Melanie Dyer ProfileHailing from a sheep and cropping farm near Inverell to Nashville’s recording studios, rising country star Melanie Dyer knows a few things about planting seeds, growing roots, and embracing the dirt that comes with it all.
Dyer’s new album Daisies From Dirt is the latest blooming flower both in her life and in the country charts, a celebration of overcoming obstacles – from the vast distances between recording studios to the opinions of strangers.
The latter could be said to have inspired opening single Country Enough, an ode to the inclusiveness of the country genre - something Dyer defines more as a feeling than a look.
“I sing country music, but I don’t always present ‘country’," she admits, before doubling down with a laugh. "I don’t wear Wranglers all the time or a cowboy hat – I never wear a cowboy hat."
A statement piece as much as a song, Country Enough takes aim at the unofficial gatekeepers of a genre that has welcomed an increasingly diverse audience over the past decade.
Amidst cultural conversations about what does and doesn’t constitute “country”, Dyer loves watching her audiences try on the genre in the most literal sense, arriving in boots and tassels to rock out amongst the dust.
“I was the only one that liked country music in my high school, back when it wasn’t very cool,” she says. “But now they’re finally catching on. We’re all welcome. Come on board.”
It’s a fitting introduction to Daisies from Dirt, an album that finds Dyer embracing both her musical identity and the experiences that have shaped her, rather than trying to fit neatly within a countrified box.
Getting Back To Her Roots
After a decade of travelling back and forth to Nashville, building connections and foundations, Dyer moved there permanently about 18 months ago.
Jet lag has been a small price to pay for the thrill of late-night gigs and early-morning radio interviews on the way to living the country dream in the US, but it hasn’t shifted the unmistakably Australian origins of her album.
“Daisies From Dirt is about the people or the place that raised me,” Dyer says – a truth that became even more pertinent when she learned of the decision to sell the family farm while producing the album.
For an artist so connected to her family home land, the sale represented more than a change of address – it was a reshaping of identity as the memories, relationships and family history tied to the farm shifted.
Tracks like Three Daughters and Take It From Me became experiential touchstones, as well as opportunities for Dyer to delve into her capacity for emotional depth and expression, exploring themes that are strong in the farming community and felt more broadly across the world.
Being the youngest of three daughters, Dyer once worried that her father would have preferred a son who could eventually take over the farm – only years later, that insecurity has given way to an ever-stronger father-daughter relationship.
“If you listen to the song, it’s obvious that he’s the best girl dad,” she laughs.
“I think just the biggest challenge was writing from such a raw place, which I don’t think I’d done before – digging that deep into my personal life.”
That honesty is part of what makes Daisies From Dirt feel like a significant moment in Dyer’s career.
“I feel like this one, for the first time, I’ve really stepped into my own skin,” she says. “I’m really acknowledging my roots, and I think I’m a little more seasoned. I’ve learned a few things over the last 15 or so years.”
A Little Dirt, A Lot Of Heart
The album’s title track, Daisies From Dirt, brings another perspective to the record, this time through a collaboration with Australian pop outfit Sheppard that began a few years ago in Nashville.
Written about the trials, tribulations, and ultimate satisfaction in building something from the ground up, the song is sure to strike a chord with anyone who longs to step into Dyer’s cowboy boots.
“It’s the music industry in a nutshell,” she says. “You’re growing on your own timeline, and it’s not always your season.”
Even beyond bonding over the shared experience of industry hard yards, Sheppard’s pop production sensibilities and instrumental flair complement Dyer’s storytelling style.
It all came together under producer and drummer Grady Saxman, who took just one day to lay down the bulk of nine tracks in a studio just outside of Nashville.
On a day that could have felt rushed and pressured, the combination of a clear vision and an intuitive production made all the difference.
“These players are just so amazing at what they do,” she says. “We did each song maybe four times, but we’d usually get the core of it in the first two takes – the other two are just experimental.”
In other words, everything about the album is perfectly real – everything except the desert in the cover image.
“Everything in the album is real, but we didn’t have time to get out to the Australian red outback, so we had a makeshift dirt pile.”
You’d never know.
Keeping It In The Family
The personal nature of the album has also spilled over into its accompanying music videos, with Dyer’s parents showing up for her career in the most literal sense.
For Mama Knows Best, Dyer took on the role of makeup artist for her mum, who’s usually much more comfortable behind the scenes.
“It was the most special thing I’ve ever done with my mum, and we’ve got that forever,” she says.
In a similar way, Golden Girl features Dyer’s father in a film clip about her parents’ first meeting at a service station – a true full-circle moment at the pinnacle of this origin story.
“I never thought this would happen,” Dyer says. “I never thought I’d write a song and feature my mum and dad in the music video.”
Not every track on Daisies From Dirt is quite so sentimental, though. Dyer describes the album as having plenty of “light and shade”, with a couple of curveballs thrown in for good measure.
“There's two random songs on the album that are kind of about loser ex-boyfriends, so I like to call that might be the dirt side of the album,” Dyer laughs.
Equal parts heartfelt and humorous, Daisies From Dirt seeds nostalgia for the past with irreverence and looks to the future with a bold assurance.
From Nashville To Home
After plenty of time away, taking on a string of international performances, Dyer couldn’t be more excited to bring her songs back home to Australia – to her day-one fans as well as the new arrivals.
That homecoming comes after a busy run of international performances, including her third appearance at CMA Fest where she made her debut on the Chevy Vibe stage, and a trip to South By Southwest in Texas as one of the only Aussie artists on the bill.
“SXSW was so cool. It was the first time I'd been to Texas, and it was just a really crazy few days of music and learning and seeing different genres come together,” she says.
Dyer also recently made her stadium debut, singing the national anthem at Nationals Park, and performed both the Australian and American anthems at the Australian Embassy in Washington.
It’s all about taking the sounds and stories of home into new spaces, without losing sight of where they came from.
With Daisies From Dirt, Dyer is bringing those experiences together in a live show that promises a little bit of everything.
“We’ll be laughing at some of the ex-boyfriend songs and line dancing to the country stuff – especially tracks like Whiplash and Twinkle – but also you might have a little bit of a cry and hug your mum and dad because, yeah, there's some sentimental stuff in there too.”
Since moving to Nashville, she’s been getting more practice at the local honky-tonks, where two-stepping and line dancing are as popular as breathing – but some moves are still under construction.
“I might stick to singing,” she laughs.
For now, Country Enough is the perfect song to kick off the set, setting the tone for a record that refuses to be boxed in or drowned out.
There’s no cookie cutter in Melanie Dyer’s vision of country, a genre shaped by the perfectly individual and universal experiences of life, love, and loss – just a journey that began with the red dirt and grew into something beautifully imperfect.
For lovers of country, emotive lyricism and truly wholesome stories, it’s a musical journey well worth the price of admission.
Melanie Dyer's Daisies From Dirt is out now.
