‘I got my first ‘paid’ gig at nine – 20 bucks to sing four songs’: Meet 23 of SA’s talented new crop of country music singers
From the son of a favourite, to a sheep farmer and city-boy turned-Keith-Urban-in-the-making, these are South Australia’s homegrown country music rising stars.
SA News
Don't miss out on the headlines from SA News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Some have country music royalty running through their veins, others caught the country music bug while growing up on the land, listening to the music blaring from the shearing shed.
Others have been captivated by their music idols from Willie Nelson, to Keith Urban and Taylor Swift.
As the genre enjoys a surge in popularity, meet some of South Australia’s hottest young talent and our rising stars in the country music scene.
Ricky Albeck
Handle: @rickyalbeck
He might be the son of South Australian queen of country music Beccy Cole and acclaimed fiddler Mick Albeck, but he is forging his own musical path and unique stage style.
“I’ve started going with ‘country-ish pub rock’ or ‘post pub rock’ … it is difficult to describe yourself,” the 25-year-old, who “started making rock songs on Garageband” at 16, says.
“I love that my parents are musicians, it’s cool and (I’ve been) lucky to grow up surrounded by music … no other career paths have really grabbed me thus far.”
Beyond his parents, he proudly admits to having been long moved by timeless country music artists including industry legend Willie Nelson who continues to release albums aged in his 90s.
“(I love) some of the older Willie Nelson and Gram Parsons stuff … it’s got such a good feel and good playing,” he says.
These days he spends his time living in both Adelaide and Melbourne and, increasingly, touring with his Belair Line Band.
He says while the country music scene in Australia can be tough, there is a rising appetite for “honky tonk”, with plans in the pipeline for a regular, dedicated night of country music song and dance at The Crown & Anchor.
Gemma Tiller
Handle: @gemmatillermusic
Aged just 17, this proud sheep farming country girl – the daughter of a fourth generation Clare Valley primary producers – is already a seasoned performer, first commissioned to sing as a nine-year-old.
“My country music career began when I was about six years old, sitting on my Pa Vince’s lap, singing songs in his microphone at his country music club gigs … I got my first ‘paid’ gig at nine years old, being offered a whole 20 bucks to sing four songs with the band at the Adelaide Country Music Club … it has all progressed from there,” Tiller says.
“My music is country through and through … I’ve been raised listening to country music from a very young age … listening to what the shearing teams were playing in the shearing sheds, begging Mum and Dad to let me stay for the rodeo bands.
“I love writing and I love that as a songwriter, you have the opportunity to be so authentic and raw (and) people can relate first-hand to what you have to say.”
A two-time graduate of the CMAA Academy Of Country Music in Tamworth and prestigious Keith Urban Scholarship recipient, Tiller says a host of artists have influenced her to date, including US country stars Chris Stapleton, Lainey Wilson and Luke Combs.
After performing in Tamworth early in 2025 she plans to travel to Nashville to co-write and record. Her debut single Unanswered Prayers, released in February 2020, spent 10 consecutive weeks on the International Country Thunder Chart, including a stint at No. 1.
Ella McClean
Handle: @ellaandsiennamusic
Ella is one half of rising star sibling duo Ella & Sienna.
At 21, she is the eldest of the country music singing sisters who hail from the Adelaide Hills and have taken centre stage for three years at the largest and longest country music festival in the southern hemisphere – the Tamworth Country Music Festival.
The sisters who made it to the top six of Rita Ora’s team on the Voice Australia in 2022, released their first EP in 2022, steadily releasing singles since – the most recent, New Year’s Kiss recorded in Nashville, Tennessee.
Sienna McClean
Handle: @ellaandsiennamusic
Sienna, 18, completes the increasingly well-recognised sister country act, pointing to Taylor Swift as an early influence.
“We didn’t grow up with a lot of country music, our parents mainly listened to rock and pop,” she says, adding the “authenticity” of the genre is what she loves most.
“(Early on) we were really drawn to the songwriting style of the likes of Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran and Missy Higgins, we also admired many powerhouse vocalists including P!nk and Katy Perry (who will perform in Adelaide in 2025).
“Ed Sheeran is one of our biggest musical influences … his honest and authentic songwriting inspired us to start writing our own songs; we love all the old country, traditional types of things, too, including Kasey Chambers.”
She says opening for rock band Jet at the Adelaide Oval is a standout stage moment.
“A dream gig would be playing our own headline show in a venue like the Hordern Pavilion (which seats more than 5000) in Sydney … if that many people came to see us play we would never stop smiling,” she says.
Holly Hastings
Handle: @hollyhastingsmusic
Hastings has her heart set on making a name for herself in the country music space by, well, opening up her heart for all the world to see.
“My dream is to be recognised and travel the globe and have my music affect people in the way music has affected me,” the 24-year-old North Haven woman says.
“I want to help people through my music; I don’t feel comfortable all the time in everyday life and music is how I express myself and my emotions … I’ve learned to focus on what’s inside and writing from the heart.
Hastings, largely self-taught, describes her approach to music as a mix of “blues, pop, soul and country” that embraces influences from the “’60s to the 2000s”.
“I love folk, I love country … I love (US singer-songwriter) Chris Stapleton, I love (Texas country music artist) Jack Ryan … they are just very, very heartfelt, very soulful and very raw,” she says.
Working part-time in retail, Hasting hopes to soon make music a full-time gig with her upcoming single Darling to be released this month.
She released her first single, I Owe Her This, in 2022 and is planning to release an EP within months. Early this year she took to the stage with US heavy metal band Disturbed at the Entertainment Center to play to a crowd of 10,000 – her biggest live show yet.
To kickstart 2025 she’s secured a busking gig at the Tamworth Country Music Festival.
Kaelin Haimes
Handle: @kaelinhaimesmusic
This 19-year-old aspiring Mount Barker-based singer and songwriter who spent her childhood years in Streaky Bay describes her original scores as “easy listening with a folk vibe”.
“I try to keep things upbeat and happy … I’ve been told that ever since I was very little, I was always singing,” she says.
“I’ve kind of grown up with lots of different tastes of music (but) Missy Higgins is 100 per cent an influence … I love her storytelling and have been told I sound like her.”
Haimes recalls her dad buying himself a guitar when she was six, the dad and daughter duo hooked from that moment on – the little girl soon getting her own instrument.
She is currently in the “early works of recording and releasing my own songs”.
“It’ll be really, really cool to see that finally happen … my dream is definitely to just keep on playing, keep on singing,” she says.
“I just love to sing … my favourite aspect is seeing people’s reactions to my music and having them come up to me after a gig.”
For now, she juggles her singing and songwriting with a “day job” at the historic Hahndorf Inn.
Caitlin Drew
Handle: @caitlindrewmusic
Proudly born and bred at Leighton in the state’s mid-north, Drew has been singing since she was seven but didn’t grow up listening to country music at home as you might expect.
“My parents hated it to be perfectly honest,” the now 33-year-old former student of Burra Community School laughs.
“I sort of found country music in my early 20s … Keith Urban and Carrie Underwood (helped) steer me in that direction … I would sing along and think, ‘I really like how I sound when I sing this stuff … maybe this is my niche?’.
“I’ve also been inspired by artists such as Ashley McBride, Lainey Wilson and Miranda Lambert.
“I would describe my music as honest … my music is me, I don’t write about anything I don’t know about, or I haven’t experienced myself.”
In 2024, Drew was offered a rare place at the Academy of Country Music in Tamworth.
“That is kind of quite prestigious … it’s quite a rigorous process (to be invited) and really hard to get into … it was huge for me, it’s like a who’s who of country music.”
Also a highlight, releasing her first album, Dirt Roads and Dogs, last year. She is now working on her second, intent on showcasing her talents beyond a singer as a songwriter.
Drew works almost solely as a musician but supplements her income with “a bit of contract” work for farmers, helping at cropping and harvest.
Freddie Bailey
Handle: @freddiebailey_official
Adelaide Hills-based Bailey, who once took to the stage with country superstar Keith Urban, is looking for longevity as a professional singer, songwriter and musician rather than anything “humungous”.
“But I am hoping there are bigger things to come … if I put the work in, the time and the effort in, hopefully it will pay off in the end,” he says.
While his roots are in country music he is transitioning “more into the pop space”.
“From age 13, I was very involved in the country scene,” he says, the interest coinciding with his family’s move from Tamworth to Sydney.
“I was just surrounded by country, and that’s kind of what made its way into my playing, my writing and my music … I discovered I had a true passion for music.”
He says an impromptu life performance with Keith Urban while a contestant on reality TV show The Voice remains a memorable moment.
Juliet Oliver
Handle: @julietolivermusic
This Tamworth Country Music Festival “star maker” finalist is celebrated for her “unique fusion of country and pop, with a splash of Winehouse-jazz influence”.
The 24-year-old singer and songwriter grew up on a vineyard at McLaren Vale saying she first discovered country music at 11.
She tells how a songwriting notebook was her “version of a typical teenage girl’s diary” and with her acoustic guitar in hand, she began crafting songs about her formative experiences.
Alana Jagt
Handle: @alanajagt
Whyalla-born, Napperby-raised, Port Pirie-schooled Jagt admits to being “a bigger fan of the old-timey traditional Americana country songs” than modern country.
Today the 32-year-old, who lists The Beatles as one of her all-time favourite musical influences, calls Macclesfield in the Adelaide Hills home with her indie-infused take on country attracting a growing fanbase.
“Although there is a lot of country music that isn’t for me, I love the story telling of the country genre … there are some absolute classic country songs,” she says.
Kelly Brouhaha
Handle: @kellybrouhaha
Growing up in regional South Australia, this accomplished singer and songwriter spent much of her childhood “moving from town-to-town … finding solace in a guitar from the loneliness of always being the new kid”.
“I grew up all over; we lived in Athelstone, Berri, Port Augusta and I did my high school years at Charles Campbell Secondary School – now Charles Campbell College,” the 34-year-old says.
Brouhaha, who names American singer and guitarists Bonnie Raitt and Susan Tedeschi as her biggest musical influences, has been cementing her musical presence since 2017 as a musician-in-residence on Aussie Road Crew, a camping and music experience hosted by Beccy Cole.
An invitation to the The Tamworth Country Music Festival, as a “Sister Of Twang”, an all female project led by Cole, followed and she later toured nationally the group before taking to the stage as a solo act and releasing her own full-length album.
Her dream gig? To play at historic outdoor venue Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado.
Hana & Jessie-Lee’s Bad Habits
Handle: @hana_and_jessielees_bad_habits
Now based in Melbourne, this increasingly popular musical duo still think of South Australia as home.
Hana Brenecki, 39, grew up in Magill while Jessie-Lee Zubkevych, 37, was a “Port Noarlunga South” girl.
Firm friends as well as musical collaborators, Brenecki and Zubkevych work hard behind the scenes with the effort paying dividends.
They took out the “Best Country Work” gong at the most recent Music Victoria Awards.
“We’ve worked our butts off and it feels like it’s paying off. … we’re not on a label and we do everything ourselves, from booking shows to designing merchandise and everything in between,” Brenecki says.
“For both of us, I think the biggest achievement has been releasing our second album, Say What You Mean, touring across the country this year and landing spots at multiple festivals.”
Los Palms
Handle: @los.palms
Rather than traditional country, this local group which aligns itself most closely to “spaghetti western” describes its music as “desert jangle”.
“We have a lot of influence from South American 1960s music – hence the name, which is a bit of a salute to bands such Los Saicos, Los Holy’s, Los Destellos,” says Ant Candlish, who at 38 is the second oldest of the group.
“(But there’s also) vintage psych, surf with a solid dose of spaghetti western which is where a little bit of country influence comes from, I am a massive fan of (US singer and songwriter) Lee Hazlewood too.”
The group of four, nominated for this list for its “great energy” by the proprietor of Port Adelaide’s 10 Gallon Hat, Dylan Nettleton, started as a two-piece acoustic.
“I wanted to bring some more energy (and) experience, so I put a band together,” Candlish says.
He is joined on stage by Paul Ingham, 40, Josh Pullinen, 34, and William Lee, 28.
Candlish says the group, which has previously played in Europe, is looking “forward to what is coming next … ‘chasin’ the dragon’ so to speak, so I wanna lean towards one day hitting the US”.
Kickass Cowgirls
Facebook: Kickass Cowgirls
Singer-songwriters Zkye Compson-Harris and Gab Hunter formed their “kickass duo” several years ago on the back of the rising popularity of country music.
“We were casually discussing the fact that country music was having a huge surge in popularity in Adelaide … it suddenly became clear that, between us, we had all of the ingredients to make a really ‘kickass’ country duo,” Compson-Harris says.
“We play boot-stomping knee-slapping harmony-soaked certified bangers … it wouldn’t be a Kickass Cowgirls gig without (me) climbing on the bar at least once in a night (while) Gab is known for her signature percussive guitar style … (and harmonising) with anything and everything.”
Regular performers at inner city Shotgun Willies, the pair aged “between 18 and 90 … a Kickass Cowgirl never tells”, have their sights set on being part of a Tamworth Country Music Festival line-up.
Brad Chicken & the Bootstraps
Handle: @bradchickenmusic
This quirky quintet of 30 somethings who dream of one day making it to Nashville to “play some shows” or record say, to them, country music is about putting smiles on people’s faces.
Vocalist and guitarist Brad Chicken, which you might have guessed is not his real name, is joined on stage by Dallas Peppers (drums), “Howlin’ J Weatherill” (keys) “Foot” (bass) and “Buckwheat J Weatherill” (guitar).
The group, which this month was named the Most Popular Country Artist at the SA Music Awards, relocated from Hobart to Glenelg and is steadily building a following of two-stepping, toe-tapping fans in their new hometown.
“We all hail from the deep, deep south of Hobart … we wanted to move somewhere that was even more south, so South Australia was perfect for us,” Chicken says.
“I’ve known the rest of the Bootstraps my whole life, we’ve always been the best of friends so getting to play music together now is truly a dream come true,” he says.
You’ll be able to see many of the country artists mentioned – as well as rising stars from across the nation – at the 2025 Tamworth Country Music Festival, which kicks off on Friday January 16.
Originally published as ‘I got my first ‘paid’ gig at nine – 20 bucks to sing four songs’: Meet 23 of SA’s talented new crop of country music singers
Radio ratings: Over and out for Bec and Soda
The latest radio ratings results are in. It is the second to last survey for 2024 and the final one for SAFM’s now defunct Bec and Soda show. See how they did here.
You can’t park there! Wayward car demolishes house fence
Police have arrested a man – who is alleged to have been driving under the influence – after a car clipped the side of a parked car then smashed through a brick wall.