NEWCASTLE country artist Kristy James grew up listening to Kenny Rogers and Neil Diamond and kicked off her performing career at just 11-years-old. But it was the likes of Cheryl Crow, Melissa Etheridge and rocker Suze DeMarchi who have had a greater influence on her music.
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“Music is what I have always done,” James said.
“At 11 I started at the [Newcastle] Steel City Country Music Club.”
She wrote her first song at 18, All Alone, but it was not recorded until this year and was released this month as the second single off her forthcoming, full-length album, which she will release mid-2017. It follows a five track EP Nobody’s Gonna Make Me.
She said All Alone was a song she had to grow into.
“At 18 I had written this song about feeling alone, but it didn't mean a lot to me until later,” James said.
“I couldn’t deliver the song with any meaning or conviction.”
James said the timing for her country-rock music was not right back then.
“I had dabbled in writing, but at the time there was no place in Australia for what I was writing,” James said.
“Country music hadn’t evolved into what it is now.”
“It was only when people like Keith Urban and Carrie Underwood, that American country rock artists came out [to Australia], that I was like, ‘okay this is a good time.’”
“Before that I struggled...waiting for the genre to catch up so I could fit in.”
Session musician Tim Pierce, who has recorded with Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, Patty Smith, Michael Jackson and a host of other big name talent, plays guitar on All Alone.
The accompanying video was shot on the derelict second floor of the Great Northern Hotel and features James walking through the eerie empty spaces of the once grand venue.
All Alone has debuted on iTunes in number two position, Keith Urban kept her from the top spot.
She plans to release four or five singles as recording of the album progresses.
“I just want to build up a bit of a support base before I put out an album,” she said.
James will kick off a Queensland and NSW tour in October, dates and venues are yet to be announced, but will include a Newcastle show.
Follow Kristy James: facebook.com/kristyjamesmusic
Next gig: July 3, at The Sydney Junction Hotel, Hamilton, with The Viper Creek Band, Matt Scullion, Lauren Wheatley, The Girls From Whisky Business, plus other yet to be announced acts.
Bands kick off at 4pm. Entry is $20 pre-sale, $25 at the door, with proceeds going to finance The Viper Creek Band’s Canadian tour.
Buy tickets at oztix.com.au
