James Johnston 'Raised Like That' inspired by growing up in Wingham

James spent his early years hopping from farm-to-farm with his dad, selling and servicing tractors.

With hours spent on the road travelling, James was introduced to great artists like Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and Garth Brooks and at just four years of age, James hit the stage for the very first time, performing Friends in Low Places in front of his kindergarten class. From that moment on James's future was set - he would be a country singer.

Throughout his teens, James and his family would spend most weekends travelling and performing on any stage that would take him.

In 2008, James graduated from high school and gave himself a year to "give music a crack". Eight months later he achieved another milestone in his music career by placing third in Australian Idol.

With his passion for music flamed by the Idol experience, James bought a van and set out on the great Australian road trip, playing every little town and every pub he could find. After a few years of living show-to-show and armed with a swag of money-can't-buy experiences, James knew that it was time to find his sound and headed to Nashville, Tennessee for the next adventure.

Once again, James took in each moment of his time in Nashville and combined with the stories of his time travelling around Australia, he has now written more than 200 songs and is ready to hit the next milestone in his career.

That milestone is the release of his debut single, Raised Like That - a song that captures his story and those of the people and places that shaped him to be the person he is today. Raised Like That tells the story of community, integrity, and a celebration to a way of life of people who grew up in a small close nit community.

The anthemic production and lyrics are reminiscent of Eric Church and Kip Moore and the track is undeniably infectious.

James posted about the single on his TikTok account earlier this week, and it's getting a huge reaction - currently at 550k views, 83k likes, 2600 comments, 2500 shares. View the post at www.tiktok.com/@jamesjohnstonmusic.

RELATED: Performing live in his home town | video

From that post, The Today Show on Channel 9 reached out and invited James to appear on Weekend Today on Saturday, June 10. He accepted the invitation and will be representing his hometown with pride.

James will be launching Raised Like That with a string of feature performances for Pro Bull Riding Australia's massive PBR Origin events in Brisbane and Cairns in July and Newcastle in October.

And that's just the start of the new set of experiences and milestones for James as he sets out to make his mark on the Australian country music landscape and beyond.

Raised Like That released Friday July 9 Listen on your favourite streaming platform at https://jamesjohnston.com/raisedlikethat/.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content: