Max Ellis was one of a “handful” of people at Radio 2TM who took it upon themselves to declare Tamworth the country music capital of Australia.

John Minson’s country music program Hoedown had been growing in popularity and length, and 1969 was “a big turning point”.

“We formulated this idea of promoting Tamworth as a country music centre – me, John Minson, Eric Scott, Kevin Knapp, Warwick Higginbotham,” he says.

“One of the reasons we did it is because we thought we’d make money for the radio station, which never really worked out quite the way we’d hoped, but still.

“We bit the bullet and said, ‘Right, we’re going to call Tamworth the country music capital’.

“We did it without talking to anyone else – we controlled the radio station, so we thought, ‘OK, let’s try it’.”

Almost 50 years years later, it seems amazing to consider that, as Max tells it, some people at the station had doubts about that. Some were not even that into country music, but Max says that was a plus.

“I was never a country music fan – I’m still not a country music fan. I always say my favourite piece of country music is Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony,” he says.

“In fact, we were very pragmatic about it, because we didn’t go into it as fans – we went into it as businesspeople; it was a business project that we wanted to put together and reap the benefits from.”

Other turning points came in 1972. Eric Scott had moved Hadley Records to Tamworth, and when he released Slim Newton’s Redback on the Toilet Seat, it was “a huge Australia-wide hit and very firmly labelled as coming from Tamworth – and that gave us a big boost as far as awareness was concerned,” Max says.

The team also decided to launch the Australasian Country Music Awards, and with “very strong support” from record companies, publishers and APRA, handed out the first Golden Guitars in an un-airconditioned town hall on January, 29 1973.

“Joy McKean was the first winner when she won the APRA Song of the Year with Lights on the Hill … that year, we also gave money with the prizes, not a lot of money – in fact, these days it seems ridiculous – but $50 or $100 on each category,” Max says.

“But after the first awards, we realised how unnecessary it was, because all people wanted to do was win a Golden Guitar.”

Max says the festival grew up around the awards and the CCMA’s talent quest – from eight or 10 events to a program of 2800 events today.

And he says the organisers took a strong stand for homegrown artists.

“In the early years, we actually discouraged American stars from performing here [although] we welcomed them if they came,” he says.

“Even Johnny Cash’s manager wanted to bring him to Tamworth and we said, ‘Sorry, he can’t come if he wants to perform, we don’t want him’ and we did that because we wanted to celebrate Australian artists and Australian music.

“It was simply that, had Johnny Cash come to one of those earlier festivals, he would have dominated; it would have become known as the Johnny Cash festival, and we were very, very committed to Australian music.

“I think one of the reasons that country music artists are so committed, themselves, to Tamworth is because they realise that over the years we took that stand and we created the festival for them, not for overseas people who float in, spend one day here and take away hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

Max says that while overseas artists more frequently make appearances these days, that aspect remains.

“The festival is now different in many ways, but still the same in its major thrust – that is, presenting Australian country music to Australians,” he says.

What would Tamworth have become known for in an alternate reality where it wasn’t declared the Country Music Capital? 

“Maybe the City of Light,” Max says.

“Its very interesting to think what it would be like. At least, there would be many people who’d enjoy Christmas more, because they wouldn’t have January hanging over them. My daughter’s birthday is the 25th of January, and so we never had a birthday for many years.”

He says the festival has “reinforced” many positive points about this “strong regional city”.

“It’s given Tamworth a very powerful identity, and in tourism, identity is the name of the game. Our identity is known all over Australia and even recognised in other parts of the word.”

Mark ‘Bushie’ Thompson has racked up 40 years coming to the festival to share his passion for bush poetry and storytelling, usually busking in Peel St.

Originally from north Queensland, he now lives in Newcastle but has lived in Tamworth in short stints, following farm work.

He first came after hearing about the festival on the grapevine.

“We heard about it in the bush, this new thing they had going, and I’d always been surrounded by country music. There’d always been someone playing it on the radio or sitting around strumming the guitar,” he says.

“I had nothing to do, mustering season was over and I was 20 years old with a pocket full of money.”

Bushie says it’s an understatement that the event has grown since then: “I think the program back then was two pieces of paper stapled together”.

He says the festival has “just become part of my life” – so much that he’s been known to go to great efforts to get here for even just a couple of days of it.

“Some years I had to spend a week just getting here, going around floodwaters just to get here,” he says.

Bushie says gaining the appreciation of the audience is “a very addictive thing”.

“You get the bug once you recite for someone and they [he mimes an appreciative facial expression and a clap].”

He remembers before the 1995 alcohol-free declaration, “people used to drag their Eskies along behind them, and when they thought they wanted to stop and listen to you, they’d sit down, get a beer out – hand you one”.

Bushie says that although Peel St busking is more acoustically competitive these days, he’s never really used a mike – “I can be incredibly loud if I want to” – and says he has “no idea” how he maintains his voice.

“I smoke, I drink, I have heaps of coffee – I do all the wrong things,” he says.

He says he feels his “job” is to help preserve distinctively Australian words and speech, to “keep an important part of our culture alive and well”.

“Everyone calls people ‘guys’ these days – I mean, really, whatever happened to blokes and sheilas? Australian English should be preserved.”

The festival for Bushie has always had “that same friendliness, complete strangers smiling and saying g’day, and that love of country music”.

“People go from being fans to being friends, then from friends to family.”

Bushie says he’s noticed “perhaps a bit of a B&S-type attitude from some young people by the time the second weekend comes around”, and more “boppy, rocky” music, but says that all has its place in a changing festival and country music industry.

He’s stayed all over the place during the festival, but has fond memories of when Don and June Smyth used to let him roll his swag out on the roof of their Tudor Hotel.

Bushie says he loves “being able to watch people go from busking or doing talent quests to now being The Names”.

“Peter Denahy, Keith Urban, Troy Cassar-Daley – look where they went. I remember when the Dead Ringer Band – Bill, Diane, Nash, Kasey – turned up and couldn’t get a gig.”

Cheryl Byrnes says her dad, the late Gentleman Geoff Brown, was the first person to sing country music in a local venue – just a few Saturday nights at the Nemingha Hotel before Joe Maguire invited him to put together a regular music jam at his pub.

She considers herself one of the daughters of the industry – there are many in the city – and is now a major supporter of it as the managing editor of Country Music Capital News.

Cheryl says some of the great changes include local residents “being more involved and inclusive and proud” of their festival.

“Of course there’s much more involvement by Tamworth businesses who sponsor events, and get into the spirit by welcoming buskers to perform outside their shops where they can, or providing great services for visitors,” she says.

“Now, not only does the town embrace it but the entire region, in some way or other, does.”

She says not every resident or business benefits directly from the influx of visitors like those who work in hospitality, trades, council, events, merchandise, travel services, fuel, accommodation and so on, but many of the latter “will take home a little more money than usual and then they might spend that money on putting in a pool or a fence, go on a holiday, buy more clothes, and so on – this is how the money goes around. It does benefit many more people in the long term.”

Cheryl says it’s important to keep appreciating the festival and devising “how we can continue to take it into the future”.

She says she’s seen many changes since the years of the Capital Country Music Association – of which her father was a founding member – starting the original festival event.

“The CCMA is a community organisation now in it’s 51st year; maybe not as strong as in the beginning, but it continues to run the National Talent Quest and Jamboree, which is the original event of the festival – the first,” she says.

“In an attempt for the festival to grow, it was very important to have the business side expand, so when Radio 2TM and BAL Marketing became invested, led by the passion of Max Ellis as the marketing manager, it was all systems go. Times became exciting.”

Cheryl says she’s “been listening to and watching the changes in country music over the past four decades” and new music is certainly welcomed by the industry.

“I was fortunate to hear all types of country music as I was growing up, from the ballads that my dad wrote, to the songs of Australian pioneers that he sang, to the songs of American superstars he also sang,” she says.

“Country music was always inclusive, and because my parents were involved in the local country music club and helped organise the talent quest, they were always encouraging and developing the new breed of young stars, as well as offering opportunity to popular artists of the day through showcases and touring … [traditional country music is] a part of the truly rich and fabulous music history that we have to the current progressive, wonderful, young people who continue to make great music and write great songs.

“New music is accepted certainly by the industry. Simply look at the new categories in the Country Music Awards of Australia aka Golden Guitars.”

Ivy Nuss of Maitland says she’s been to every festival except one that she just couldn’t make it to. 

“I had a relation living in Tamworth and they said, ‘Come down’. It wasn’t on for 10 days then.”

Ivy remembers going to the Golden Guitars “on the football oval in a leaky old tent with Slim Dusty”, where it was held temporarily because it housed the huge crowd the town hall couldn’t. She saw Slim and Joy winning some of the first awards.

“Very small it was, the festival, then it just started to grow and grow,” Ivy says.

“In the last 15 years, it has changed a lot; it’s not so much country now, not in a lot of people’s eyes, it’s sort of country rock and all that – but there’s still plenty enough for country fans.”