Family act is a solid gold tradition at Country Music Festival in Tamworth

Brooke McClymont and Adam Eckersley have a dozen Golden Guitar Awards between them.

Musicians Adam Eckersley and his wife, Brooke McClymont, have their first album as a duo coming out next month. Picture: John Feder

Singer-songwriter Adam Eckersley is thinking he’ll have to clear some more room on the family piano after the Country Music Festival in Tamworth if his wife Brooke McClymont brings home any more Golden Guitar Awards.

The couple has a dozen Golden Guitars at their home, but the scales are tipped heavily in favour of McClymont, who has 10 — thanks to her part in popular country trio The McClymonts with sisters Sam and Mollie.

At this year’s festival, starting tomorrow, The McClymonts are finalists for six Golden Guitar Awards, and Eckersley is confident his wife will bring a few more home. “I think we might need to build another extension on the piano where all of her awards sit now,” he said.

The two are scheduled to ­perform in Tamworth with their own acts, The McClymonts and the Adam Eckersley Band, but this year will be one to remember as they are also about to release their first album as a duo.

The album of blues rock-­influenced country songs they wrote and recorded together, Adam & Brooke, is released on February 9, and an intimate ­preview for fans will be held in Tamworth next Thursday.

The McClymonts.

“We’ve spoken about doing a project together since we’ve been an item, nine or so years,” Eckersley said. After Tamworth, the two will take their new songs on tour. “We can get in the van and go and see a whole heap of Australia we haven’t been to before,” he said.

McClymont said: “We’ve ­created our own thing with this project. It feels new and fresh. We’re excited for the first half of this year, getting to play together and hanging out, too.”

Now in its 46th year, the ­Country Music Festival features 700 artists and more than 2800 events across 10 days.

“It’s a great family-oriented festival, and the kids just love it,” Eckersley said. “But we do sneak out after they go to bed when we get a chance.”

This will be the 26th annual excursion for McClymont, who first visited the festival as a 12-year-old.

“We started off busking in the streets, the girls and I, and then working our way up to the talent quest,” she said.

“It became a yearly event for our family; it was always the first thing we did on the calendar.”