Troy Cassar-Daley

Troy Cassar-Daley is Australian music royalty and he has just released his new album Freedom Ride. On this eleventh release, the country troubadour has teamed up with some of the best in the business and showcases some of the best songs of his career. It’s been a long way from growing up in Surrey Hills to recording an album in Nashville and on Freedom Ride, and the album features more than just Troy’s stories, as he relates.
“The thing that I want to make clear right from the beginning is that there are so many other people’s stories on this record. It was such a thrill to sit down and be a listener for once rather than a talker. It was great to come at this record from a different perspective because it gives the songs a different meaning and viewpoint, and I really like that about Freedom Ride.”
You may remember a couple of years ago, when Daft Punk released their latest album Random Access Memories? Now you may be thinking, what does Daft Punk have to do with Troy Cassar-Daley? However the ARIA charts got the weekly count wrong and The Great Australian Songbook, a collaborative album that Cassar-Daley did with Adam Harvey, went to the top of the ARIA charts. It was a minor glitch in the system, but it was on that tour where the basic concept for Freedom Ride was devised.
“We were on tour with The Great Australian Songbook and I got a chance to talk to so many people while we were playing in that show. We were on the road for about 18 months and it felt really great to not be under any pressure to put a record out. There seems to be this pressure nowadays where you have to put something out every two years or so,” he says.
“I was sitting in Western Australia talking to this miner and he inspired ‘Two Weeks On, Two Weeks Off’ with Jimmy Barnes. Having the opportunity when I was a kid to do the Freedom Ride and then go down to Paul Kelly’s house and write with him. It was just nice to be able to collect these stories over a couple of years and piece it together bit by bit.”
The finished product is a stunning collection of songs that falls under Cassar-Daley’s philosophy of making records. If you are put under pressure by record labels or fans to release new music so quickly after an album then of course your output is going to be quite substandard. “You’ve got to trust in your heart that when you’re ready with a record and you feel the songs are strong enough, only then should you be stepping into the studio.”
The title track to this record was written with Australian rock royalty Paul Kelly, an opportunity that any aspiring musician would froth over. Speaking about working alongside Kelly, Cassar-Daley reveals that they have been friends for a very long time. “Paul was about my third phone call actually. My first was to Colin Buchanan because I knew that Paul Kelly was touring around with Neil Finn so I wasn’t going to go around getting in his way. I let him go until he was free to organise a writing session with me. Colin Buchanan and Pete Denahy were both people that I wanted to write with. I got them up to my farm and it was just great,” Cassar-Daley says.
“These songs that I am injecting into the live shows throughout Victoria, I hope people will be able to look at them like a mirror and see a bit of themselves in them, because they are written about so many other people rather than just myself.”
The writing trip with Denahy spawned three songs for the record and was quite a productive time in developing this latest album. Cassar-Daley remembers sitting in his EH at the airport waiting for Denahy. “He got into my car with a vomit bag and he had all these ideas for songs written down on it. It was like someone being told they have to arrive with biscuits to someone’s house. It was great, it gave us something to work with and it was a very organic process for us, from the very first cup of tea we were ready to go.”
Over the next couple of months, Cassar-Daley is taking the Freedom Ride album out on the road, however there are two sets of shows that you can experience this time around. In addition to the normal country rock set up that Cassar-Daley has become famous for over the years, he is also headed out with an orchestra for something a little different for the shows at Crown Casino.
“Only some places are going to be getting the big band experience because we can’t afford to drag the Melbourne Youth Orchestra all throughout Victoria. We want to give people the scope of this record plus the other nine that I have done. It’s going to be building the show around some older songs and with Pete Denahy, there are certain to be some laughs. I think people will see and hear something really special with these shows and I am excited to get out and play them. It’s revisiting some classic songs from Sinatra to Nat King Cole,” he says.
Having cut his teeth touring around with Brian Young for seven months in the late ’80s, Troy Cassar-Daley has since developed into one of the country’s greatest performers and singers, however, Golden guitars and all the accolades that have come since didn’t cross Troy’s mind on that first tour back in the day. “I thought I would get back from that tour and just struggle along. I never thought that I would achieve what I have today. That was known as big noting yourself. The music industry also helped me meet my wife, I am thankful for every opportunity that has come my way. I can’t wait to see what the future holds and where the next album is coming from!”
When & Where: The Capital, Bendigo – May 7, Lighthouse Theatre, Warrnambool – May 8 & The Palms (Crown), Melbourne – May 9
Written by Tex Miller