Felicity Urquhart’s golden and bittersweet night in Tamworth

Urquhart’s love and respect for her husband and musician Glen Hannah was strong in her Golden Guitars acceptance speeches.

Joy McKean, widow to Slim Dusty, attends a ceremony marking her addition to the Roll of Renown at the conclusion of Tamworth Country Music festival. Picture: Josh Favaloro

A pair of beloved country women showed their strength and resilience at the Tamworth Country Music Festival on Saturday night, when singer-songwriter Felicity Urquhart won six Golden Guitar awards and 90-year-old Joy McKean received her due honours as a solo artist.

Urquhart showed resolve and class to pay tribute to her late husband Glen Hannah, who produced her award-winning album Frozen Rabbit.

Her love and respect for Hannah, who died by suicide in May last year, was a recurring motif on a night where the country music community tightly wrapped its arms around her.

After her first win of the night, Urquhart said from the stage: “It has been a pretty tough 12 months — you all know the story. But we’re here, and music heals. Friends are forever, and family is everlasting, and you are all my family.”

In a well-kept surprise, McKean — who with her husband Slim Dusty blazed a trail for country artists in the 1950s — was added to the Roll of Renown in recognition of her lasting and significant contribution to music.

In 1983, McKean was added to the honour roll with her sister Heather under their performing name of the McKean Sisters.

This year the acclaimed singer-songwriter was celebrated in her own right.

Urquhart’s album Frozen Rabbit won awards for album of the year and traditional country album, while Chain of Joy was named both single of the year and song of the year.

Urquhart was also named best female artist, while a song she co-wrote with Luke O’Shea won another award, taking her Golden Guitars haul to six.

The host of ABC radio’s Saturday Night Country since 2010, Urquhart is well-known and widely loved, not only because of her effervescent personality but because of her abundant passion for the genre. She accepted the award for album of the year with her and Hannah’s two young daughters by her side.

The album was a decade in the writing and its banjo-driven songs are rooted in true stories of domestic life and love of family. Hannah produced the album, played multiple instruments on it, and filmed the music videos.

Backstage on Saturday, Urquhart said she was writing new ­material, and the songs were “flowing like a river”.

“They were gifts from somewhere — some of them for my own self-therapy,” she said.

“I went and sat in rooms with people because I was advised to — but the irony of the situation is I’m a talker and I shouldn’t have been the one sitting in the room. It should have been Glen.”

If you or someone you know may be at risk of suicide, call Lifeline
(13 11 14), the Suicide Call Back Service (1300 659 467) or
Kids Helpline (1800 55 1800).