The McClymonts may be the pinnacle of pop, country and cross-over music in Australia, but chances are that their supporting act would probably be able to fill the house on her own at the Inverell RSM on Friday, August 31.
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Selected to open the show, the Sapphire City’s own Melanie Dyer may quite possibly steal it because the rising star is set for a hero’s welcome.
It’s a moment she’s been looking forward to. “I miss home. Especially now. I want to be with my family now that they’re struggling with the drought,” said Dyer. “Dad’s a farmer. It’s tough times, so I’m happy to come home and share my music with my town.”
Also the opener for the McClymonts’ Like We Used to tour in Shoalhaven, Dyer has mixed things up a bit for Inverell. “Given that it is my home town, I’ll play songs that my friends and family want to hear as well,” she said, adding – with gratitude – that her album “Fresh” has been given a lot of air time on community radio.
No doubt, the flavour of Inverell that defined her early days will creep into the performance. “One of my first songs was called Life on the Land, and that one is all about the farm that I grew up on, the country land and the surrounding areas around Inverell. It would resonate with all the local farmers for sure,” Dyer said, adding that her roots have had a huge affect on her music.
“I got started with mum giving me a guitar, we played around on it, always listening to country music,” she said. “I actually took up guitar with Chris Richter who is doing lots of musical things in Inverell and Bernie Killen. Both those guys taught me a lot and got me started.”
She took her music to the Tamworth Country Music Festival at the age of 9, and she hasn’t stopped going back since then. Now it’s off to Nashville again in October. And that’s not bad for a small-town girl with huge ambition and bucket-loads of talent.
She calls the McClymonts her “label mates”, but they are also the type of musicians she wants to emulate. “I really look up to them as somebody I aspire to be like in the country music industry given that they are from a small town and they’ve made such a big name for themselves. And they’ve done it in a true and genuine way,” she said.
READ MORE: Melanie Dyer plays CMC Rocks Queensland
“We are from very similar backgrounds. The girls grew up in Grafton. Three country girls from a country town. And I’m one of three daughters as well and I grew up a country town, obviously, Inverell. We have very similar upbringings and we are on the same wavelength.
“We connect in similarities. It’s a country girl thing.”
To see the girls do their thing, don’t miss their performance at the Inverell RSM at 8pm on Friday, August 31. Tickets at $40, children $30.
