ALBUM BIO: Troy Cassar-Daley – Home TRACK BY TRACK (out 2 March 2012) [Liberation]

COUNTRY IS  
My farm has been a huge part of my writing since we’ve owned it.  After the floods went through in Jan 2011 we thought it would never be the same but we were wrong.  Even with a bad flushing dunny, no carpet and mud stains still on the kitchen floor Col Buchanan and I wrote some tunes we are really proud of.  This song is about what Country is to us and what it does for your heart to have warm loving people who would give you the shirt off their back……That’s what Country is to me.

LIVE AND LEARN
When I first met my wife a great journey began between two hearts.  Right up to this day I still come undone at the sight of her and we still live and learn together.

GOOD THINGS IN LIFE
Life throws you so many things both good and bad.  Sometimes we take more notice of the bad things and over look the good.  Just human nature I guess. One of the good things for me is each night when I sit with my family at dinner and say Grace.  The love and compassion that comes out when the kids have their turn is amazing for me and Laurel to hear, they are two very special kids with big hearts and beautiful minds.  And I am sure they will make the world a better place.  Clay and Jem I love you.

PLAY
I’ve played guitar now for 30 odd years and I’m still learning.   The pleasure it has given me to this day I can’t begin to tell you.  I spoke to Keith Urban about the guitar passion thing and you know,  at any level of your career,  it stays with you.  I hope this song inspires some other people young and old to pick up that guitar and play!!!

HOME
Being the title track this song has a special place with me. Even the word Home is something we all have a different meaning and feeling for.  When I started writing this track I was about to go back to Grafton with my kids for a family catch up so I wrote this song to prepare me for it. I got as far as “two loving arms” in the lyrics and broke down crying.  I guess you know the rest.  This song goes from 2 Vincent St Sth Grafton to our family homes in Queensland, where we live and everywhere in between, it’s been quite a journey so far watching this Life evolve before my eyes and I still yearn for home everyday I travel.

A SIMPLE SONG
Last year we spent three months in Nashville as a big family experience.  I wrote and played.  With the wonders of technology my wife Laurel was able to keep doing her break radio show in Brisbane from there, the kids went to school and Roxanne my manager put up with the lot of us in a small rental house!  I wrote this song down on with Robert Ellis Oral down on music row.

It’s about keeping a song very simple and making the message really simple as well and I reckon it worked. Robert was great to write with and we wanted this song to get your fingers tapping and feel the sunshine.   I love it!

THE RIVER RUNS
I had this song tucked in the drawer after the Queensland floods in early  2011.   I had been given a banjo for Christmas from Laurel and loved it.

The song came about while we were were in the middle of the biggest clean up of our lives as the farm copped a lot of water from the Brisbane River.

After each long day of cleaning up,  we’d head back to our Brother in law Haydn’s farm. I would pick up the banjo and think up some lines and write some lyrics down about how we were all feeling.  All I can say is thank God for friends and family.  It was also amazing to be reminded of the fantastic Community we live in and the support around us.   I hope we all keep a piece of this flood in our hearts as a small reminder of what being Australian is about.

Laurel, you worked by my side day in day out.  With a lot of tears and laughter, we battled on together. I love your spirit and you very much baby.

TALL DARK RINGER
Up in Far North Queensland,  the Aboriginal ringers were legendary.  As well as their knowledge of Country, they taught the white cattlemen essential bush skills.  How to survive when you ran out of tucker.  The importance of their spiritual connection to their land up there. These ringers went missing for a while in an ever changing world  but are starting to come back and find purpose and be great contributors to their Communities,  Col Buchanan wrote some beautiful lyrics with me on this. Long live the Murray Ringers in the Cape FNQ..

GOOD MAN
I had an EH Holden for many years that I had to fix myself on a lot of occasions because I had limited money.  When something major came up like a carby rebuild, brakes or something too complicated for me to tackle, enter my Uncle Gerry Daley. He could fix anything. One day we tackled a new manifold and new Holley and when it started I stood back and thought to myself “WOW, we fixed that!” Happily I still hear about him from people that knew him and they all reckon that that he was a just a good Man.

BEAUTIFUL LIFE
Sometimes we have to look within our own families and lives to see the beauty that we have around us.  I did it just recently.  I was feeling a bit low which is odd for me as I’m a glass half full bloke for the most part.  I was making breaky for the kids and I looked at them and thought how lucky are we to have each other and a family still together.  Then I spoke to Laurel when she got home and I looked at her and thought how beautiful and level is this woman I have married.  She fills in all the gaps when I doubt things and is a great listener.  With these three people around me, I most certainly do have a beautiful life.

THIS COUNTRY IS IN MY SOUL
I hadn’t been to Wee Waa for a long time and seeing the plains in 2011 amazed me, a bumper year,  the country looked good.  As we drove through those western NSW towns I played ‘Slim Dusty Live At The Tamworth Town Hall’ as our back ground music.  I emailed Slim’s wife Joy on our way through and told her what was happening to me and she got it, she has been there and done that.  But having Slim’s voice as the common thread that brought this whole picture together for me was an amazing feeling.  Next time you’re out near Moree or Narrabri put some Slim on and see where he takes you, I miss him.

THINKING ‘BOUT DRINKIN’
I love song writing and I am still learning this craft and will to the day I die.  Writing this song with Don Sampson and Monty Holmes really moved me.   We all confess to being Merle Haggard tragics and this is our take on a Country Ballad with full respect to Merle and all he has given us. This tune sounded old from the day we wrote it.

GOOD TIMES STARTING OVER
My girl Laurel is not fond of Sunday afternoons.  She calls them “the carnival is over” afternoons.   She had a real bad one real bad on this particular Sunday.  She asked me to invite some friends over for a BBQ, so we did and we drank, played guitars and sang our carnival is over blues away.  Laurel got onto the Margaritas with the blender.   I will never forget the sound of that thing whizzing up batches of the stuff as we sang into the night.  It was a classic night.  Go Blender girl!!!!!