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The Wolfe Brothers, Brad Cox lead winners at Golden Guitar Awards 2024

Five years after breaking its Golden Guitar Award drought, Tasmanian country-rock act The Wolfe Brothers has once again led the winners’ pack in Tamworth. | FULL WINNERS LIST

Tasmanian country rock duo The Wolfe Brothers, who took home three Golden Guitar Awards in Tamworth on Saturday night. L-R: Tom Wolfe, Nick Wolfe. Picture: Antony Hands
Tasmanian country rock duo The Wolfe Brothers, who took home three Golden Guitar Awards in Tamworth on Saturday night. L-R: Tom Wolfe, Nick Wolfe. Picture: Antony Hands

Five years after painting the town gold for the first time, Tasmanian country-rock duo The Wolfe Brothers have once again led the winners’ pack at the Golden Guitar Awards.

Held on Saturday night in Tamworth, the annual celebration of excellence in Australian country music saw Nick and Tom Wolfe chalking up another memorable night together.

Now four albums into a career that has seen them become fan favourites in the growing genre, the two Wolfes have long since broken an awards drought that once saw them nominated for 13 Golden Guitars without a single win.

“Now we’ve won a couple, there’s not that desperation to get one,” Nick Wolfe told The Australian with a grin ahead of the ceremony.

“It’s very stiff competition – which is great, because that means Australian country [music] is really starting to thrive,” he said. “There’s a lot of varied, different stuff, and that’s awesome.”

His sibling concurred. “It’s been our mindset post-Covid: we’re just all about lifting people up,” said Tom. “We’ve got a couple [of awards] – it’s great. We’re part of it, we get to perform, and it’d be lovely to get one more.”

Tom Wolfe (left) and Nick Wolfe at the Longyard Hotel in Tamworth earlier this week. Picture: Antony Hands
Tom Wolfe (left) and Nick Wolfe at the Longyard Hotel in Tamworth earlier this week. Picture: Antony Hands

As it happened, the brothers took home three more: album of the year for Livin’ the Dream, vocal collaboration of the year for Runnin’ the Country (with Travis Collins), and group of the year.

All up, their golden tally now stands at nine.

The pair grew up on the family berry farm in Neika, 13km southwest of Hobart, and first travelled to Tamworth with their parents in 2006 to soak up the sights and sounds of the nation’s country music capital.

The former fans are now artists firmly ensconced in the scene: two days earlier, they received the honour of being added to the city’s ‘galaxy of stars’ list, alongside legendary surnames including Dusty, Chambers and Williamson.

Having played two sold-out shows at The Longyard on Friday, to both all-ages and adults-only audiences, another career highlight looms in the near future: a pair of concerts with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, to be held on April 5 in Hobart and April 20 in Launceston.

The other triple award-winners on Saturday night included Brad Cox, whose album Acres won contemporary country album of the year, while the Jindabyne-raised singer-songwriter was also named male artist of the year.

Ahead of the ceremony, Cox’s Acres had also been recognised as the genre’s top-selling album of the year.

As well, country/folk duo Felicity Urquhart and Josh Cunningham were awarded both song of the year and single of the year for Size Up, while their second album Birdsong was named traditional country album of the year.

Australian singer-songwriters Josh Cunningham (left) and Felicity Urquhart (right). Picture: Asha Kidd
Australian singer-songwriters Josh Cunningham (left) and Felicity Urquhart (right). Picture: Asha Kidd

The writer travelled to Tamworth as a guest of Tamworth Regional Council.

2024 Golden Guitar Award Winners

Album of the Year: LIVIN’ THE DREAM

The Wolfe Brothers | Producers: Rod McCormack, Nick Wolfe, Matt Fell, Johnny Gasparic

Alt Country Album of the Year: HEY DAWN

Fanny Lumsden | Producers: Matt Fell, Fanny Lumsden

Contemporary Country Album of the Year: ACRES

Brad Cox | Producer: Brandon Hood

Traditional Country Album of the Year: BIRDSONG

Felicity Urquhart & Josh Cunningham | Producers: Felicity Urquhart, Josh Cunningham, Matt Fell

Male Artist of the Year:

BRAD COX

Female Artist of the Year:

KAYLEE BELL

Group or Duo of the Year:

THE WOLFE BROTHERS

Vocal Collaboration of the Year: RUNNIN’ THE COUNTRY

Travis Collins & The Wolfe Brothers

Bush Ballad of the Year: DUST KIDS

SToReR | Songwriters: Sara Storer, Greg Storer

Heritage Song of the Year: 1861

Duncan Toombs | Songwriter: Duncan Toombs

Instrumental of the Year: GHOST TRAIN

Wicker Suite

Bluegrass Recording of the Year: OLD PICKUP LINE

Wicker Suite

New Talent of the Year:

MAX JACKSON

Song of the Year: SIZE UP

Felicity Urquhart & Josh Cunningham | Songwriter: Josh Cunningham

Video of the Year: STEEL ON STEEL

Duncan Toombs | Director: Duncan Toombs, The Filmery

Single of the Year: SIZE UP

Felicity Urquhart & Josh Cunningham

Top-Selling Album of the Year: ACRES

Brad Cox | Producer: Brandon Hood

Andrew McMillen
Andrew McMillenMusic Writer

Andrew McMillen is an award-winning journalist and author based in Brisbane. Since January 2018, he has worked as national music writer at The Australian. Previously, his feature writing has been published in The New York Times, Rolling Stone and GQ. He won the feature writing category at the Queensland Clarion Awards in 2017 for a story published in The Weekend Australian Magazine, and won the freelance journalism category at the Queensland Clarion Awards from 2015–2017. In 2014, UQP published his book Talking Smack: Honest Conversations About Drugs, a collection of stories that featured 14 prominent Australian musicians.

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Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/music/the-wolfe-brothers-brad-cox-lead-winners-at-golden-guitar-awards-2024/news-story/472a3204c54dfef29f36738c55b08619