Month: July 2022

ARIA Chart-topping artist Lyn Bowtell continues to bring the joy with her latest single, ‘Maryanne The Optimist’, grabbing the attention of radio and charts.

On release, June 10, the single debuted in the top 20 of the iTunes Country Songs Chart, and continued to take over charts across the nation. ‘Maryanne The Optimist’ spent two weeks on the AMRAP Regional Chart, where it reached No. 3, charted across adult contemporary, country and all genres on the PlayMPE charts, hitting No. 1 across genres, reached No. 5 on the Country Radio Charts, and has debuted on the Country Songs Top 40, where Lyn had all three of her latest singles charting at the same time.

Lifted from Lyn’s ARIA Country No. 1 album, ‘Wiser’, ‘Maryanne The Optimist’ is about that person who is a mentor, a friend, a sister, a mother, who happens to run a cafe serving her customers wisdom and kindness with every hot beverage.

“Writing this song with Kevin Bennett was a joy,” Lyn said. “It’s always exciting, taking an idea and bringing it to life with a co-writer like KB. I’d had the idea for many years but I was waiting for the right time to finish it, and COVID lockdown in 2020 proved to be just that time.”

It was as though Lyn manifested Maryanne into being when searching for the star of the film clip to accompany the single.

“The music video was filmed at my local cafe, The Holy Cuppa, Greta by Duncan Toombs from The Filmery,” the nine-time Golden Guitar winner said. “It features Gabi Blisset who played fiddle on the track and ‘Nanny Neve’ (as she’s affectionately known) as the barista.

“Lynneve is our little village’s very own Maryanne The Optimist; she’s one of those warm women, a ‘mother hen’ – and I recommend stopping for a kind word, a cup of tea or an almond latte anytime you’re passing through the Hunter Valley.”

As well as releasing sales and radio chart-topping music, Lyn was inducted into the Australian Country Music Hands of Fame in Tamworth in April 2022 and will be back on the road on her Wiser Album Tour through NSW, Queensland, Victoria and South Australia from August.

‘The Moon’ shines a light on Ashleigh Dallas’ family life, and is the final piece of the puzzle for her upcoming album.

Family means everything to the 2022 Female Artist of the Year Golden Guitar winner and, after welcoming baby Lillian to their family on May 31, merely a month later, Ashleigh welcomes a new musical baby with this single.

‘The Moon’ came to the Kootingal singer-songwriter via a prompt from Sam Hawksley’s Song Club. Each week the participants of Song Club write a song from a prompt, which was ‘a dollar and the moon’ on this occasion.

“It was written very late at night and (husband) Chris was away, I was home because of COVID lockdowns and it was that idea that you would trade the dollar to be under the moon with all those people you love,” Ashleigh said.

“The story connected with me and it was a bit emotional to write because Chris and I have juggled with both of us having to go away to work throughout our relationship, but the ultimate dream is that you could be together all the time, but life isn’t that simple.”

In the song, ‘The Moon’ is the constant in their lives because, no matter where they are when they’re apart, they’re standing under the same moon.

It’s a concept that many people deal with, and is sure to resonate with Ashleigh’s listeners.

“Whenever you leave your family home, or the people you love, you go away knowing that you love what you do, but you yearn for what’s back home,” she said.

“It was 100 per cent my diary entry because playing gigs away often means being in motels on our own. When you do go away, people think it is a glamorous lifestyle and it does have its perks, but most of the time you have to go back to a motel room on your own and scroll through a phone looking at what you’re missing out at home.”

The Dallas family now has two children and Chris has work close to home in Tamworth, but Ashleigh is preparing to head back out on the road when the time is right.

“When I wrote this, with the stop on working away for musicians, it was a different life to be adjusting to because I’ve been travelling and juggling jobs since the age of 14,” she said.

“You miss the bug of travelling, but when you’ve created a family, you need to be home. This is my final single before the full album comes, so I hope it engages and connects with people and makes them think of their own story.”

Ashleigh’s music is all about songs and stories from the heart and she won two Golden Guitars in April in Tamworth for Female Artist of the Year and CMT Video Clip of the Year with Luke O’Shea for ‘Long Way ‘Round’ .