Singing the Country: A grass roots view of the Tamworth Country Music Festival

Singing The Country is a grass roots view of Australia’s biggest country music festival. It has been described as being a book well worth reading. M. Darling Ward spent the ten days and nights of the Tamworth Country Music Festival—the biggest country music festival in Australia— hitting the streets, clubs, pubs, parks, churches and halls, seeking the spirit that keeps Australian country music alive. She talked to people everywhere and they talked back, giving a rich vein of music history as told by the buskers, the songwriters and the poets who present themselves at the coal face of public scrutiny their open guitar case or hat at their feet in silent appeal. The fans that came to listen also told their stories. Country music singer and bush ballad legend, the late Stan Coster, wrote a special foreword for Singing The Country in which he recommends that a copy of it should be in every country music lover’s library. Stan Coster, the highly regarded and greatly loved performer, also wrote many of the songs performed by the late Slim Dusty. The Tamworth festival has been the starting point for many illustrious careers in country music. Singing The Country–a grassroots view of the Tamworth Country Music Festival is a valuable resource for all those lovers of country music.