John Williamson lashes out at lack of industry support for Australian country music

John Williamson has fired up on behalf of younger artists, as he goes back on the road to celebrate his 50th anniversary as a performer.

True Blue troubadour John Williamson is frustrated Australian country music continues to be treated as an outlier by industry gatekeepers, whom he accuses of being “embarrassed” by the genre.

Ahead of the 2022 Golden Guitars nominations being announced next week, Williamson said other awards and industry events rarely include young voices from the country genre.

“I’ve noticed when they have (Australian Music Month) it’s always about rock’n’roll, and I think we’re the most Australian music of all but we seem to be left out,” he said.

“Country music is (treated) like they’re almost embarrassed by this kind of Australian music; I don’t know what it is.”

John Williamson is back on the road after lockdowns forced his 50th anniversary celebrations to be rescheduled. Picture: Tim Hunter.

The Home Among The Gumtrees chronicler of Australian stories believes streaming has also narrowed the opportunities for young country artists to cut through to mainstream pop audiences.

Breakthrough artists such as Morgan Evans, Casey Barnes and Brad Cox have generated millions of streams, and have regularly featured in awards nominations since launching their careers.

But other emerging acts such as Darlinghurst, Andrew Swift, Melody Moko and The Buckleys rely on gigs rather than playlists to spread the word about their new releases.

John and wife Meg will be on the road until they can return to Queensland in mid-December. Picture: Damian Shaw

Live is where country rocks. The 2022 return of the wildly successful CMC Rocks QLD festival – which has jettisoned more country acts into the ARIA top 50 than perhaps any other platform in the past 15 years – sold out of its 22,000 tickets within hours earlier this month.

There aren’t any artists representing country music listed among the performers or presenters for the truncated, streaming ARIA Awards next week

“The whole industry has changed with streaming and also we don’t have as many opportunities on television for music anymore; there used to be so many ways we could promote our new music,” Williamson said.

“The bread and butter has always been about playing live but that’s coming back now and I think Tamworth will be the biggest ever next year.”

Williamson wrote The Great Divide while isolated on his Gold Coast hinterland property last year. Picture: Luke Marsden

As he resumes his massive Australian Stories tour, the return of the annual Tamworth Country Music Festival for its 50th anniversary in January will be particularly momentous for Williamson.

He joins three other Australian music pioneers – Smoky Dawson, Slim Dusty and Joy McKean – who have been honoured with a life-size bronze statue in the country music capital.

“It’s going to be weird; I’ve seen a photo of it (in its first stages) and it does look like me! They’ve got the way I stand, but the sculptor took a bit of weight off for me so that was good,” he said.

Williamson was due to celebrate his own 50th anniversary with more than 30 gigs around the country for his Winding Back tour in 2020.

Now rebranded as his Australian Stories tour – with extra shows at festivals including Bluesfest at Easter – his one-man songs and yarns show has been updated to feature two new songs which reflect life before and after Covid.

After leaving his idyllic Gold Coast hinterland property to play gigs in NSW this week, Williamson now finds himself trapped in the reality of last year’s single The Great Divide: “I thought we were a country, But it seems we’re three or four, Can’t go back to my home town

‘Cause it’s against the law.”

Williamson will play more than 30 concerts on his Australian Stories tour. Picture: Tim Hunter

“We’ve jumped the fence to get back into it with shows and I can’t go back to Queensland until the middle of December,” he said.

“That song said by 2021 it would be all over, now I have to change the lyric when I’m singing it to say I ‘thought’ by 2021 it would be all over.

“The Great Divide is now one of my most popular songs because everyone feels it, they’ve got kids over one border or another, they can’t even go to be with their parents when they’re dying or for their funeral.”

His new song Come Back To Me, Country celebrates the renewed love affair Australians have with our backyard, its “blue valleys” and “red ochre heart” after lockdowns and restrictions.

“I have always appreciated how lucky I am to have the freedom to take my show wherever I want to in this huge island continent; to describe and share the incredible variety of bush landscapes with my audiences,” he said.

“I have never really been keen to perform anywhere else. My songs are aimed at Aussies; my heart is here. I guess my longing is nothing compared to an indigenous mob kept from their traditional land in the early days.”

For all tour dates and ticketing details for John Williams’s Australian Stories tour, johnwilliamson.com.au

Originally published as John Williamson lashes out at lack of industry support for Australian country music