Troy Cassar-Daley: I won’t beat Slim Dusty
Modest country music star Troy Cassar-Daley insists he won’t be the one to pass Slim Dusty’s Golden Guitars record – but he’s thrilled to be touring with his daughter Jem to South Australia.
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In 1998, in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, Australian Test captain Mark Taylor found himself in a sticky situation.
Having finished the day on 334 runs – equal to the great Don Bradman’s highest score – Tubby could either declare, or come out the next day and beat the Don’s record.
He declared, of course, and it’s a moment Aussie country singer Troy Cassar-Daley has found himself contemplating recently.
You see, the lad from Grafton also found himself in a sticky situation.
With 37 Golden Guitars on the shelf, he’s just one win away from equalling the Don Bradman of Australian country music, Slim Dusty.
With plenty of tunes left in the 50-year-old singer, it’s almost inevitable that he’ll pass his idol – but he’s determined that he won’t be the first one to do so.
“It won’t be me, I can tell you that,” Cassar-Daley laughs.
“I don’t want to be remembered as the man who beat Slim’s record. I’ll hand that mantel to Lee (Kernaghan, who also has 37 of the coveted trophies) if he’s willing to do it.
“I’ll do a Mark Taylor, that’s how I feel about it. I’m very proud to have 37 Golden Guitars, but I just respect Slim so much. I’m not trying to be arty or anything, that’s just how I feel.”
It’s the kind of from-the-heart sentiment that endears country fans to Cassar-Daley and his music, music that cuts to the core of the human condition.
He’s a man who’s not afraid to wear his heart on his sleeve, and there’s no more obvious example of this than on Shutting Down Our Town.
The poignant track about the death of the Elizabeth car manufacturing industry has been widely hailed as perhaps Jimmy Barnes’s best song in 20 years.
And it all started with a Cassar-Daley poem.
The singer was taking a six-month hiatus from touring to spend time with his wife and her family after his father-in-law was diagnosed with aggressive cancer.
“So I’d shut up shop for a while, and out of the blue I get this call from Jimmy and he says he’s looking for songs,” Cassar-Daley says.
“I said, ‘I don’t have any songs, but I have this poem I can send you’. I actually wrote it after reading Jimmy’s first book [Working Class Boy]. That book broke my heart, both as a father and as Jim’s friend.”
Barnes loved the words, so Cassar-Daley wrote some music and a working class classic came to life.
“As a musician you really have to be prepared for those slips catches that might come your way,” he says.
“And it’s the only time that I’m ever going to be played on (rock radio station) Triple M! My wife picked me up from the airport in Brisbane the other day and it came on loud and proud on the radio – I nearly bawled. It was just surreal.
“This thing that I wrote amid the sadness of this book, and for Jim to turn it into this song – you wouldn’t find a prouder bloke.”
Another thing that makes him proud is teenage daughter Jem, who’s rapidly building a name as an artist to watch in the future.
Jem’s currently on a gap year between high school and uni, and opening for her dad as he plays around Australia to celebrate the release of his greatest hits record.
“To have a kid on the road with me, it’s not something I thought would ever happen to tell you the truth,” Cassar-Daley says.
“I really encouraged her to come on this gap year with me and to make sure that this was a part of her life, at least just while she’s getting over the school and the havoc it plays with your brain.
“I said, ‘How about a year on the road, opening for me, and seeing our country? You can’t do that at university, and I won’t charge you any HECS fees’.
“By the third gig I’m sitting there almost crying when she breaks into this version of Flame Trees. Me being from Grafton, of course, I’m getting all nostalgic …”
Cassar-Daley turned 50 this year and also lost his father Tony – “a real kick in the guts”. He says compiling his greatest hits record was a way of looking back on a musical career that began, officially at least, back in 1994. Unofficially, it began when he was just 12 years old, busking on the streets of Tamworth.
“I think hitting that nostalgic age of 50, I thought, ‘Here’s a chance to put a comma in my career – definitely not a full stop – and take the chance to look back, honour those songs’,” he says.
Putting the album together involved, obviously, Cassar-Daley combing through his extensive back catalogue, a job he described as “one of the most arduous tasks I’ve ever undertaken”.
“I had to listen to myself for two weeks,” he laughs. “I really don’t listen to my own music unless I’m playing it. But we managed to get 42 tracks on there and I’m very proud of all of them.”
The singer is bringing his “best of” show to South Australia, with gigs at Hahndorf and Tanunda this month, with Jem in tow.
As he travels the country, Cassar-Daley – a proudly indigenous man – often takes time out to play for Aboriginal elders in the communities he visits.
It’s a way, he says, of sharing stories and soaking up a bit of old fashioned wisdom. “Some of these people don’t get to get out a lot, and to see a young indigenous bloke – well young compared to them – share his story, even if we’re from different country, is important,” Cassar-Daley says.
“It puts a spring in my step, and it think it does the same for them. And it’s an escape. They might be living in a body that doesn’t move as well as it used to, but music is a way of escaping from that and it brings me joy.”
He’s also acutely aware that as an Aboriginal country singer he’s part of a strong lineage that stretches back through singers like Kev Carmody and Archie Roach to early exponents like Jimmy Little. It’s something he takes seriously.
“Jimmy Little was this incredible gentlemen,” Cassar-Daley says.
“I’ve tried to base my life on his. He was incredibly kind, but still strong and resilient. Kev Carmody, well he’s just one of the best storytellers this country has ever produced.
“And Archie! Let me tell you, I saw Archie this year at Bluesfest and he was just gluing black and white people together. He’s standing up there, not cranky, just delivering this message that we are all one mob of people. Let’s make this work.”
Troy Cassar-Daly, with special guest Jem Cassar-Daly, is performing on Friday, October 18, at Old Mill, Hahndorf, and Saturday, October 19, at Barossa Arts and Convention Centre, Tanunda. Tickets at troycassardaley.com.au