Celebrated singer/songwriter Toni Childs was last scheduled to perform in the region in March 2020, but she was four dates into her tour when her Shepparton show was cancelled due to the pandemic. The American-born Childs, who now resides in Australia, is looking forward to finally returning to Shepparton on Saturday, September 10 at Riverlinks Eastbank as part of her ‘Retrospective’ tour.
With a career that spans more than 30 years, Childs vaguely recalls a visit to Shepparton early in her career.
“Back then it was my first time in Shepparton but I was on like a conveyor belt-type schedule, I didn't know where I was going, as people were just driving me to places,” Childs told this column.
“Having lived in Australia now since 2012, I have been doing a lot of extensive regional touring and so I now know where places are when I tour. I've played 90 different regional towns around Australia.“
While many musicians bypass regional centres, Childs is part of a growing number who believe it’s time for artists to include regional Australia on their tour itineraries.
"I'm creating new productions that will travel into regional towns, as I feel that you guys need to be loved up,“ she said.
"Artists like me need to be investing and taking real ‘wow factor’ productions into regional towns. People are really working hard for the dollar in those towns and they can really feel marginalised and not thought about.
"I think they need to know that there are artists like me who do care about them, and I think it's really important that they get to see some really cool stuff.“
Her two-hour show will be split in halves. The first hour sees Childs performing fan favourites such as Stop Your Fussin and I've Got to Go Now while the second hour showcases new music from two albums — It's All A Beautiful Noise and Citizens Of The Planet — scheduled for release in the future.
“Citizens Of The Planet has already been recorded and is ready to go,” she said.
“And with It's All A Beautiful Noise, I will finally finish recording it in Canada in November, as after this tour I'll be heading on out over there. I also have two singles that will be coming out next year.”
Shepparton, home of country
Country music is a huge part of Australian culture, with the genre itself one of the best selling when it comes to recordings and live concert tickets. According to a recent report conducted by the Country Music Association of Australia, the Australian country music sector has more than doubled its value over the past 20 years, with Australia now the third largest country music market in the world after the US and Canada. It also found that regional centres such as Shepparton were among the most popular areas for country artists to perform shows and tour. The success of and huge turnout for the inaugural Goulburn Valley Country Music Fest earlier this year is proof in the pudding.
Turn the page
For lovers of music-related books, tomes about David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen and Australia's very own Midnight Oil are currently the most in-demand books being borrowed from branches across the Goulburn Valley Libraries network. According to the data as supplied by GV Libraries to this column, the top three music books are:
A Portrait of Bowie: A tribute to Bowie by his artistic collaborators and contemporaries; Bruce Springsteen: All the songs: The story behind every track by Philippe Margotin; and Beds Are Burning: Midnight Oil: The journey by Mark Dodshon.
Fun music fact
Did you know that around the ages of 11 to 17, Australian music icon Ian 'Molly' Meldrum lived in Kyabram?
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As always, keep on rockin’.
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