LUELLA Widt grew up in northern Queensland and cut her teeth in country music on The Brian Young Show, travelling to remote parts of the country.
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Hers was a name I first heard when The Brian Young Show held reunion concerts at the Tamworth Country Music Festival in the late 1990s.
She’s performed alongside James Blundell, Troy Cassar-Daley, Adam Harvey, Lee Kernaghan and in 2000 she joined The Blue Heeler Band as front woman and continues to work with them today.
Luella has been performing her blues style of country since she was just 13, and is just about to release a new album, Around Me, which is an equal mix of originals and covers.
‘Catherine’ is the first single from the album, which was recorded at Pacific International Music.
The live studio has five originals and five most requested live gig covers including ‘Leaving On A Jet Plane’, ‘Me And Bobby McGee’ and ‘Hallelujah’. The album came to my attention from publicist Kris Katsanis, and when Kris’ email arrived with some details about the release, it mentioned ‘Catherine’ was written about a friend of Luella’s, based on a scheme conjured up by her husband and the Brisbane-based singer-songwriter. Catherine’s husband wanted to immortalise his wife in song after 36 years of marriage.
The song was kept a secret while it was written and recorded over five months.
When the final product was ready, a plaque with the lyrics and a live performance of the song were presented to Catherine.
Luella was awarded the ‘Singer Universe Best Vocalist Of The Month’ with her last release, 2012’s ‘Not Thinking About You’.
And previous single ‘Mother’s Love’ enjoyed 12 weeks on the Country Tracks chart.
In the eary days, her parents spent a lot of time and money getting her to gigs and competitions, and before leaving school Luella had already won two song-writing awards, many ‘battle of the bands’ and had a cabinet-full of trophies. This column has previously reported that plans are underway to honour Youngie, who died earlier this year, with a bronze bust in Tamworth’s Bicentennial Park, alongside other country music legends.
A committee is being formed to fundraise for the project, with plans for a memorial CD featuring artists who toured with Youngie well advanced.
LBS has donated a few copies of Brian Young’s CD Last of the Travelling Showman, and people who buy the Brian Young memorial CD can go in the draw to win a copy, while another will be raffled.
Luella is one artist who will be featured on the Brian Young memorial album, featuring artists who toured on his show, and organisers are in the process of talking to Troy Cassar-Daley and are hopeful he will also have a song on the album.
The committee hopes to launch the CD next January at the Tamworth festival.
