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JUST HAVING FUN
Matt Lawrence
From adding colour to lifeless roots to celebrating lovers of the great Aussie ute, singer-songwriter JAYNE DENHAM feels she is living the life she was born to live.
The self-confessed country rock chick and part-time hairdresser is currently celebrating album release number two, the aptly titled Shake This Town.
The result of a collaboration with renowned producer GARTH PORTER and COLIN BUCHANAN, the platter packs a punch and then some.
Along with the party-inspired title track, Denham serves up plenty to ensure her ever-growing clutch of fans are sent into overdrive, including the pacey fun of A Farmer’s Wife and the female-friendly Mad Professor.
The album serves as an exciting new chapter for Denham, who has been on one heck of a wild ride since her 2007 debut, Sudden Change In Weather.
In the time between releases, Denham has toured far and wide, been embraced as a poster girl by the ute and trucking world, thanks to songs Chick Ute and Cousin Jude, and has, needless to say, had to cut back her hours in the salon.
"I actually had to give up my business," she said. "I had a salon that was very successful and when I got offered to do the first album I realised there was no way you could do both. I thought if I could have a job where I could come back and make a bit of extra cash, well that would be win-win.
"And I'm not stressing that I have to go out and play at the pub down the road for 20 bucks to put food on the table. I've been very lucky to have a career on the side."
Within her first six months of arriving on the scene, Denham secured a spot playing at the Crow Bar during the 2007 Gympie Muster.
"I can't thank them enough, because that was probably the first thing that put me on the map," she said. "And to put me in the Crow Bar was the hugest honour. And then last year they gave me the main stage.
"In terms of the crowd, the bigger the crowd, the bigger I am ... you always give 110 per cent."
Denham said she had found touring with her own dedicated band - comprising three women and two fellas - had been one of the real highlights of the past 18 months.
"We've loved being on the road a lot," she said. "Because I was always a band chick in my younger years I found it very weird to be on stage with a group of people I wasn't familiar working with. And I like the chick thing. For me that's really fun to tour with. The poor guys though, I feel a bit sorry for them. With me, there's four girls to contend with."
Serving as the ultimate nod of appreciation, Denham was declared the winner of the Capital News Independent Rising Star Female Award at the 2008 Southern Stars, Australia's independent country music awards, for her track Cousin Jude.
"It was actually funny," she said. "I seriously had not thought I'd win. I was up against some really great talent. It was like, oh well I'm thrilled to be nominated. And when I won, the guy who was sitting next to me was laughing. He said you should have seen your face ... it was the biggest shock. I'd never won anything since the state cross country in Year 10. I was absolutely thrilled.
"It's nice to get some recognition when you do work hard. That was lovely."
Keeping true to a fair slice of her fanbase, Shake This Town has its share of songs for the motoring enthusiast.
"When that album came out [Sudden Change In Weather] I had no idea that the ute fraternity was as massive as it was," Denham said.
"I didn't even think that Chick Ute was going to be a single. I just thought, oh yeah, it's a nice track about a girl. But it went bananas.
"So Garth was like, well Jayne you've basically put yourself on the country music map because you wrote those songs, you need to come back and make sure that the fans you've got because of those songs are happy. You better have a ute song and you better have a truck song."
Answering the call, Denham came up with the girl power inspired Trucker Chicks, the cool Road Train Fever, and the zany Feral Kev And General Leeroy - both of whom are real characters.
"Its about a guy who lives in Emu Plains [Feral Kev] who is a fair dinkum ute guy who drag races a guy from Newcastle called General Leeroy and they're always neck and neck," Denham said.
To Denham, the story is an essential ingredient of every good song.
"I think its great that people can write about heartbreak, but for people like me and where I'm at in my life - I'm married and I'm not 15 - and being a hairdesser, I am attracted to people who have a great story.
"I'm fascinated by really different, fun people. The people that I'm meeting doing this type of stuff (going to truck shows and ute shows), are just hilarious. I actually really love these types of people.
"They're just real Australian people who are passionate, whether it be about their utes or their trucks. You don't usually find me writing a song about myself because I find these people so much more fascinating than me."
Denham said that she felt privileged to work with Porter, who approached to produce after hearing the debut.
"Someone who has a hit factor like he has was able to draw the best of me out of me."
Just like her material, Denham's hopes for the new release, and her future for that matter, are extremely grounded.
"I definitely would like to do very well here in Australia," she said. "If it filters overseas like Chick Ute did for me that's great, but I'd rather put all my energy into here, because that's who I'm writing about.
"If I could have all of Australia go, yeah we think you're cool, we like your stuff, I'd die happy."
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