To promote the disc, Troy is touring extensively and will be in this neck of the woods in June.

He’s playing Gunnedah Services and Bowling Club on June 11, Armidale Ex-Servies on June 12 and Inverell RSM on June 13, so if you don’t have your tickets, be warned – they’ll sell quicker than hot johnny cakes!

From the outset, you’re left in no doubt Troy Cassar-Daley is a guitar man, so he and co-producer Biff Watson gathered some of the hottest pickers Nashville could muster to get this new disc laid down at Loud Recording Studio, in the Tennessean Country Music Capital.

It’s Tom Bukovac’s screaming electric guitar that greets you on track one, Take A Walk In My Country, the first single lifted from Freedom Ride.

Co-written with good mate Colin Buchanan, this song is an invitation for you to get out and experience Australia. Since You Left This Town is based on the true story of an ill-fated love affair between an Indigenous boy and white girl, whose parents object to the union.

“It’s a common old story that ends in mystery because she never comes back and he ends up a lost soul,” Troy said. Troy teams with frequent collaborator Pete Denahy to pen Something About Trains, one of his favourite family subjects.

“When I hear a lonesome whistle way off in the distance anywhere in the world, I’m transported to my many adventures on and around railway lines, from putting coins on the tracks to flatten them out, to riding with my mum on the Gold Coast motor rail. It’s all still there, locked in my heart,” Troy said.

“My mum did around 18 years on the railways as a cook, my Uncle Gerry had many years as a labourer and my pop retired from them when I was about eight, after he’d spent many years as a fettler.”

Troy lived in Nashville with his family for five months in Cheek Rd, Belle Meade, and his collaboration with Paul Kelly, Tennessee Rain, is based on another true story. Another Australian Day is a Pete Denahy co-write, which celebrates Australia’s small and big towns.

Troy became aware of the Freedom Ride while in high school at Grafton. His hero, Charlie Perkins, and all those others who hopped on the Freedom Ride bus back in the ’60s, were the inspiration behind the album’s title track, co-written with Paul Kelly, who joins him on vocals.

“Charlie was a hero to me because he talked about equality, and improving the lives and conditions of Indigenous Australians living out in the rural regions and cities,” Troy said.

“He became a defiant voice that called for change in Australia and his achievements were many. Paul and I wrote this small version of what must have been a huge adventure for the freedom riders; going from town to town, learning the truth about how Indigenous life in this country could be brought into line with mainstream Australia.”

Joining Pete Denahy once again, Troy wrote This Old Hat, about his grandfather’s old Akubra hat, which came to Troy after his pop’s passing.

“I’ve always wanted to write a song about it since I took it with me on the Brian Young Show back in 1990, but I was so afraid I would lose it or it would get lost somewhere, I packed it up in Alice Springs and sent it back home to Mum, where I knew it would be safe,” Troy said.

“I always thought about what it had seen. This hat will be handed to my boy to mind one day and I hope it brings him inspiration, too.”

Troy enlists the vocal assistance of old mate Jimmy Barnes to join him on the FIFO-inspired Two Weeks Off, Two Weeks On.

Another Colin Buchanan collaboration, Drive It, is a tip of Troy’s Akubra to one of his enduring passions in life – cars. His love of cars is shared by wife Laurel who, he says, is “probably a bigger revhead than me”.

“This tune is that feeling I get from a car that you can’t get from anything else,” Troy said.

“We sit back and watch the V8 Supercars, and they truly do drive them like they’re stolen.”

In Black Mountain, Troy takes a family yarn and turns it into a haunting love story between a man and a female spirit that resided on Black Mountain, promising love in return for his soul.

This Day, which Troy wrote with American songscribe Kim Richey, reminds him of one near-perfect day that began with a good morning kiss on the cheek from his then nineyear-old daughter, Jem, and ended with a kiss from the keeper of his heart, Laurel.

The closer, Road Ready, is a ripsnorter of a tune, featuring some of the A-team who played on the album – Michael Rhodes, Eddie Bayers, Brent Mason, Steve Nathan and Biff Watson.

“When you make a musical noise with band members for the first time, it feels like nothing else in the world to me,” Troy said.

Judging by the fun they had on the track, Troy and all the players are more than road-ready and ready to go. It’s a mighty fine collection of songs and tunes, and tells more stories of Australia and its people.

Troy is in the box seat to become one of Australia’s greatest singersongwriters. I’m really enjoying watching his progress and am more than pleased to buckle up and join him on the Freedom Ride.

*NEXT week’s will be my final column before I head to America for a month. If the good Lord’s willing and the creeks don’t rise, I should be able to keep sending through regular reports from my time away. If not, we’ll sure have some catching up to do when I get back on June 30