Felicity Urquhart & Josh Cunningham, Shea Fisher, Colin Buchanan: Highlights From This Week’s 'Grass Roots'

Every week, ABC Country's Grass Roots program shines a light on the best independently released Australian country content. Selected from the hundreds of new tracks submitted, the one-hour program is now available on demand as well as premiering each Monday at 9 pm on ABC Country, showing the health of Aussie country music across all its sub-genres. Here are three of this week's tracks you should have on your radar. 

Head here to have a listen to this week’s full episode of Grass Roots.

Felicity Urquhart & Josh Cunningham - Joy Roller

It’s hard not to feel happy listening to Felicity Urquhart and Josh Cunningham songs in general, but it’s nearly impossible not to be ecstatic with their latest song, Joy Roller.

On their new single, the Golden Guitar Award-winning and ARIA-nominated duo found inspiration in the Joyrolla shopping cart, with Urquhart ready to impart joy to listeners, just like that shopping cart. Immediately after taking the idea to Cunningham, he came up with the perfect riff for the song.

With collaborators Matt Fell and Josh Schuberth on board, the pair embraced vintage-inspired rock and country as they explored new musical territory. She said of the song:

“We wanted the recording of Joy Roller to be pure irresistible fun (just as writing it had been) so we invited our great mates Matt and Josh in on it - not just because they are great musicians, but because they are precisely the right people to bring such a rollicking, romping ode to joy to life.

Shea Fisher - Take Me Back To Texas 

On her tender new single, Take Me Back To Texas, Shea Fisher made a very welcome return to music after five years away.

Highlighting her love for the relaxing, country-inspired lifestyle, Take Me Back To Texas was co-written by Karyn Rochelle (Garth Brooks’ longtime harmony singer) and Jessie Jo Dillon (Morgan Wallen, Jelly Roll, Megan Moroney, Post Malone), a Grammy Award-winning songwriter.

This is the first taste of Fisher’s new music post-comeback. The Australian hitmaker is here to remind all women in music that motherhood and age aren’t hurdles to success.

Fisher said of her rewarding, unexpected comeback, “A year ago, I might’ve thought it was crazy to go on this whirlwind ride again. But I now see that if you have a passion, it doesn’t matter how old you are – you just have to make it happen.” 

Colin Buchanan - River Song

Speaking of comebacks, Colin Buchanan made his return to country music after a decade last year with the album Memory Town. The latest single, River Song, is an additional song released as a bonus Golden Guitar edition of his album.

The sole song to feature a co-writer on the album, Buchanan teamed up with his longtime musical collaborator, James Gillard, to come up with a song about the power of music to set us free.

“I’ve never stopped writing songs for my own projects, I just hadn’t got around to recording them,” Buchanan explained, adding that Memory Town acted as a re-introduction of his country artistry. The album hit #1 on the Australian Country ARIA Album Chart, while What I Love About Country and The Bush Comes Back were #1 singles.

Buchanan went on to win this year’s Golden Guitar Bush Ballad of the Year, where he received a personal congratulations from country music icon John Williamson.

“How do you celebrate that sort of success?” he continued. “Well, if you’re a songwriter, the best you can do is give them a little bit more from where all that came from!”

You can listen to the latest full episode of ABC Country’s Grass Roots here.