Music has always been a part of Morley’s world – with the opportunity to learn instruments from a young age. Unlike many of her school mates, once high school was out, she never let go of the music. 

 “I am just the person who kept on going,” Morley said. 

At 18, Morley sang [and danced] in Headbin, a collection of Newcastle musicians who perform psychedelic covers and originals. She still joins the band for the odd gig. 

In the early 90s she joined forces with Dale Newman and Barb Nanshe in the acapella trio The Bleeders. 

“I actually grew up going to bush dances and with Irish music around me,” Morley said. “But I didn’t really learn to play that style as a kid”.

“With The Bleeders, we started playing at the original Wollombi Folk Festival and that’s when I reconnected back with Australian bush dance music and Irish tunes.

“And I decided that’s what I wanted to do next. And I grounded my playing in the folk tradition and went mad for Irish tunes – which was a great pathway into fiddle playing in general.” 

Her musical connections in Australia, many developed through The National Folk Festival, and travel to dozens of other festivals at home and abroad, have seen her develop her fiddle style.  

“I was so happy when I eventually found American trad [traditional] tunes. Such a good groove. They’re pretty much old Irish and Scottish tunes anyway - that have been festering in the Appalachian mountains for hundreds of years getting their own flavour.” 

“There is a whole world of music that happens off-stage. Probably most of my music happens off-stage,” she said. “I really like social music. Hanging with people - we sit around and play tunes. And once you find your tune culture you can do this all around the world.” 

Morley has been a member of the Canberra-based rockabilly country festival act The Fuelers for 15 years and has also worked as a sidekick and soloist for an array of acts. 

And while she enjoys working in “other people’s bands” the urge to write her own songs never went away.  

“I had been in other people’s bands forever,” she said. “I had downed-tools on playing my own songs, although I had been thinking and writing them the whole time. 

“I had a few knocks; patronising remarks, and things that put me off performing my own material early on. But I’m always going to write songs regardless – it’s just what I do.”

Two years ago a catch up with old friend Dale Newman saw Morley sharing a few of her original songs. Newman encouraged her to record them. It was just the push she needed.  

“Suddenly it became this exciting thing,” Morley said. 

Boom Town was laid down in the studio of Kansas-based Mike and Katie West, both of Truckstop Honeymoon.  

Mike West, a multi-instrumentalist, played on all of the tracks and Katie West played the double bass, as well as joining Morley with a girl backing vocal in “dodgy French” rock track Talking’s So Passé. “We had fun with that.”

The recording spans more than 20 years of song writing. 

“The oldest one is from 1995,” Morley said. “It’s called Red Dirt Track.” 

“And there are a couple I wrote to finish off the album, to balance out the ideas and themes.

The title track Boom Town is about Newcastle and its relationship to coal. 

“Every word on the album is real for me,” Morley said. “The personal and even the political stuff, is my very real heartbreak - about the Hunter Valley and Newcastle and the impact of coal.

“I invest myself in the local activist community. It’s all real stuff I am deeply affected by.” 

Sound-wise, Boom Town draws on American country and traditional music, and features plenty of fiddle and banjo in the earlier part of the album, while moving into more electric instrumentation toward the end.

Boom Town will be available on digital platforms and CD. It will be launched at the Royal Exchange, where Morley will perform with her band The Smoke Stacks, on Thursday 30 August. 

Find out more and get your tickets here: facebook.com/steelcitysue