The debut status of Angus Gill’s album Nomad belies the fact that he is no novice in the Australian country
music game. Already a Star Maker grand finalist and a three-time graduate of
the CMAA Academy of Country Music, Gill has the credentials to create an
impressive debut – and, as it turns out, he has the talent too.
Nomad is identifiably
an Australian country music album that draws on its lineage – with shades of
Slim Dusty and Lee Kernaghan – and also sounds like an album that a young man
would release. Gill’s voice has a youthful lightness to it that’s paired with
the seriousness with which he’s taken his craft and his history.
These are songs of the road, of mishaps and friendships, of
hope and light. Gill doesn’t shy away from including genuine emotion in a song (‘Starin’
Out the Back of a Car’) but he’s also not averse to writing a very catchy song
about traffic (‘Country Bloke City Driving’). This contrast does not seem at
all incongruous, and that is, no doubt, due to Gill’s background in country music.
Despite his youth, he’s paid a certain amount of dues, and he deserves respect
accordingly – as evidenced by the appearance of luminaries such as Kevin
Bennett and Adam Harvey on the album.
Come January, Gill will doubtless have many returning and
new fans at the Tamworth Country Music Festival, and this album almost sounds
like it was born of the festival, because it is so evocative of its genre and
also captures the energy and enthusiasm that is characteristic of the festival.
The album has an identity beyond that, of course, and it will be in farm houses
and townhouses, on country roads and in that confounded city traffic. Gill has
made an album that will please the traditionalists no end and also appeal to
audiences around his age. This is quite a feat – no doubt the first of many.
Nomad is out now.
