Game And Trade by Liam Kennedy-Clark – Premiere

Musicians are back on the road and singer-songwriter (as well as music director, multi-instrumentalist, audio engineer, session musician and producer), Liam Kennedy-Clark is keen to play the Game and Trade, his new single. Countrytown has your first listen at the track ahead of its official release tomorrow as well as the accompanying music video in this exclusive premiere. It's our Song of the Day!

Co-written with Queensland songwriter Kelly Cork, Liam was inspired to write Game and Trade by his life in music, after being offered numerous internships and apprenticeships during high school.

“In hindsight, it would have been clever to say yes – when I go home (to New Zealand), people constantly ask if I’ve got a real job yet,” Liam says. “But I love music and I wouldn’t trade anything. It’s fun, and if you can make it work, it’s a hard slog. For instance, last year, I did a gig out at Winton, drove there and back, because that’s what we’ve got to do and now I just want to get this song out there and get back out there and do my own thing with my own band.”

Being two-and-a-half years since his last single, with two of those spent on-and-off in COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions, Liam, and his supporters, are ready for new music.

Liam adds, “I produced this single, and I’ve had parts going down on it for about a year and been slowly building it up and I wanted to aim this single, and the upcoming album, at a Jackson Brown meets the Little River Band sound. The aim of the new music is to do it all without electric guitar.”

Bringing their musical A-games to this recording are Michael Carpenter, Rod McCormack, Lyn Bowtell on backing vocals, Mike Johnson from Nashville on pedal steel, Ross Irwin arranged from The Cat Empire arranging the horns, and Gabi Louise on strings.

The music video was shot by Jeremy Minett from Eyes + Ears Creative, using the beautiful scenery in Maitland and surroundings, including Largs, New South Wales.

Born in Ashburton, New Zealand, his love of music started young during long car rides with his grandparents. Although not from an overly musical family, he soon started performing at local theatre companies. School musicals followed, before learning the trumpet and piano at eight-years-old and taking up guitar two years later. He later also self-taught himself to play the mandolin, banjo, organ, piano accordion, harmonica, ukulele, dobro and drums.

He began performing at local country music clubs at ten-years-old, and paid gigs followed in his early teens. In 2013, he made the Top 24 on New Zealand X-Factor, which led to his crowd-funded debut album, The Road Out. He later released the EP Better Times.

Liam left high school and moved to Australia at the age of 17, where it didn't take long before he became an established professional musician, now sharing stages with the likes of Lee Kernaghan, The Wolfe Brothers, Adam Harvey, Beccy Cole, The Bushwackers, and more. In 2015, he also become the youngest CMAA Academy mentor, where he continues to teach, and share his knowledge and insights about the music industry. 

Amongst all of this, Liam focuses on his solo career as a singer-songwriter. In 2017, he released the EP, Travelling Lines, featuring five tracks, including the lead single Smile Like That.

Finding new ways to express himself musically, both technically and artistically, this inclination for the creative pen is demonstrated in Liam's latest album, Another Habit. More recently, he released the covers album From Another Paper and Pen, and received his first Golden Guitar nomination for ‘Instrumental Of The Year’ for Wicker Suite with Gabi Blissett.

Liam will take to the road with Lyn Bowtell this year, opening for her Wiser tour and playing in her band.

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To keep up to date with Liam Kennedy-Clark, follow him on Facebook here.