INTERVIEW: Jayne Denham is ‘Hung Up’ on country music
Photo: Jayne Denham has been listening to country music since she was a child, and now she’s dominating the charts in Australia. Photo courtesy of the artist / Provided by Dead Horse Branding.
Country music has become a worldwide musical phenomenon. The genre, often featuring acoustic guitars and cowboy hats, continues to grow and evolve, ever since the early days of Hank Williams and the Carter family. One only has to look at Ken Burns’ recent PBS film about the art form to see how far it has come.
Australian listeners are increasingly jumping on the country bandwagon and making this musical genre their own. From the success of Keith Urban to the growing dominance of Jayne Denham, the island continent wants a seat at the country table.
Denham, in particular, typifies the unique country-rock sound that emanates from Australia, and she is starting to make real headway on the American music scene as well. One of her new songs is a duet with Troy Kemp called “Hung Up on You,” and another one is “Black Coffee and White Lines.”
“Troy Kemp and I have known each other for years through the industry, and I was looking at doing some touring with my new album, Calamity,” Denham said in a recent phone interview. “And I said, ‘Why don’t we do a song together?’ And so I reached out to … [a contact in] Nashville and said, ‘Can you see if there’s any songs that are floating around Nashville that might be a duet type of song?’ And it was actually the first song that came through, and Troy and I went, ‘Yep, that’s the one. We’re taking that song.’ So we immediately jumped in the studio in Queensland in Australia and recorded it. Yeah, it’s great. We absolutely love it.”
Phil Barton, Emily Shackelton and Corey Crowder composed the tune, and Denham and Kemp made it something special. The singer is quite impressed with its success, and audiences on the road have been enjoying it as well.
“I actually performed it last night here in Dallas,” Denham said. “Immediately a lot of people in the crowd, who may have never heard it, were all really getting into it. People were dancing, and I think that’s always a good sign, too, when they’ve never heard it and get into it and are singing it by the end. It’s good fun doing it live.”
In Australia, country music fans are very much into American country music, which has been successfully exported around the world. Denham attested to this fact, but she also mentioned the burgeoning Australian scene that has seen several performers from the country break out and grab some radio play.
“We are very much into American country music,” she said. “American country is really big in Australia, which is why a lot of American artists are now coming to Australia. They have done a lot of touring in Australia, but it’s becoming bigger and bigger. But the Australian country music market, it’s fairly small in comparison to here. Just to give you an idea, our whole music industry is about the size of the American gospel music industry in the States; that’s everything combined. But … we have a really strong Australian country music sound that’s obviously about our country, our culture, our towns, all that sort of stuff. It’s always been a really big thing in Australia, but, yeah, we’re definitely crossing over, and I guess with people like Keith Urban, he’s doing really well in the States. It’s been really great to shine a light on the music that we have in Australia.”
Denham first became interested in country music thanks to her father, who is a huge fan. He’s one of these people who plays music 24/7 — and quite loud.
“He loved his music loud, and he’s a mad country music fan,” she said with a laugh. “Growing up, we had it bashed down our throats really. It was really funny because then when I became a teenager, I’m like, I’m so over country music. I’m not listening to it anymore, and then I joined a rock band and did the whole rock thing for a while. It was very funny because I went through a bit of a tough time. The one thing that made me really happy was listening to country music because it was my childhood, and I had a great childhood. So I got back into country music, and obviously for five years I hadn’t been listening to it. And country music has certainly changed and grown, and it was really exciting. Then I nursed myself back into it, and then I started writing. And everyone’s like, you’re just writing country music. I’m like, oh well, I guess that’s going to happen when you grow up on it. It’s the roots of who you are really.”
Now that Denham has established herself as a country musician, she recognizes that she loves performing live more than anything else. She doesn’t mind handing off the songwriting duties to other creative personnel, just as long as she can be in that spotlight on the stage.
“I was talking to a friend of mine,” Denham said. “And she records and all that and obviously makes records, but she doesn’t really love it. We were talking about what part is your favorite part of being in the music game. I mean, I love all of it. I love being in the studio. I’ve been recording since I was 13. But for me live is definitely where I feel most at home, and even some writing I do it and I enjoy it, but I don’t love it as much as I do. Some people they would be happy to songwrite all day every day, whereas for me I’m happy on a stage. I was a dancer as a child as well, so I was performing in my lounge room as a child with my hair brush right from day one I guess because my family were all entertainers. They weren’t just singers. They were entertainers, and I think that’s the side of it that I inherited.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Jayne Denham’s new singles are “Hung Up on You” and “Black Coffee and White Lines.” Click here for more information.
