Ella Hooper is one of Australia’s favourite musical chameleons. An award winning singer-songwriter and media personality, Ella broke out with acoustic folk-goth ballad ‘Kettle’ in 1996 when she was just 13. Her band Killing Heidi went onto own the early 00’s with a string of alt-rock hits, selling platinum and riding the highs and lows of teen rock stardom. She was the first woman and youngest person to win APRA’s songwriter of the year award. Embarking on a solo career in 2013 Ella’s music under her own name has traversed folk, pop and now Americana, the music she grew up on. Her new album ‘Small Town Temple’ struck a chord with critics for its intimacy and conceptual strength, keeping her busy on the road for the last two years supporting legends like James Taylor, Chris Isaak and Jim Lauderdale.

With versatility akin to a modern day Linda Ronstadt, Ella melds clever lyrics and chewy melodies and delivers them with unfussy charm and energy. With a massive career behind her already it’s no small thing that Ella’s unique approach to the genre she loves sneakily suggests that the best is yet to come.

Emily Barker is an award-winning Australian singer-songwriter. She had early success as the writer and performer of the theme to the hugely successful BBC/PBS Masterpiece crime drama Wallander starring Kenneth Branagh,and has since gone on to forge an acclaimed catalogue of releases.

Barker has announced her new album, Fragile as Humans, produced at storied English studio The Wool Hall by Luke Potashnick (Gabrielle Aplin, Jack Savoretti, Alberta Cross). It’s her first album for nearly four years, following A Dark Murmuration of Words, which Uncut called “…a kind of Australian equivalent of PJ Harvey’s Let England Shake”

Barker has released music and toured as a solo artist as well as with various bands and collaborations, most notably her long association with Frank Turner, and has written for TV and film, including composing the soundtrack for Jake Gavin’s lauded debut feature Hector starring Peter Mullan and Keith Allen.

“One of the most literate and probing folk albums of the year. I really love it.” Ann Powers, NPR Music
“an album of spare, striking beauty” Mojo ★★★★
“…a kind of Australian equivalent of PJ Harvey’s Let England Shake” UNCUT 8/10
“bold, direct, uncompromising” CLASH
“a high-class piece of songwriting and beautifully expressed musicianship” Americana UK 9/10
“irresistibly catchy…an album replete with nooks and crannies, light and shade” The Australian ★★★★★
“an album full of grace and danger” RnR ★★★★★

Folk duo, Freight Train Foxes are built around the talents of Brisbane songwriters, Pat Kenny and Kelsey Berrington. Armed with the sonic influences of Passenger and The Lumineers, the pair wield their unique brand of suburban acoustic folk, which manages to wound and soothe simultaneously.

The Brisbane duo were finalists at the 2023 Queensland Music Awards for ‘Best Folk Song’ for their track, ‘Fly to You’ and have continued to draw attention to their music. After releasing five EPs in five years and amassing over 2 million streams on Spotify, the folk duo continues to impress audiences with stirring performances throughout Australia, including shows at BIGSOUND and Woodford Folk Festival.

Pat was an Army Officer before making an abrupt switch to songwriting, while Kelsey had a background as a circus performer before taking up music full-time. The songwriting partnership emerged from a chance encounter at an open mic, and has continued to develop out of a mutual admiration for their shared songwriting heroes. Freight Train Foxes fifth EP This City Holds Memories is scheduled for releas on 22 August 2024 and it’s easily their most captivating collection of songs to date.

For singer-songwriter Imogen Clark, music is many things – a weapon, a medicine, a superpower. As someone who has battled anxiety her whole life, music is the secret sauce that transforms her into the globetrotting belter of deeply emotional anthems, a swaggering live performer who proudly wears her deepest emotions with bracing vulnerability.
Today, she stands as a testament to the power of transcending one’s familiar boundaries, a journey fueled by her roots and an unwavering ambition that has taken her from the teenager who honed her chops playing Western Sydney bars to global stages from the US to Europe.

From an early age, Imogen’s life was steeped in music. From eight years old, she was trained as an opera singer, the foundation for her roof-raising vocal power and range. By twelve, she had transitioned to the guitar and piano for the start of her songwriting journey.

A proud road dig, Imogen has toured relentlessly since her teenage years, crisscrossing Australia, the UK, Europe and the US with artists including The Tallest Man on Earth, BOWEN * YOUNG, Steve Poltz, Jim Lauderdale and Shania Twain.

The new album ‘The Art of Getting Through’, proudly genre-agnostic, encapsulates Imogen’s range as a songwriter and recording artist. The lyrics are her most bracingly personal and vulnerable, the music more powerful and anthemic than ever.

Following on from the critically acclaimed album ‘Glassellland’ landing in many top 50 album lists, top 10 success on the Roots Music Report Chart and cracking the top 100 on the AMA/CDX Americana Chart, Jordie Lane returns with his new studio LP Tropical Depression slated as his first ever label release, out August 16, 2024 via ABC Music Australia / The Orchard. Jordie Lane has continued to delight audiences around the world now for over a decade, performing major festivals in the US, UK, Australia, and Canada. He has toured with a wide range of international legends, from Gotye to Billy Bragg, Cat Power to Old Crow Medicine Show, Ruthie Foster to The Moody Blues and several tours with Aussie legends The Waifs. Jordie has appeared on Australian TV shows Rock Wiz singing with Grammy nominated artist Mary Gauthier, and as a main guest on the hit Music Quiz show ‘Spicks and Specks’ along with CW Stoneking.

“We don’t get many artists like this in a generation, let alone on the cutting edge of new music. Lane has that Grammy- worthy Americana depth to his songwriting. It puts me in mind of some great songwriters like Kristofferson or even John Prine”. Greg Jones, Ear To The Ground.

“A masterclass in songwriting.” Kath Devaney – ABC Country

“Tropical Depression…easily his best album to date.” 4 Stars Brian Wise – Rhythms Magazine

From large festivals to boutique gatherings, from supporting Chris Isaak to Justin Townes Earle, Matt Joe Gow has built a reputation as an earnest performer to go along side the authentic Alt country tones. Matt grew up in New Zealand in a town with bad weather and good music: Dunedin. Encouraged to pick up a guitar at an early age after traveling the world, Matt found a home in Melbourne Australia drawn by its vibrant music scene and in 2009 he released his debut record ‘The Messenger’, produced by multi-Aria award-winner Nash Chambers. As Alt. Country continued to grow in popularity, Matt toured and supported acts such as The Jayhawks, Grant-Lee Phillips and Kasey Chambers.

It would be his 2018 album ‘Break, Rattle and Roll; an ambitious self produced record which would go on to win the Music Victoria Award for Best Country Album, solidifying his place on the Australian independent Country scene. After the rewarding but demanding process of touring that, Matt headed back into the studio in 2020, however midway the world was hit by the pandemic.

The result; a unique record, although laborious to make it is perhaps the most pure expression of Matt’s songwriting. Titled ’Between Tonight & Tomorrow’ it went on to chart on the ARIA and AIR charts, garnered 5 star reviews and another Music Victoria Award. The critical acclaim didn’t end there however, with Matt also taking home a prestigious New Zealand Country Music Award delighting fans and supporters in both countries.

Mike Elrington is a gifted singer songwriter with incredible guitar skills. Standing at almost two metres tall, delivering his signature, gut-wrenching vocals like an instrument all on its own, very few people forget a performance from this man.

The commitment to his live shows and the well-earned reputation for leaving nothing behind but sweat has seen him invited to perform at some of Australias finest festivals, including the iconic Byron Bay BluesFest, Bendigo, Sydney Blues and Roots Festivals & Blues on Broadbeach to name but a few.

Elrington has proven himself as one the hardest-working artists currently on the Australian scene, and over the last 20 years since the inception of his career as an 18-year old in Adelaide, has released 9 albums & toured excessively throughout Australia, the United States, Canada, United Kingdom & New Zealand. Self-managed independent tours to the US have seen him grace stages of some of the most prestigious blues clubs in America, including Biscuits & Blues in San Francisco, JJs Blues in San Jose, The Cat Club on Hollwoods Sunset Strip, Los Angeles, The Sand Dollar Blues Lounge in Las Vegas & Sullivan Hall in New York City.

In recent years Mike has not only maintained a heavy touring schedule all over the world, but has also appeared at the prestigious Tonder Festival in Denmark, opened up for rock legends The Doobie Brothers & took out the singer/songwriter of the year title at the recent Australian independent music awards.

Nigel Wearne & The Spectres saunter after dark in the music of the night, blending blues, jazz and Americana-noir. Swathed with rambunctious horns, Gretsch guitar, drums and double-bass, they’ve got a retro vibe that smacks it straight back to the 60’s. Hailing from Gunditjmara country in the deep south of Australia, Wearne is a guitarist and multi-instrumentalist with diverse influences such as Nick Cave, Tom Waits and Rickie Lee Jones. A deep thinker and truth seeker with a penchant for all things peculiar, he sings of human frailty, grace and the cosmos; songwriting that cuts to the bone.

Wearne has played some of the world’s most prestigious music festivals, including MerleFest (USA), Cambridge Folk Festival (UK), Adelaide Guitar Festival (Australia) and Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion (USA). His latest album, ‘The Reckoning’ received a nomination for Best Blues Work at the 2023 Music Victoria Awards and a 4-STAR review in The Weekend Australian. Rollicking, rumbling, sneering and reflective, ‘The Reckoning’ is a full band explosion of songs, stories and musical mayhem. Think after dark jazz club meets Ennio Morricone with a dose of soul. “Intoxicating New Orleans-tinged Americana… a bit of Waits, some Early James and C.W. Stoneking” – POST TO WIRE.

The Pleasures are fronted by renowned singer-songwriter Catherine Britt and modern-day troubadour Lachlan Bryan. Together they produce a mix of gritty, blues-inspired sound with tender and sublime country folk and two of the most authentic and character-filled voices you’ll hear this or any other year.

Only forming in 2022, The Pleasures have secured brilliant reviews and radio success in the UK, USA, and Australia. They held ground on the Americana Album Chart for 3 months with their debut album ‘The Beginning of the End’ released in August 2023, with over 50 reporting stations spinning and supporting the release and made their debut on the ARIA Country Album Chart in Australia at #2 and toured in the US and the UK to a rapturous reception.

The band has already performed at many major festivals, including Groundwater and Port Fairy Folk Festivals performing to huge audiences and delivered a killer performance at the 2024 Golden Guitar Awards in Australia where they were nominated for Best Group and Best Album awards.

Recently they showcased at Folk Alliance International in Kansas City, where they collected reviews from media highlighting The Pleasures as their favourite artist and recorded new material with Colin Linden producing. They will head back to the UK and play in Scandinavia in July and August in 2024 where they will perform at more festivals including Shrewsbury Folk Festival. And in September they will officially showcase at AMERICANAFEST in Nashville.

3 x CMAA ‘Golden Guitar’, 2 x Australian Folk Music and Music Victoria Award winners, The Weeping Willows (Laura Coates and Andrew Wrigglesworth) are a couple of old souls, steeped in Bluegrass tradition and draped in Gothic Americana imagery. They regale their audiences with stories of sunshine and romance, God and The Devil, murder and decay. Real music.

2017-2024 has seen The Weeping Willows nominated for 14 x CMAA ‘Golden Guitar’ awards, 7 x Australian Folk Music Awards (AFMAs), 4 x Country Music Channel (CMC) awards, 2 x National Live Music Awards (NLMAs), performing Official Showcases at AmericanaFest (USA) and Folk Alliance International (USA) and appearing at Maverick Festival (UK), Port Fairy Folk Festival, National Folk Festival, Queenscliff Music Festival, Out On The Weekend and the Australian Americana Music Honours. In recent years they have supported Lukas Nelson & POTR (USA), Hayes Carll (USA), Iris DeMent (USA), Willie Watson (USA), Eilen Jewell (USA), Cory Branan (USA) and Kevin Welch (USA) and completed national and international tours in support of their three LPs, including sophomore album, Before Darkness Comes A-Callin’, which received four-star reviews in Rolling Stone, The Australian and The Music. A Weeping Willows performance, whether live on location or caught on tape will always delight.

“…a mature, courageous and beguiling experience.” – No Depression (USA)

“…on the way to making some serious waves in Americana.” – AmericanaUK (UK)

Singer/songwriter Wesley Dean has released his new album ‘Music From Crazy Hearts’, the companion piece to an upcoming feature film, ‘Crazy Hearts: The Documentary’, which sees Dean hit the road with his family for an ambitious tour across America. With a director and cameraperson in tow, Dean and his family drove over 5000 miles from Nashville to Los Angeles in an RV via towns steeped in musical history playing shows off the beaten track; Memphis, New Orleans, Luckenbach, Marfa, Amarillo, Las Vegas, and more. The songs on ‘Music From Crazy Hearts’ complement the soundscape to Dean’s own story of breaking the industry mold to carve out his name independently. All ten songs on the album have an official music video comprising a visual album experience set to hit independent cinemas soon. Dean has previously released six other studio albums, and is a gold single and platinum album selling artist in Australia, where he began his career before relocating to Nashville in 2021.