DAVE'S DIARY - 3 DECEMBER 2005 - PONY PREVIEW

YOUNG COUNTRY IN THE CITY

Shepparton chanteuse Briana Lee Brassil breaks the drought for young country acts in the big smoke on Tuesday December 6.

Briana, 19, and local bluegrass band Redfish launch the Good Country Club at Pony bar at the Paris, Texas end of Little Collins St in the Melbourne CBD.

Nu Country TV producer Sofie B and camera crew will film the launch.

Briana is a graduate of Notre Dame College in her Goulburn Valley hometown and also won a heat of the Telstra Road To Tamworth talent quest.

< Brianna Lee

She also performed the national anthem on national television at the 2005 Australian Motor Cycle Grand Prix at Phillip Island.

Redfish features guitarist Ferg McAlpin, John Dixon on harmonica, Darren Maxfield on banjo, double bassist Jim Taylor, Seamus O'Sullivan on dobro and violinist Greg Field.

Pony is at 68 Little Collins St.

Briana and Redfish return to Tamworth in January where other young Victorian and South Australian peers have made the Top 20 of the 2006 Toyota Star Maker quest.

STAR MAKERS FROM DOWN SOUTH

Laverton singer Rebecca Lee Nye and two former South Australian female vocalists are among finalists at Tamworth Regional Entertainment Centre - Sunday January 22.

Adelaide born Cat Southern now lives at Erina Heights in NSW and Kristy Cox, who works with the Davidson Brothers, lives in northern Melbourne suburb Bundoora.

Another finalist is former Wallan singer Tim Farren, 27, who has worked with a brace of Victorian bands.

His debut album Seasons Of Change earned him a best male vocalist gong at the 2005 Victorian country music awards in Whittlesea.

Expatriate Australasian superstar Keith Urban used Caboolture north of Brisbane in 1989 as his launch pad when he cracked the Star Maker Top 20.

Rebecca Lee Nye

Urban was just 23 when he scored a recording deal by winning the 1990 Star Maker.
Now, with seven #1 U.S. hits and CD and DVD sales exceeding seven million, he's a genuine superstar and envy of peers anchored in Australia.

The Star Maker Grand Final is broadcast on Country Music Radio on 25 commercial stations in metropolitan and regional areas of NSW and Queensland.

Prizes include a recording session with Ramrod Studios, distribution and promotion of a CD through ABC Music and a video clip.

Other are designated gigs at Tamworth, Gympie and Mildura and use of fully serviced Toyota vehicle, a fuel card for 12 months and BOSE personalised amp system.

REBECCA LEE NYE

Nye released six-track EP I Started Living, recorded at Roger Corbett's Valley Studio, at the Tamworth early in 2005.

She has performed on outdoor festival and indoor concert circuit with artists diverse as Melinda Schneider, Troy Cassar-Daley and Adam Harvey.

She wrote three of the tunes and did covers of the other three songs on her debut.
The musicians included veteran pedal steel guitarist Michel Rose, Mitch Farmer, Duncan Toombs, Claire O'Meara, Corbett, and Hugh Curtis.

CAT SOUTHERN

Cat Southern galloped from her city roots into a more rigorous rural lifestyle before cutting her Herm Kovacs produced debut five-track EP So Far.

"I like to call it new country," Cat said of a disc that featured the single Big Girl Now.

"I'd like to do some more writing, but I'm also of the belief that there are so many amazing songwriters out there. Why should I, a mediocre songwriter, restrict myself to my rather ordinary songs when there are amazing songs out there?"

Southern developed her passion for country music through equestrian pursuits and also entered Australian Idol.

"I grew up riding and loving horses," she said.
"I was showjumping for several years and I got to travel around Australia with the circuit. I went to an agricultural school. I got involved with the horse club and cattle club and the sheep club and the chicken club."

It was natural she joined the Brian Young outback tour circuit.
< Cat Southern


That's another notch on my belt," she said.
"Brian wasn't on the tour this year, he's been battling illness and we really missed him.

KRISTY COX

Kristy Cox began singing at 11 while growing up at Mt Barker east of Adelaide.

She worked the festival circuit and released two EPs Twisted Heart (2001) and My Affections (2003).

In 2002, she was one of six winners of $20,000 from Nescafe Big Break and grand finalist in 2003 Norfolk Island Country Music Festival.

She also graduated from the CMAA Australian College of Country Music in 2004 after being awarded a scholarship.

Kristy Cox>

Kristy, 20, also made the 2005 Star Maker Grand Final and opened for fellow South Australian reared stars Kasey Chambers, Beccy Cole, Jedd Hughes and Jake Nickolai.

And in 2003 before moving to Bundoora she performed for 80,000 music lovers at the New Year's Eve spectacular at Glenelg - home team of Geelong star Andrew Mackie.

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