Troy Cassar-Daley
WHEN Troy Cassar-Daley came up with the title for his new album, I Love This Place, he was thinking more about a state of mind than any place you can find on a map.
Much as he loves hanging out with his wife and kids, or throwing a line in on his farm an hour out of Brisbane, the much loved and respected Aussie country musician more wanted to share a blissful time and place in his life. Rather than having a midlife crisis and buying a Harley on hitting his milestone 40th birthday, Cassar-Daley realised he was exactly where he wanted to be.
“I really wanted people to see just how happy you could be in one particular stage of your life,” Cassar-Daley says. “More people should just pull up and smell the roses sometimes.”
After six studio albums, 14 Golden Guitars, three ARIAs, countless tours across our wide, brown land and two stints on the top-rating Channel 7 show It Takes Two, Cassar-Daley has good reason to be content and wants to share that positivity.
Cassar-Daley, who also co-produced for the first time, had the luxury of taking a year off touring to craft his songs and with I Love This Place, he further establishes himself as a consummate story-teller and one of this country’s finest and most evocative singer-songwriters.
Whether revelling in his pride for his homeland and the marvels he has seen or celebrating the real-life larrikins and knockabout characters of the Aussie bush, Cassar-Daley always sings from the heart and has the uncanny ability to transport listeners into songs, making them feel the heat of the sun, the texture of the earth, or the long miles of lonely roads.
And however far he has come, Cassar-Daley will never forget his roots. The Brisbane-based singer delves into his rich family history reminiscing about his upbringing in the north coast NSW town of Grafton on the haunting but hopeful This Town Is Me, then bringing to life in stunning the detail the days of toiling in the heat with his mother and aunt in Bean Pickin’ Blues.
