Speaker 1: Keep giving.
Speaker 2: They're both household names who have top charts and become
Speaker 2: two of the most recognizable country music artists in Australia.
Speaker 2: Tanya Kernighan hails from one of the great Australian country
Speaker 2: music families, while Jason Owen he hails from albert, a
Speaker 2: tiny Central West village. Now I'm thrilled to say I
Speaker 2: got both of them on the line. Hi guys, good,
Speaker 2: thank you. Jason. We started the hour with back Home Again.
Speaker 2: How did that collaboration with Tanya come about?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 4: Mate, great question. I was actually recording a John Denver
Speaker 4: tribute album at the time, and I knew that one
Speaker 4: of Ten's favorite songs was a John Denver song. I
Speaker 4: invited her on to sing it with me, and the
Speaker 4: rest is history. Bill, it really is, mate, and you know,
Speaker 4: I'm so honored to have her sing on that track
Speaker 4: with me.
Speaker 2: Now, you guys are great friends. Tanya. When did you
Speaker 2: first meet?
Speaker 5: Well, it was actually the first time we met face
Speaker 5: to face was about six weeks after I recorded the
Speaker 5: duet back Home Again. Because I live in Queensland, Bill
Speaker 5: and Jason's down in the Central Coast, and so we
Speaker 5: recorded our parts in different studios. But about six weeks
Speaker 5: after the recording was done, we met in mcwille and
Speaker 5: Barr in northern New South Wales where we shot the
Speaker 5: video clip for Back Home Again. And I got out
Speaker 5: of the car and I walked up to Jason. I said,
Speaker 5: get a Jason, I'm Tanya Kernighan. He said, oh, get
Speaker 5: a Tan. You're great to meet you.
Speaker 2: Now, Jason, what's it been like working with her?
Speaker 4: Well, unbelievable, mate. I grew up listening to her and
Speaker 4: Lee and you know, we can get on about this
Speaker 4: a bit later, but I grew up listening to incredible
Speaker 4: country music, you know. And it's such an honor to
Speaker 4: work with TK. She's a beautiful lady. She's given me
Speaker 4: so much inspiration in my music and just phenomenal to
Speaker 4: sing with Billy. She really really is, mate, and I
Speaker 4: wouldn't change it for the world.
Speaker 2: Tanya, I better ask you the same question, what's like
Speaker 2: working with him?
Speaker 5: Well? I think Jason's a phenomenal talent. You know, he's
Speaker 5: only like thirty years old. He's got a huge future
Speaker 5: in front of him and already he's achieved so much.
Speaker 5: But I called Jason with much affection, the human jeepbox,
Speaker 5: because as we just heard there singing stand by your man.
Speaker 5: This kid can sing anything. Bill.
Speaker 2: Now you hail from Albert, Jason, which I've never heard of,
Speaker 2: A tiny central at West village. What was your early
Speaker 2: life like?
Speaker 4: Don't help that against me, Bill, Oh mate, it's only
Speaker 4: a little village. There's only ten people out there, and
Speaker 4: it's pretty much the geographical center of New South Wales.
Speaker 4: And there's only ten people there. I was the only
Speaker 4: child for probably four or five years growing up there,
Speaker 4: and my dad owned both the businesses in the town,
Speaker 4: and you know, at the end of the day made
Speaker 4: it was fantastic growing up out there. I learned how
Speaker 4: to drive a car at an early age. I learned
Speaker 4: how to do a lot of things at an early age.
Speaker 4: And I was I remember when I turned twenty one,
Speaker 4: a lot of people used to say, oh goodness me,
Speaker 4: I thought you were thirty one the way I used
Speaker 4: to talk to people, because I was so grown up
Speaker 4: mentally from growing up around great adults.
Speaker 2: So where'd you get the country music bug?
Speaker 4: The country music bug, Mate, come in from the Rabbit
Speaker 4: Trap Hotel in Albert. The jukebox. I grew up listening
Speaker 4: to Tenure and Lee and Adam Harvey, Becky Cole, Slim,
Speaker 4: Dusty Brooks and dun you name it across the board, mate.
Speaker 4: And you know it got to about eight thirty nine
Speaker 4: o'clock at night, and you know we'd all used to
Speaker 4: be sitting in the pub there and mum and Dad
Speaker 4: would be having a beer and what have you like that,
Speaker 4: and you put the juke box on and listen to
Speaker 4: great country music. And that's pretty much how it all
Speaker 4: started bill for me.
Speaker 2: You know, Sotana, I don't really need to ask you
Speaker 2: where your music inmstration comes from. But what was your
Speaker 2: early life like?
Speaker 5: Oh? Well, I spent a lot of time traveling around
Speaker 5: the countryside with mum and dad, my dad Ray Kernigan,
Speaker 5: and of course my brothers Lee and Greg, and my
Speaker 5: sister Fiona and our wonderful mother. And you know I
Speaker 5: remember going on my first tour with mum and Dad
Speaker 5: and the family in nineteen seventy eight. It was six
Speaker 5: months of traveling around Australia as part of the legendary
Speaker 5: Rick and Fell Carey Traveling Country Show. And it was
Speaker 5: back in the days of when you traveled, you traveled
Speaker 5: with the car and caravan and you'd pull up behind
Speaker 5: the town hall, they'd load the gear into the hall
Speaker 5: and do the show that night, and then the next
Speaker 5: day they'd travel to another town and you'd be doing
Speaker 5: that six nights a week. And I was too young
Speaker 5: at that time to be on the stage, but I
Speaker 5: used to listen to Dad every night on the stage
Speaker 5: and listen to all his pattern and his jokes, and
Speaker 5: sure learned a lot of traveling. And I think it
Speaker 5: was those early days Bill that gave me such a
Speaker 5: great love and appreciation for Australia and its people. That's
Speaker 5: the great music we have here now.
Speaker 2: Taana seven chart chopping career albums, seventeen number one Radio
Speaker 2: Hits two, CM Double A Female Artists of the Year
Speaker 2: CM Double A Album of the Year CM Double A
Speaker 2: Vocal Collaboration of the Year ARIA Finalist, Golden Platinum Records.
Speaker 2: Blah blah blah. You definitely did the right thing, following
Speaker 2: in your family's footsteps A well.
Speaker 5: I always wanted to sing ever since I was about
Speaker 5: six years old. I think I climbed up on a
Speaker 5: bar stool at the Boomerang Hotel and sing a song
Speaker 5: at the in the beer garden where they had you know,
Speaker 5: you could get up and sing a song with the
Speaker 5: local band, and I sang Morning Chown Ride, you know,
Speaker 5: the old speaker song. You know, rockn roll right, yep,
Speaker 5: and I've Got a few Collapse and I just loved it.
Speaker 5: And I wanted Mum and Dad desperately to take me
Speaker 5: back the next week and I'd learn another song. And
Speaker 5: I just loved singing and loved performing. And I guess
Speaker 5: as I got as a molder now, it's the joy
Speaker 5: that you bring everybody to the audience and that's what
Speaker 5: kind of keeps me going now, is to see other
Speaker 5: people happy and how powerful music is.
Speaker 2: And Jason, you were on The X Factor in twenty twelve.
Speaker 2: Tell us about that experience.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I was Bill, And you know, growing up in
Speaker 4: albert there's only ten or twelve people there to be
Speaker 4: and train on a stage like that in front of
Speaker 4: three or four million people a night, Well, I think
Speaker 4: that explains it. It was an incredible experience, Billy, It
Speaker 4: really was, mate. I went to New York through the show,
Speaker 4: met some incredible artists Melby, you know, Ronan Keating, Guy Sebastian,
Speaker 4: Natalie Bathingswait, and you know, met some incredible people through it.
Speaker 4: And what an experience it was. It really me in
Speaker 4: the deep end to learn what the industry is like
Speaker 4: to a degree. Bill, And you know, realistically, people always say,
Speaker 4: you know, it's a hard road to come off one
Speaker 4: of those shows, But twelve years later, I'm still doing it. Mate,
Speaker 4: was one of the best in the scene.
Speaker 2: It was what twenty seventeen you put out and sings
Speaker 2: John Denver. He really meant something to you, didn't he
Speaker 2: he did.
Speaker 5: Mate.
Speaker 4: My Pop, my granddad. He's still living at Albert on
Speaker 4: his own. He's ninety seven in November this year, Bill,
Speaker 4: and he's still really adamant to live in on by himself, Mate,
Speaker 4: I should say. And my Armie lives just down the road.
Speaker 4: She goes and checks on him a few times a day.
Speaker 4: But I used to come home from school and go
Speaker 4: in there and literally we go out and you know,
Speaker 4: check the sheep and the cattle and all that type
Speaker 4: of stuff. We were share farming on Alan McCrae's property
Speaker 4: there at Albert and listen to John Denver's music over
Speaker 4: and over and over. Because the tape was stuck in
Speaker 4: the ute. Every time say Pop, I've got to get
Speaker 4: it fixed, you'd say, no, leave it in there, mate.
Speaker 4: If you can sing John Danvy, you can sing anything.
Speaker 4: And the rest is history, Billy.
Speaker 2: And then twenty eighteen you wrote and recorded the song
Speaker 2: these are the times with funds raised going towards strout relief.
Speaker 2: Was that's difficult. It's difficult for people living on the land, isn't.
Speaker 4: It It is, mate, it is And I really I
Speaker 4: wrote that song with fellas from CBD. They are a
Speaker 4: pop R and B group from the nineties, right, But
Speaker 4: I sat down with them and I said to them, guys,
Speaker 4: this is what I want to write about. This. Albert's
Speaker 4: where I grew up. You know, my heart's there, it's
Speaker 4: in the bush, and I want to write about something
Speaker 4: to do with drought and how it affects regional businesses,
Speaker 4: rural businesses and families on the land. Because my dad
Speaker 4: owned both the pub and the fuel service station Billy
Speaker 4: in Albert and the only two businesses in the village, right,
Speaker 4: so you can see it firsthand from farmers and businesses,
Speaker 4: and how it was like a domino effect, you know,
Speaker 4: through the game.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 4: So these are the times I've written about that. And
Speaker 4: it was to the Baron by the ca Runners that song.
Speaker 2: Now tenure. Apart from your country music career, you're a
Speaker 2: skilled horsewoman and a bee keeper.
Speaker 5: M Yeah, I've got twenty thousand bees in my backyard
Speaker 5: in one of those flow hives, Billy, and they fascinate me.
Speaker 5: I'm just amazed at how you know that you don't
Speaker 5: micro manage bees, You just really let them be, pardon
Speaker 5: the pun. They just do their thing. And the beautiful
Speaker 5: honey that I get every year from them is few months,
Speaker 5: is just divine. And of course horses have been a
Speaker 5: part of my life since I was a little kid,
Speaker 5: four years old, I got up on a horse and
Speaker 5: went riding with my mum and my grandmother, And You've
Speaker 5: always had a horse. And at the moment, I'm very
Speaker 5: much in love with the fifteen hand gelding. His name Spin.
Speaker 2: Now we're going to come back to hear about the
Speaker 2: touring you've got coming up together, but first we're going
Speaker 2: to play one of your duets, try a Little Kindness.
Speaker 2: Where did the idea come for you and Jason to
Speaker 2: tour from.
Speaker 5: To tour together? Well, it was really off the back
Speaker 5: of the back Home Again, the song that we released
Speaker 5: on Jason's album, and we started to do a couple
Speaker 5: of little shows together and then we seem to get
Speaker 5: a lot of response, and then we recorded let Your
Speaker 5: Love Flow, and that just went gangbusters. So that really
Speaker 5: was the catalyst to go out there and tour seriously.
Speaker 5: And then of course this is our third duet that
Speaker 5: we've recorded recently and released, and Trial Little Kindness is
Speaker 5: very much the sentiment of our show. It's about, you know,
Speaker 5: spreading the joy, spreading the happiness and giving a lot
Speaker 5: of love and goodwill to people who come along to
Speaker 5: our shows. And it's through the music that we were
Speaker 5: doing that, and Trial Little Kindness was just fits perfectly
Speaker 5: in the set and it was an easy one to
Speaker 5: record together.
Speaker 6: If you see your brother standing by the rope with
Speaker 6: a heavy low from the seat soul, and if you.
Speaker 7: See your sister phone by the way, just stop and
Speaker 7: saying you're going the wrong.
Speaker 8: Way, you've got to trial little kindness. Yes, show a
Speaker 8: little kindness, shine a lot for every scene.
Speaker 1: And if you try a little kindness, then you'l o
Speaker 1: the blindness of the narrow minded.
Speaker 8: People on the narrow minded extremes.
Speaker 9: Don't walk around town and out.
Speaker 1: Then the helping hand instead of doubt.
Speaker 7: And the kindness that you show every day will help
Speaker 7: somewhere along the way.
Speaker 1: You've got to try a little kindness.
Speaker 8: Yes, show a little kindness, shine a lot for everyone
Speaker 8: scene hand. If you try a little kindness, then your
Speaker 8: the blinds of the Marimondes. People of the Marimondes seek.
Speaker 8: You've got to try a little kindness. Yes, show a
Speaker 8: little kindness, shine.
Speaker 1: A lot every city hand.
Speaker 9: Every trial time.
Speaker 8: Of the darlined people, unarolanded.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Sunday Night Crews.
Speaker 3: In the Queen of Heart knowing any really fine jogger
Speaker 3: in the Olio.
Speaker 1: You do anything.
Speaker 2: Tonight, I'm talking to country music stars Tanya Kernighan and
Speaker 2: Jason Hawen. So, Jason, do you have any musical inspiration
Speaker 2: that comes from other country music stars?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 4: Mate, absolutely, Well, ten is one of them, you know,
Speaker 4: because you know it is It is t K. And
Speaker 4: you know that because I I've always said, you know,
Speaker 4: it's authentic. It's stories about real life things, mate, It's
Speaker 4: and it's the same with Lee, Troy Cassa, Daily, Adam Harvey,
Speaker 4: you know all of them. It's so authentic. Country music
Speaker 4: is so authentic, and that's not exactly what I love
Speaker 4: about it, Billy, It really is. It tells the story
Speaker 4: as to how it is, mate. And you know, any
Speaker 4: country artist John Denver was obviously ambassive inspiration for me.
Speaker 4: And he wrote a lot about the rocky mountains and
Speaker 4: you know all that type of stuff. But you know
Speaker 4: what I mean, mate, Like it's authentic, isn't it.
Speaker 2: Where does it come from for you?
Speaker 5: Tan?
Speaker 2: Musical inspiration?
Speaker 5: Oh? Do I remember growing up around you know, when
Speaker 5: my dad was recording albums and back in the seventies
Speaker 5: and he'd go down to Melbourne, he'd record a full
Speaker 5: album on a six track mixer and we'd bring it
Speaker 5: back home and we'd played in the lounge room and
Speaker 5: all those kids were so excited to hear what dad
Speaker 5: had recorded and it came back. Even before that, we
Speaker 5: were had a little band, my brother Lee, I played
Speaker 5: the piano, Greg my brother played the drums, and my
Speaker 5: sister and I sang and we were called Angels and
Speaker 5: the Blue Devils. And I was about ten years old
Speaker 5: at the time, and we used to go around the
Speaker 5: River Arena around Aubrey where I grew up down south
Speaker 5: and play for the pensioners for their Christmas parties and
Speaker 5: special functions. And you know, it was just in our blood.
Speaker 5: It was in our DNA, and Mum and Dad never said,
Speaker 5: you know, you've got to pursue music. It was just
Speaker 5: something that we just naturally gravitated to.
Speaker 2: Jason, you're both on the road with Let your Love
Speaker 2: Flow too. What can we expect at the concerts?
Speaker 4: A good time, Billy, Yeah, a very very good time, mate,
Speaker 4: like try a little kindless let your Love Flow back
Speaker 4: home again. Are only three songs that are featured in
Speaker 4: the show, but you know, the rest is history. Mate.
Speaker 4: Ten performs all her incredible hits, original hits that I
Speaker 4: grew up with and everyone else knows, you know, And
Speaker 4: of course we do songs that we perform online together.
Speaker 4: We've been very lucky to have an incredible following online
Speaker 4: and we take those songs out on Rage as well. Mate.
Speaker 2: So what are the highlights for you, Tanya? Oh?
Speaker 5: Well, I love to perform the songs that have really
Speaker 5: built my career. So the first half of the show,
Speaker 5: I go out there and I'll I'll sing you songs
Speaker 5: like Boys in Boots, the Veranda, a Bushman Can't Survive
Speaker 5: on City Lights, all of those songs that for thirty years,
Speaker 5: you know, that really established my career. And then the
Speaker 5: second and Jason does a similar part in the first
Speaker 5: half of the show, but the second half it's like
Speaker 5: it moves into a whole other gear and the band
Speaker 5: come out with us. We're singing these great songs that
Speaker 5: we've made popular once again through the social media platforms.
Speaker 5: And you know, I think Jason sort of always on
Speaker 5: the on the edge a little bit because he never
Speaker 5: knows really what I'm going to say, and half the
Speaker 5: time I don't know what I'm going to say, but
Speaker 5: he's off. It's a lot of fun.
Speaker 2: Like Jay said, Jason, where can we catch you both?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 4: Mate, Look, we're going everywhere this year, Billy, We're in
Speaker 4: We're going to the Central Western New South Wales through July, Ballama,
Speaker 4: you know, all over the place, mate, Bunderberg.
Speaker 3: Yeah, go.
Speaker 4: Ballama. We're all over the place, mate, Thunderburg at the
Speaker 4: Montcreve Theater. We're absolutely everywhere, Ballarat in Victoria, Western Australia.
Speaker 2: We're going to.
Speaker 4: Plan everywhere, mate, Yes, absolutely, yeah, yeah, Bunderberg, mate montre Theater.
Speaker 2: So where can we get tickets?
Speaker 5: Tenure, It's best to just go to the venues. Look
Speaker 5: at our websites, because all the dates are either on
Speaker 5: Jason's or my website, and we're always posting things on
Speaker 5: our Facebook pages and Instagram pages of new dates and
Speaker 5: ticket links and that kind of thing. Billy, But you
Speaker 5: kept saying Sydney, Sydney is something. Where's the best place?
Speaker 5: Do you reckon playing Sydney for our safe The opera?
Speaker 2: Of course, the opera house.
Speaker 5: I'll give him a.
Speaker 2: Now, chasing the tourist called that Let Your Love Flow.
Speaker 2: What was the inspiration for that?
Speaker 4: Mainly because after Back Home Again, Tenure and I released
Speaker 4: a single back Home Again quite a few years ago now,
Speaker 4: but when we join forces again to launch a tour,
Speaker 4: we release let Your Love Flow. You know, the Bellamie
Speaker 4: Brothers classic, and such a great story, made the songs beautiful,
Speaker 4: and to turn it into a duet with Tenure was
Speaker 4: phenomenal for us both. You know, we knew we had
Speaker 4: something magic when we recorded it. But that pretty much
Speaker 4: the success of that song to us. We knew that
Speaker 4: it made people happy, it brought joy to the show, Billy,
Speaker 4: And you know, realistically, we just know that let Your
Speaker 4: Love Flow. When you read that title, you know you
Speaker 4: know exactly what it's about Yeah.
Speaker 2: We better finish up. We'd let your love flow. And
Speaker 2: I'd love to think you're both for joining with us
Speaker 2: to God bless you both and come back on again.
Speaker 5: Thank you, good on your billy, than you.
Speaker 1: On your good thank you.
Speaker 6: There's a reason for the sunshine sky, and there's a
Speaker 6: reason one feeling so high must be the seasons when
Speaker 6: that love life shines all around us.
Speaker 1: So let that.
Speaker 3: Feeling grab your deep be signs, send your reeling we
Speaker 3: love jam hide and then go steal less.
Speaker 1: Through the moon is nice with your love.
Speaker 9: Just let your out like him, out of strain, and let.
Speaker 1: Your loveles with the smallest of dreams, and let your
Speaker 1: love show and you'll know what I'll mean. It's the season.
Speaker 8: Let you fly like him away and let you love fine.
Speaker 8: It's all loving things, And.
Speaker 1: Let your love shine and you'll know what I mean.
Speaker 1: That's the reason.
Speaker 7: There's a reason for the warm, sweet nights, and there's
Speaker 7: a reason for the kind of lights. Must be the
Speaker 7: season when those love life shine all around us. I
Speaker 7: don't wonder, take you into space and lead you under
Speaker 7: it's loving embrace, just to feel the suner as it
Speaker 7: warms your own face.
Speaker 1: You can't hold back out.
Speaker 8: Just let your lock him out a stream and let
Speaker 8: your love grows to the.
Speaker 1: Smallest streams, and let you love shows. And you know
Speaker 1: what else made? It's the seasons. It's the season.
Speaker 8: Let you lie, lock a wing and let you love,
Speaker 8: button you to all those things, and let.
Speaker 1: You love shot. And you know what else made? That's
Speaker 1: the craziest, you know, just.
Speaker 9: A blue lock him out a stream and let your
Speaker 9: love to grow in.
Speaker 8: The smallest streamers, and let you love shows.
Speaker 1: And you know what i'se made. It's the seasons.
Speaker 8: Let you legendip wing and let you love love all
Speaker 8: those things and today shots and you'll know what that's.
Speaker 1: Names Studies is.
Speaker 9: Spas came out on the stem
Speaker 8: And small dreams and shoes and you know what name