BIOGRAPHY

Singer songwriter Anne Kirkpatrick seemed destined to be a performer, being the daughter of country music legends Slim Dusty and Joy McKean.

During a career that started at the age of ten in her parents' travelling country show, Anne Kirkpatrick has been described as "a true revolutionary" and "the godmother of Australian new country".

Her 1991 release Out Of The Blue was heralded as a watershed album in Australian country music and her latest album Showman’s Daughter was declared by Bruce Elder of the Sydney Morning Herald to be "a remarkable achievement that keeps Australian country music in the hands of the nation’s first family". Anne has received six CMAA Golden Guitar Awards and one ARIA Award.

Kirkpatrick’s latest recording project is the Slim Dusty Family Reunion album, featuring 3 generations of the Dusty clan.

Her first solo album

Anne released her first solo album, Down Home, in 1974 , while at university in Sydney. The album blended her traditional country upbringing with newly discovered musical horizons from country rock acts such as The Flying Burrito Bros, Linda Ronstadt and Gram Parsons as well as bluegrass.

After university, Anne hit the road with the family show for the next couple of years, releasing another solo album, Let The Songs Keep Flowing Strong And Naturally in 1976. Then, in the late 70’s Anne and a few like-minded musicians from her fathers’ backing band formed the Anne Kirkpatrick Band. Playing the inner city pub circuit in Sydney, they gained a strong mainstream audience and consolidated a loyal country audience. Shoot The Moon, the album she recorded with that line-up, won her Best Female Vocal at the 1979 Tamworth Country Music Awards with the track "Grievous Angel".

Other solo albums followed - the 1980’s greatest hits collection Annie’s Songs and Merry Go Round Of Life (1982). Anne took a short break to raise a family and reappeared in 1988 with a new album, Come Back Again. Produced by Mark Moffatt, Come Back Again saw Anne nominated for Best Country Album at the 1988 ARIA Awards and also for Most Popular Female artist, alongside performers Jenny Morris and Kylie Minogue.

Two Singers - One Song

In the following years Anne played both with her own bands and the Slim Dusty Show. She released a duet album with her father in 1989, Two Singers - One Song, which took out Highest Selling Album at the Australasian Country Music Awards in Tamworth in 1990, and was also an ARIA finalist for Best Country Album.

Out Of The Blue

In the same year Anne recorded a number of tracks for ABC Records’ 0-9 series of children’s albums, which subsequently led to a signing with the newly formed ABC country label. Her first album for ABC Country was released in 1991. With Out of The Blue Anne melded the traditional country influences of her formative years with the contemporary feel she had grown to love. The result was an exquisitely crafted, passionately presented album that went on to win all the major awards for 1991, including ARIA Best Country Album, two Golden Guitar Awards in Tamworth for Best Album and Best Female Vocal and a Mo Award.

Game of Love

Anne followed up in 1993 with the album Game of Love, the title track winning Apra Country Song of The Year for writers Heather Fields and James Gillard.

Game Of Love received similar praise right round the country and won Anne another Mo award, at which stage Anne decided to take a bit of a back seat for the following year, returning with Anne Kirkpatrick and Friends Live recorded early in 1995 at the annual Country Music Festival held in Tamworth. It was an album celebrating 21 years of solo recording for Anne. It included duets with friends from the industry such as Lee Kernaghan, Troy Cassar-Daly and Jane Saunders and was also a wonderful celebration of Anne’s unique musical heritage with tracks recorded with Slim and Joy and also her brother David.

Cry Like A Man was released in 1997, the same year that saw Anne tour England and Ireland as support artist for her father Slim Dusty.

Travellin’ Still... Always Will

Travellin’ Still...Always Will, was released in 2001 and features the title track that Anne wrote as a tribute to Slim and Joy and their remarkable pioneering life together.

It is a very special album for Anne as it was a collaborative effort with her father Slim Dusty, featuring a number of duets as well as solo tracks from both Anne and Slim. It was to be their last recording together as her beloved dad passed away in September 2003.

As a way of coping Anne began writing and working on other projects, one of which was recording a duet with Tracy Coster, daughter of the late Stan Coster. It was a nostalgic session for them both - recording "Back To The Saltbush Plains" which was the first song of Stan’s that Slim recorded, back in the ‘60s. They were good mates and Slim went on to record many more of Stan’s songs. Tracy and Anne won Vocal Collaboration of The Year at the 2005 CMAA Awards in Tamworth.

Showman’s Daughter

From her writing came Showman’s Daughter. Released in 2006, it’s an album of raw authentic performances and insightful and at times deeply personal stories.

The writing credits read like a branch of the Dusty family tree with contributions from Anne, her mother Joy McKean, her late father Slim Dusty and her son James Arneman. Also featured are songs from writers who have enjoyed long associations with the family, such as Cold Chisel’s Don Walker.

"The most important Australian country album since Kasey Chamber’s The Captain" wrote the SMH’s Bruce Elder.

Anne won her 6th Golden Guitar Award at Tamworth for Bush Ballad of the Year in 2007 with the Joy McKean-penned track "Peppimenarti Cradle" from the album.

Kirkpatrick’s latest recording project,released April 2008, is the Slim Dusty Family Reunion album, featuring 3 generations of the Dusty clan. Anne toured extensively in 2008 as part of the Family Reunion Tour.