studied there from seven to fourteen, classically trained in voice. Through high school she attended a Big Picture Academy, a project-based learning programme that allowed her to structure her studies around music. At twenty, she has already attended the CMAA Academy of Country Music, appeared on Australian Idol – where she sang Pink's ‘Trouble’ a capella outside her mother's hair salon, without notice, for her audition – and released her most fully realised single to date. 'Ace of Spades' was sparked by a car park moment. Priest was thinking about the Motörhead song, wondering how other artists had approached the same title, when she noticed a playing card sticker on the car next to her. She took it as a sign, went home and wrote the song. Research into the card’s symbolism gave her the song's backbone – the Ace of Spades as a death card on one side, new beginnings on the other – a theme of transformation, leaving behind what no longer fits, and stepping into something new.  ‘The song kind of just wrote itself,’ she says in this new interview, which was recorded while Priest was at a SHE Songwriting Retreat, run by Lyn Bowtell.  The single was produced by Simon Johnson at Hillbilly Hut, with whom Priest has worked since a school-age work experience placement, and the video [https://youtu.be/aUIaygFbJxY?si=ZCI3tKsAc8esouCw] was shot in a single day at Full Throttle Ranch in Buttai near Newcastle by videographer Jeremy Minett of Eyes and Ears Creative. When she’s not making music Priest is looking after her five pets – and I asked her about these, partly because I know so many people have cats and dogs and love a good animal story! And it turns out that Priest’s pets are thematically named – although you’ll have to watch or listen to the interview to find out what the theme is … ‘Ace of Spades’ is out now. Listen to ‘Ace of Spades’ on Apple Music [https://music.apple.com/au/album/ace-of-spades-single/1876608334?itscg=30200&itsct=music_box_link&ls=1&app=music&mttnsubad=1876608334&at=1001lryz] Listen to ‘Ace of Spades’ on Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/track/6LIlrqolUxYcU9BUbUfEmr?si=7e20d00112684fcf] Listen to ‘Ace of Spades’ on YouTube [https://youtu.be/aUIaygFbJxY?si=ZCI3tKsAc8esouCw] For more Sunburnt Country Music: Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/sunburntcountrymusic/] Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/sunburntcountrymusic]  YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@sunburntcountrymusic] website [https://sunburntcountrymusic.com/]  Substack [https://sunburntcountrymusic.substack.com] ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.