Mr Nice Guy of country music Troy Cassar-Daley is just 47 years old, but he has put pen to paper for his autobiography Things I Carry Around.
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Inspired by the memories he was gathering for the book, he recorded a CD he says is “one of the most emotional records I’ve made”. “I sat down half way through some of these tunes and had a bawl,” he says.
It is fitting he will launch the book and CD in a special concert at a place of honour for another country music legend – the Slim Dusty Centre, Kempsey. Included in the ticket price are pre-show canapes plus a copy of either the book or CD.
Cassar-Daley has enjoyed success in a 30-year career and says going through pictures he, his family and friends had, for the book, brought back a lot of memories. “Mum still lives at Halfway Creek, and she called a gathering of aunties,” Cassar-Daley says. “We had a big old laugh and a cry. My first guitar teacher Leonie Hayes, brought some photos I’d never seen of myself.”
He continued guitar lessons with Mrs Hayes through high school and it obviously paid off. His swag of accolades – 4 ARIAs, 32 Golden Guitars, 2 APRA Song of the Year awards, 9 Deadlys, 4 CMAA Entertainer of the Year awards and the 2008 CMAA Country Music Global Artist Award - making him one of Australia's most awarded performers.
He recalls his first gig. “It was at Coutts Crossing. I didn’t get paid, but it was sold out because the hall only held 150 people.”
The Mid-North Coast holds many good memories for him. “The first time I played in Port Macquarie was at the RSL supporting America. I still have the publicity photos and a pic at Red Rock Bowling Club where you got $50 or $80 to perform. I remember being ecstatic, I was still cutting fence posts to make a living. Driving home I was singing at the top of my voice. That’s the reason I am going to some of these venues [for the launch tour].
His Indigenous heritage could have been a hindrance, but he says it made him more resilient. “I mixed well with everyone in Grafton and at all the towns I played in.”
This usually private man says talking about himself was his most “unfavourite thing to do”. My daughter explained it to me. She said it’s like a school assignment. You can’t go back and change anything, so I spent a lot of time on the detail.” It has taken four years, and Cassar-Daley says: Putting the book together was like living life in slow motion.”
Cassar-Daley says it was a bit of a “tennis match” between the songs and the book. “I’d get inspired by a chapter and go to the studio and record some music. They [songs] helped me make sense of it all. I’m not doing this as a career record. This is my story. The secret was throwing off the shackles and not just doing what people expect to hear.”
Special concert on Thursday, September 8, Slim Dusty Centre, 490 Macleay Valley Way, South Kempsey. Tickets are $85.70 at www.oztix.com or (02) 6562 6533, and include canapés on arrival, the show and a copy of the book or CD.
