TROY Cassar-Daley invites his friends and heroes to share his stage this afternoon at TRECC before he hopes to add more gold to his collection later in the week.
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The singer-songwriter already has 27 Golden Guitars under his belt and has seven finalist spots this year as he celebrates 35 years of Tamworth country music festivals.
"It does make you feel very old," Cassar-Daley said.
He said he loved the Country Music Awards of Australia and used to go as a fan.
"I've always loved the feel of them," he said.
"I never would have dreamed of getting one."
Cassar-Daley said he did not know who would win.
"You can't pick anything," he said.
"I love a lot of the other records. I've listened to them all, because you want to be up-to-date with what the industry is doing. I like all the contemporary and traditional stuff as well."
He said his album Freedom Ride was all about the stories.?It's earnt him seven finalist placings, for Vocal Collaboration of the Year with Jimmy Barnes, Toyota Heritage Song of the Year, Video Clip of the Year, Single of the Year, APRA AMCOS Song of the Year, Album of the Year and Male Artist of the Year.
"It's a very honest record and I love storytelling, so I wanted to get back to square one with this one," Cassar-Daley said.
Cassar-Daley hadn't written with Peter Denahy before, but, after seeing Denahy sing with Colin Buchanan at the Tamworth Town Hall during the festival, decided to ask him to write with him.
"I flew him up to the farm and we wrote and drank and it ended up being a prolific session," he said.
"I had written some ideas down and he had written ideas on the back of a vomit bag on his way up. He is a young Banjo (Paterson)-style writer and I want to write with him again."
He's on stage today from 4.30pm.
