Rae Of Sunshine Turns Heads Our Way... with Gary Turner
IN the northern suburbs of Melbourne where we normally find the disco set and the hard rockers comes one of Australia’s leading female country singers, Jasmine Rae.
The 2008 Telstra Road to Tamworth winner has been in the spotlight since the release of her debut album Look it Up (ABC/Universal).
The former music teacher who taught singing not far from Melbourne airport starting singing aged six.
I caught up with Jasmine in Tamworth, donating her services for the Toyota concert to benefit Aussie Helpers. Jasmine was excited about embarking on Lee Kernaghan’s Planet Country tour and her dual role as support act and back-up vocalist. “Doing two roles has me pumped up,” Jasmine said. “Both Tania and Lee have been supportive and on the first show Tania was at side stage cheering me on.”
This week ABC/Universal has released a new deluxe edition of Look it Up featuring six new tracks including four acoustic tracks Look it Up, Lucky, Top of the World and Heart on Ice, four music videos, two live tracks Bring Me Some Water and The Red Dress and a mini documentary on Jasmine’s career so far.
In 2009 Jasmine toured with US country superstars Brooks and Dunn and her new CD/DVD features footage from that tour. The tour and the CD combined gave her more than one million song plays on MySpace and she became the most popular country artist on MySpace Australia.
“I am writing songs all the time and have a few in the bag for my next album,” she said. Jasmine will appear at Kingaroy Town Hall on May 5, Suncorp Stadium Brisbane on May 15, Empire Theatre Toowoomba on May 21 and the Twin Towns Services Club on May 22 and 23. www.jasminerae.com.au
Kirsty Lee Akers
Kirsty Lee Akers has released a new single I Ain’t Your White Picket Fence Girl which sits at No13 on the Country Tracks chart this week. This is Kirsty’s eighth country radio hit and she is still only 21 with more hits to come. Kirsty has written some great new songs and we hope to see her in the studio recordinganew album mid-year.
www.kirstyleeakers.net
Steve Forde
Steve Forde will return to Australia and appear alongside Canadian country rock group Doc Walker at Rumours Toowoomba on March 12 and the Tivoli Brisbane on March 13. Support will be Jack Ingram. Doc Walker picked up six CCMAs in 2008 and won Country Recording of the Year for the Beautiful Life.
