Country musician James Johnston headlines Mount Isa Rodeo

Whether it is performing at the Overlander Hotel, or as the headliner for Mount Isa Rodeo, country musician James Johnston refuses to big-note himself. Here’s why.

Country musician James Johnston will headline at the Mount Isa Rodeo less than a year after releasing his debut album. The outback mining community has seen him develop as a musician, having performed at a local pub only a stones throw away from the rodeo grounds. Picture: Supplied.

For years country music singer James Johnston would perform to a pub crowd at the Mount Isa Overlander Hotel alongside the Barkly Highway, only a few streets off from the rodeo grounds.

But this year, he headlines the major event on the Saturday night at Mount Isa’s Buchanan Park complex, two years after filling in an opening act’s cancellation.

Johnston will be coming in from the Tamborine area in South East Queensland, but the outback city has been a symbolic representation of his musical growth.

It has been less than a year since the release of his debut and award-winning ARIA album Raised Like That, and Johnston will also perform at the Gympie Muster a few weeks after.

But despite an increasing profile on music charts, he still walks on the stage, assuming his crowd does not know who he is.

Musician James Johnston will be headlining at the Mount Isa Rodeo this year. Picture: Supplied.

He wants to keep being grounded and connected to his country NSW origins, because celebrating these values was what country music is all about to him.

It was not about being famous.

“If you go into the world of hip hop or even the pop world and everything like that in terms of music, it’s kind of that over-extroversion is the thing that’s celebrated … there’s some huge egos,” he said.

“One thing I love about country is it celebrates those core values, it celebrates being humble, it celebrates, you know, being hardworking, it celebrates family, and all those sorts of things.

“And I really love that.

“I think, inherently, the people that are in that community also celebrates those ideas as well.”

When he attended events like the Mount Isa Rodeo he saw the people that achieved success, whether they were champion bullriders, or graziers, or mine managers, and how they kept it quiet.

“They don’t brag about it or anything like that,” he said.

“They tend to be really humble people.

“And you know, I think that’s one thing I love about this whole community.”

The Mount Isa Rodeo will be held on August 8-11. 

Originally published as Country musician James Johnston headlines Mount Isa Rodeo