Last Saturday night we put on our best threads and joined our country music community and audience to celebrate the Golden Guitars. We were delighted to collect the Toyota Heritage Song Of The Year for ‘I Am Australian’, Written by Dobe Newton and Bruce Woodley.

No longer can we claim it takes 29 years and 28 nominations between wins! After a long ‘losing streak’ (prior to our 2010 win for Bush Ballad with ‘Road To Thargomindah’ off Australian Songbook 2, when we broke the drought) . We are ecstatic to be on a ‘lucky streak’ and very proud of Dobe for his great and iconic song.

‘I Am Australian’ was written by Dobe Newton (The Bushwackers) and Bruce Woodley (The Seekers) in 1987. Bruce Woodley later recorded it with ‘The Seekers’ and it soaked into Australia’s consciousness. 

In 2011 we decided to record and release ‘I Am Australian’ as part of our 40th Anniversary year, coinciding with the release of the all-new recordings of ‘Official Dance Album’.

The ever-popular ‘Dance Album’ has the rare privilege of having pride of place in many Australian schools for the mandatory Bush Dance. A generation of Australians have grown up enjoying the music of the Bushwackers, loving bush dances and singing ‘I Am Australian’, so it seemed fitting that ‘I Am Australian’ be included.

Dobe made a great acceptance speech at the awards, thanking you, our audience for your long and enthusiastic support and the rest of us cheer him along with the sentiment; Roger Corbett, Mark Oats, Clare O’Meara, Michael Vidale, Ben Corbett, Brad Bergen, and of course Dobe Newton, all say thank you! Thanks for still listening, dancing, cheering, coming along to our shows and for being part of our history. We are still doing this because of you!

We have a few others we would like to thank:

• Our Team: Amanda O’Bryan, Lily Johnson, Mia Middleton, Paul and Colleen O’Bryan, Greg and Lynette Grimes.
• The Longyard Hotel: Joan Douglas and the amazing and enthusiastic staff at the Longyard along with Mike Vee.
• Country Music Association of Australia (CMAA)
• Tamworth Council: Tamworth Mayor, Col Murray. (We receive such generous support from the Tamworth city and the festival team).
• Destination Tamworth
• The Northern Daily Leader
 (Rebecca Belt, we love your work!)
• Tamworth and National Press
• National Country and Folk Music radio
• All the performers who come along and share the stage with us at our shows.
• WJO Distribution
• VW Amarok (for the great Ute we drove around in during Tamworth)
• Our friends and family who come along to our shows, take photos, lend a helping hand, usher, load gear, rally the troops and sometimes just hang out!
• and…YOU – thank you for being our audience!

“The often under-awarded but much-loved Bushwackers breathed new life into the classic I Am Australian, co-written by frontman Dobe Newton, taking out Toyota Heritage Song of the Year.

Dobe, who was dressed in a trademark suit with bright paint colours fashionably splashed across it made the band’s acceptance speech.

“Thank Christ I dressed up,” he said.

“I love you mate (to Roger Corbett). When we first came (to the Tamworth Country Music Festival) in 1981 we didn’t realise at the time we were becoming part of a community. Without our musical friends and city of Tamworth friends and fans we would have no career. Bless you and thank you very much.”

Read the Full Story HERE 

We have a HUGE year planned as the festival  celebrates it’s 40th anniversary year,  we will be there in full flight to help celebrate, kicking off the festival at the Official Opening concert in the park on Friday evening, 20th January…not to mention we are looking forward to the Golden Guitar awards, hoping to keep the winning streak alive and well with two nominations. We will keep you posted on that one!

Certainly the Giant Family Bush Dance at the Tamworth Town Hall on Wednesday 25th is a special one for us. The old town hall gets a work out with hundreds of dancing feet of all ages. Last year we had a rush of tickets at the door, so avoid the queues and get your tickets before the show.

For Bush Dance tickets and all our shows and ticket information click here

Woodford Festival should definitely be on every music lover’s ‘bucket list’. The diversity of entertainment from great folk music through pop, hip hop, country and national folkloric styles was amazing to witness and the standard of acts was simply astounding. We feel very privileged to have been a part of such a Festival. Its great to know that people of every age group find something in your music to enjoy and relate to. Click here to see pictures.

Onwards and upwards we go for 2012. Our next stop is the Tamworth Country Music Festival and we have a whole bunch of great shows along our nomination for 2 Golden Guitars. Click here for more info about The Bushwackers shows and events.

Altogether it’s a great outcome for our Dance Album and an amazing tribute to the musicianship and production of The Bushwackers albums.  We are very excited about being part of the mix and up against some very tough competition this year!

Two years ago we broke the drought on our long standing run of gold guitar nominations by winning our first Gold Guitar in 20 years. Bush Ballad Of The Year won the gong with ‘Road To Thargomindah’, so perhaps we are still on a winning streak? Only time will tell.  

You can join The Bushwackers and many more of Australia’s country music’s stars at the special 40th Anniversary Jayco CMAA Country Music Awards of Australia at the Tamworth Regional Entertainement Centre (TREC).  

CLICK HERE for more info

TICKETS HERE for The Bushwackers shows in Tamworth

The Woodford Folk Festival, an event of international standing, is held annually over six days and six nights from Dec 27th through to January 1st. More than 2000 performers and 580 events are programmed featuring local, national and international guests.

The Bushwackers are performing during the festival, so we hope to see many of you there!

You can catch us at:

Concert: 9.00am Tuesday 27th Dec

Concert: 11.45am Wednesday 28th Dec

Dance Hall: 9.30pm Lovers and Strangers Bush Dance 29th Dec

Dance Hall: 6.00pm Family Bush Dance 30th Dec

Duck: 11.45pm 31st Dec

Workshop 12.00 midday Songwriting 27th Dec

Workshop 4.00pm Aussie Fiddlers 27th Dec

CLICK HERE for more info on the Woodford Folk Festival

The Longyard Hotel is our Tamworth home and we will be back again this year under the new ownership of The Pub Group. We are also back at the Tamworth Town Hall for a Giant Family Bush Dance. Last year was such a great success we decided to make it a yearly event!

This year there are a few extra options for purchasing tickets.

• Tourism Tamworth have tickets for all our paid shows.
• The Bushwackers website have limited tickets online for all Longyard Shows.
• Tickets for The Longyard shows will be available during the festival at The Longyard Hotel Bottle Shop and Tourism Tamworth.

It’s been a while since Bushwackers fans have stomped the boards of clubs, pubs and halls in Sydney town, but Saturday September 24th the band is returning to our Aussie pub-folk roots to perform at the Empire Hotel in Annanadale.

Back in the 70’s and 80’s we toured relentlessly around and around the country.  Town after town turned out to catch the Bushwackers doing what they do best delivering hard hitting Australian folk songs played with attitude.

In those days we played any Sydney pub that would have us: The Caringbah, The Manly Vale, The Governors Pleasure, The Vicar Of Wakefield, Sweethearts, Selinas and many, many others. Even those days have passed, every time we play we bring back the magic and for one night on September the 24th the Bushwackers we intend to do our very best!

For The Bushwackers, Ned Kelly and the legends and myths of him and his gang of outlaws is never far from the surface and holds a special place in the our hearts.

Back in November 1980 The Bushwackers were invited to be part of the integral Ned Kelly Centenary Festival in Winton. For three days that November may legendary Australian artists came together to celebrate the life and times of Ned Kelly. Beside ourselves there was Eric Bogle, Ted Egan, Redgum, Johnny Chester, Reg Poole and many others.

That event seeded an idea for a album all about Ned Kelly. So we gathered  a swag of songs from some of our songwriting mates; John Williamson, Ted Egan, Tim Freedman, Shane Howard, Shel Silverston, Grant Millar, Smiling Billy Blinkhorn, Trevor Lucas and those anonymous authors who first sang and wrote of Ned Kelly.

The result was the album ‘Ned’ – 14 tracks of songs sung by The Bushwackers celebrating the good, the bad and the ugly of Ned Kelly and his gang.

We reckon Ned Kelly’s stories are best told in song. Take a listen to some of them hear….

More info about Ned Kelly’s remains here