Tamworth Country Music Festival: Musician Buddy Knox mentors First Nations artists Loren Ryan; Noah Overs

"But I'm good enough to be able to fool you," he said.

The musician has spent most of his life in the country music capital, and looks forward to the festival every year.

"Especially the Aboriginal showcase that's happening now, we just want to show off some of the talent that my people got," he said.

"And there's some serious talent, cuz."

At 2022's festival, First Nations man Troy Cassar-Daley became the country musician in Australia with the most Golden Guitars - beating icon Slim Dusty's total.

It's a marker for the festival's long-running history of celebrating Indigenous country artists.

And the 2023 festival is carrying on the tradition, with Aboriginal musicians competing, performing, and busking.

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But, despite Buddy's father Roger Knox being dubbed 'the Koori King of Country', Buddy said he still struggled with discrimination in Tamworth, and faces it now.

His father mentored him, and he does the same with young musicians looking to perform, watching on as their opportunities grow.

His mentee Noah Overs was awarded the John Minson Scholarship, which gives aspiring artists a fully-funded place at the CMAA Academy of Country Music.

Noah found music through stories about her multi-instrumentalist grandmother, and her hometown of Tamworth exposed her to country.

Buddy is one of her biggest motivators.

"He pushes you to be yourself, and it's not as scary as you think it'd be being an Aboriginal artist," she said.

"Aboriginal people like to do a lot of storytelling through music, and incorporating language.

"On Australian land, and being First Nations, it's always important to tell your story, and who your people are."

After The Academy, she's taking her guitar playing to the next level.

She dreams of opening up concerts for the big country artists in the city.

"That's definitely something on the bucket list, for sure," she said.

Tamworth's very own Loren Ryan is a Star Maker grand finalist for the second year in a row.

Opportunities were limited for Loren, she said, growing up as a young indigenous girl in a low socio-economic area.

Buddy saw her at a karaoke competition at the youth centre, and took her under his wing.

"I felt like from that moment, I always had someone in my corner whenever opportunities would come up," she said.

The country music industry in Australia is not inclusive, she said, with the genre tokenising Aboriginal people, and having racist undertones.

She said festival line ups put her at the start of the bill, and pay half or even less than half of what they're paying the opening act for the second day.

"There is a really big divide, and it's gonna take one of us, or all of us combined, plus allies from non-Indigenous folk, to make a difference within this space," she said.

"I want to work in country music, but I don't want to deal with casual racism everyday."

Aboriginal culture and country music is connected, she said.

"For thousands and thousands of years, we've told our stories through song and dance," she said.

"And the foundation of country music is storytelling, and is humility.

"Our culture compliments that in such a beautiful way."

Buddy hopes she'll win.

"When we was coming up, we didn't have that avenue, we couldn't get into a lot of these places," he said.

"We wanted to be in more than they wanted us out."

The Aboriginal Cultural Showcase is at 6pm Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

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