THE US artists keep rolling in, and John Stone is back for his third Tamworth Country Music Festival this week.
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He said he loved coming back for the warmth of the people and the mix of music Tamworth offered.
“The people are very nice and genuinely hospitable,” he said.
“People seem to appreciate music so much here and they’re warm and receptive.”
John came to the 2008 and 2010 festivals and said he found Tamworth to be really eclectic, with buskers and others performing their different talents on the street.
“I love to walk around and see all the different things,” he said.
“It’s really different to our festival in Nashville. You only see the big stars when they perform at the stadium and you might see them at a signing or fan club function, but here you see folks everywhere. You can pop into a pub and see top bands and artists playing.”
John will start his festival campaign this evening at Wests’ Diggers in the Courtyard, and play between Diggers and Wests throughout the festival with 10 gigs in all.
He hasn’t always been a full-time country music artist, and served with the Alabama National Guard for eight years, seeing service in Desert Storm.
“The military really gave me a good foundation to find out what sort of
person I was and how physically and mentally tough I could be,” John said.
“You have to be driven to make it in the military and focused, and you have to be the same way in the music business. You also have to finish the task.”
While in Australia, John and his guitarist Jarred Vincent soaked up some sun (with the sunburn to prove it) in Sydney before travelling to Tamworth.
Catch John and Jarred in the heat of Tamworth at Wests and Wests’ Diggers.