Since 1981 The Bushwackers have played at every Tamworth Country Music Festival.
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While they have seen many changes over that time, lead singer and lager phone player, Dobe Newton said the band would not be changing too much themselves.
“We’re a bit old to change,” he said.
“Every now and again we do something silly, like bring out a new album, which means having to learn a whole lot of new songs, which becomes a bit of a challenge at our veteran age, but we will see.”
Every now and again we do something silly, like bring out a new album.
- Dobe Newton
On a more serious note, Dobe said The Bushwackers did make their gigs at Tamworth different than their shows during the year, which included giving their concerts a theme.
“We figure nobody comes to Tamworth to see the stuff that they see somewhere else. So that’s why we do things like the Beach Party and everybody dresses up in beach gear, puts the zinc on and sings silly beach songs, and that’s all good fun.”
Beach Party with The Bushwackers is on Saturday, January 21, starting at 7.30pm at the band’s Tamworth home - The Longyard Hotel.
On Australia Day, they play a midday concert, then on Saturday, January 28, there’s an album launch their new album, The Hungry Mile.
On the last day of the festival the Bushwackers play their Chardonnay Show, which includes plenty of guest artists.
“The festival’s over, everybody’s tired and some pretty interesting things usually happen at that show.”
The show takes its name from a festival in the mid 1990s when children’s entertainer Don Spencer was in the audience of a Bushwackers concert at The Longyard
“Don and his beautiful young daughter, who went on the marry Russell Crowe, and his wife came to the show.
“They had been up for the festival, Don had had some shows of his own, and they were sitting around having a few chardonnays to unwind, and a few turned into a few more.
“Of course they realised that nobody was fit to drive anymore, so they decided to stay and by the time they’d finished we had a name for the show.
“So in honour of Don and family’s efforts we christened it the Chardonnay Show. Where anything goes really.
“He was quite tickled that we dedicated the show to him.”
