Ashleigh Dallas delivers thanks to family and friends

NO one is more suited to becoming a country music artist than Ashleigh Dallas.

Tamworth-born and raised, Ashleigh Dallas - granddaughter of country legend Rex Dallas - has been mentored by Kasey Chambers. Picture: James Croucher

IT'S hard to imagine anyone more suited to becoming a country music artist than Ashleigh Dallas. The 20-year-old singer and fiddle player was born, raised and lives in Tamworth, NSW, home to the country music festival every January.

She grew up in a musical family headed by celebrated country singer and songwriter Rex Dallas, her grandfather, and got her first big break when country star Kasey Chambers spotted her playing fiddle in Tamworth and asked her to join her band. "To get that gig was a life-changing experience," Dallas said in Sydney. "I feel very lucky that I worked alongside her, but also that I've become part of the Chambers family, because family is very important to me. She's been a really good mentor and a friend."

Now Dallas, who also plays guitar and a variety of other stringed instruments, is hoping to emulate her famous mentor's success. She released her debut album, Dancing With a Ghost, at the weekend. "It would be nice to be able to make a career out of music and to be as successful as her," she said. "Growing up with a musical family, I always wanted to have my own album. I'm happy with how it has worked out."

Dallas has been playing fiddle since she was six. Her guitarist father Brett, bass-playing brother Lindsay and grandfather were just some of those she learned from, often at family gatherings on her grandfather's property.

"All the uncles and grandkids would go out there and play music," she said. "There was always a house full of musos. That's where it all kind of cemented for me."

The Chambers family has been equally important in her rise to becoming a professional muso. Kasey co-produced Dancing With a Ghost. It was recorded at her brother Nash Chambers's studio in the Hunter Valley and features their father Bill Chambers, who sings, plays guitar and co-wrote a couple of the songs with Dallas.

Tracks on the album such as Me, Nothing At All and Carry Me are about family and relationships, more mature topics than the songs about sheep and kelpies her grandfather once taught her.

"I guess I wanted to make it about me as much as possible," she said. "I wanted to show what I'd done for 20 years."

And she's looking forward to performing her new songs at the country music festival next year. She's never missed the Tamworth Festival. "I don't remember the ones when I was in a pram," she said, "but I've always been there.

"But to be a part of it and play music in my home town is even better."