Artist of the Week: Lee Kernaghan

CountryTown is proud to announce Australian country music legend, Lee Kernaghan as our Artist Of The Week, following the release of his epic new album Live at the Deni Ute Muster.

The son of country music singer Ray Kernaghan, Lee spent his formative years growing up in the Riverina country of Southern New South Wales. He joined his father to release the album Family Tradition in 1985. Kernaghan’s sister Tania Kernaghan is also a successful country music artist.  

In 1992, he released Boys From The Bush, which became his first number one on the country charts and made him a household name in Australia. The track features on his debut solo album, The Outback Club, which won the ARIA Award for ‘Best Country Album of the Year’. The albums Three Chain Road (1993), 1959 (1995) and Hat Town (1998) followed. All three took home the ‘Album of the Year’ Awards at the Golden Guitar Awards in 1994, 1996, and 1999 respectfully. 1959 was also Kernaghan’s first top ten album, peaking at #9 on the ARIA Chart. 

After The Christmas Album (1998), he released Rules Of The Road (2000), Electric Rodeo (2002), his first greatest hits collection, The Big Ones: Greatest Hits Vol. 1 (2004) and The New Bush (2006). The title track, off his ninth studio album, Spirit of the Bush, peaked at #11 on the ARIA singles chart, becoming Kernaghan’s highest charting single. It also won three awards at the 2008 Golden Guitar Awards. Albums Planet Country (2009), Ultimate Hits (2011), Beautiful Noise (2012) and Driving Home for Christmas (2014) followed. 

During a visit to the Australian War Memorial in 2013, Kernaghan's friend and AWM Director Dr. Brendan Nelson introduced Kernaghan to letters that were written by Australian service men and women during various wars dating back to the landing at Gallipoli during the First World War. The power of the letters affected Kernaghan deeply and the experience at the Australian War Memorial that day was the catalyst that saw these letters put to music in what would become the album, Spirit of the Anzacs in March 2015. Upon release, the album peaked at #1 on the ARIA charts, becoming Kernaghan's first chart topper. It was the highest selling Australian artist album for 2015.

Following the release of his first book, The Boy from the Bush, These Are My Songs, These Are My Stories, in 2015, Kernaghan released his fourteenth and fifteen studio albums in 2017 (The 25th Anniversary Album) and 2019 (Backroad Nation), respectfully. In early 2022, he celebrated his 30th anniversary as an artist with his 3-CD release The Very Best of Lee Kernaghan: Three Decade Of Hits.

Kernaghan has sold over 2 million albums in Australia and had 41 number 1 hits on the Australian Country Charts. He has won 38 Golden Guitar Awards, 4 ARIA Awards and was a recipient of the Outstanding Achievement ARIA Award in 2015. In 2004, Kernaghan received the Order of Australia Medal and in 2008 he was named Australian of the Year. He has also been nominated for ‘Best Vocal Collaboration’ at the 2022 Toyota 50th Golden Guitar Awards, taking place in Tamworth on Wednesday, April 20.

Live at the Deni Ute Muster features 23 tracks and demonstrates exactly why Kernaghan is one of Australia’s most revered artists, showcasing an array of tracks from across his distinguished career, performed live at the Deni Ute Muster in his headline set at the iconic event’s 21st anniversary.

Kernaghan says, “It was an incredible night. Around 20,000 Ute Muster fans had come from all over Australia to be there and the atmosphere on stage and out in the audience was electric.”

The album is also a first for Kernaghan in Apple Music’s Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos technology. Spatial Audio gives artists the opportunity to create immersive audio experiences for their fans with true multidimensional sound and clarity, and is available to all Apple Music subscribers at no additional cost.

Kernaghan is married to fellow artist, Robby X, with whom he shares two sons – Jet and Rock. 

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Keep up to date with Lee Kernaghan on his Facebook page here.