Jackson Dean, Melanie Dyer & More Join Monday’s KIX Live

On Monday, April 24 at 7pm, KIX Live will feature an interview with Jackson Dean, plus performances from Felicity Urquhart and Josh Cunningham, Melanie Dyer, Taylor Moss, current 'Centre Stage' artist Bryce Sainty, Angus Gill and Route 33.

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Jackson Dean

Fast rising country singer-songwriter, Jackson Dean left his hometown of Odenton, Maryland at age 18 to begin songwriting, which led to collaborations with Casey Beathard and Luke Dick.

He signed to Big Machine Records in 2021 and released his self-titled EP featuring his debut single Wings. His second single Don’t Come Lookin’ from his debut album Greenbroke followed the following year, becoming a top 10 single on American country radio with over 17 million Spotify streams thanks to it being featured on the TV series, Yellowstone.

He has since released the 2022 EP Don’t Come Lookin’ (Live) and album Live At The Ryman (2023). Known for his old school, gritty style of country music, the daring and carefree singer-songwriter has joined bills with the likes of Toby Keith, Miranda Lambert, Brantley Gilbert, Kane Brown, Brooks & Dunn, Jake Owen, and Brothers Osborne.

Felicity Urquhart and Josh Cunningham

After being invited to join Song Club – a loose collective of musicians whose task is to write a song to a brief within a week – both 13x Golden Guitar-winning country sweetheart Felicity Urquhart and 4x ARIA award-winning Josh Cunningham (The Waifs) found in each other musical and song writing partners, and through the process, they also fell in love. 

In 2021, they released their acclaimed ARIA nominated album, The Song Club, which debuted at #1 on the ARIA Country Albums chart and #10 on the ARIA Album chart. The album has also earned four Golden Guitar nominations, including ‘Alt Country Album of the Year’, ‘Country Music Capital News Group / Duo of the Year’, ‘CMT Video of the Year’ and ‘Toyota Album of the Year’.

They have since released the singles Bogswamp, Something Good and Unsteady (Ever Since You’re Gone). Stopping short of venturing into the gory details, Unsteady winds the clock back to reveal the less than beautiful landscape that the unexpected pairing of Felicity and Josh emerged from.

Melanie Dyer

Melanie Dyer began singing from a young age, before picking up the guitar at 11-years-old and writing and performing her own music from then on. Melanie has since played large festivals like CMC Rocks, NQ’s Rock’N Country, Tamworth Country Music Festival and more, and has opened for artists like The McClymonts, Adam Eckersley & Brooke McClymont, James Reyne and Diesel.

She released her debut EP, Lifetime, in 2015. In 2017, Melanie released her debut album, Fresh, with the title track (co-written in Nashville with Morgan Evans) an established #1 hit on the Australian Official Country Hot 50 Chart for 5 consecutive weeks and the accompanying video #1 on CMC Australia. Follow up single, Save My Cents, also shot to the top of both radio and CMC charts and was a Top 10 finalist in the International Song Writing Competition in 2018.

Her 2019 breakout single, Memphis T-Shirt, was added to playlists on HIT and Nova Networks and over 100 regional stations around Australia, enjoying 6 weeks at #1 on the Countrytown Hot 50 Country Airplay Chart and #1 on CMC. The song went on to receive an APRA nomination for ‘The Most Performed Country Work’ in 2021. 2022 saw her win the ‘APRA AMCOS Professional Development Award’ and release her second album, Between You & Me.

Taylor Moss

2023 is shaping up to be a special one for Taylor Moss, with her consecutive top 10 Airplay hits across several releases securing her a Golden Guitar nomination for ‘New Talent Of The Year’ in January. She also received an APRA Award nomination for ‘Most Performed Country Work’ for her #1 Airplay hit, Get It Girl and her first Queensland Music Award nomination in the ‘Country’ category for her additional airplay triumph, What Am I Gonna Do? which reached #5 on the charts.

Born in Ulladulla NSW, Taylor started entering local talent contests as a child. She made her first recording at age 15 in AC/DC’s Sydney studio. A guitar gifted from her late uncle guided her towards songs with stories at their epicentre, performed by musicians with heart.

After moving to Noosa QLD, she got her break at Urban Country Music Festival 2012, winning their talent quest and made finalist at Tamworth’s prestigious 2015 Toyota Star Maker competition. Supports with Jimmy Barnes followed along with further shows at Tamworth and Gympie Muster.

Bryce Sainty

At around 18-years-old, Bryce Sainty won a local singing competition on a local country music radio station and part of his prize was to record a single with Rod McCormack. That single, Message In A Bottle, was picked up by radio and peaked at #8 on iTunes – and he has since never looked back.

Following the success of his 2018 breakout single, Never Going Back as well as Eleven Eleven, co-written with Morgan Evans, Sainty performed at the Tamworth Country Music Festival on the main stage as part of the huge 'Live and Loud' concert. The CMAA Academy of Country Music graduate has performed at some of Nashville’s most iconic venues including The Bluebird Cafe and The Listening Room Café and with some of Australia’s biggest artists including The Wolfe Brothers, Tim Freedman (The Whitlams) and Andrew Farriss (INXS).

In 2022, he released his EP, Hometown, which accumulated over 3 million streams and features the single This Summer’s The One, which ranked #63 on our biggest songs of the year chart, after peaking at #4 on the Countrytown Hot 50 Country Airplay Chart. 

Angus Gill 

Angus Gill is a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, comedian, engineer, and producer. After receiving a scholarship to attend the CMAA Academy of Country Music in 2012, Angus released his debut EP, Livewire in 2014. His self-produced debut album, Nomad followed in 2017. That same year he was named a grand finalist in the 2017 Toyota Star Maker competition.

In 2019, Angus released his second studio album, Welcome To My Heart. That same year, he collaborated with the members of Paul Kelly’s band, dubbed Seasons of Change, on the critically acclaimed album, 3 Minute Movies. In 2022, he released the deluxe edition of his 2021 bluegrass inspired album, The Scrapbook, as well as his festive EP, The Gilly Season. His second album project as Angus Gill & Seasons Of Change is set to drop later this year, featuring the single departure & arrival.

Additionally, Angus has toured nationally and internationally several times, becoming one of the youngest Australians to perform on the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee in 2019, as a guest of Nashville TV star Charles Esten. He has supported US country music superstar Kris Kristofferson, as well as the biggest names in the Australian music industry, including The Black Sorrows, Rick Price, Lee Kernaghan, Troy Cassar-Daley, Sara Storer, Beccy Cole, James Blundell and others.

Route 33

Growing up in Kingaroy, and on the Sunshine Coast, the Route 33 duo – Jock and Trent – met through the sporting field over a decade ago. Renowned for their action-packed performances, they’ve become a fan-favourite and are always in hot demand on the festival circuit. Since their first single release in November 2016, Route 33 have been featured on line-ups including CMC Rocks, Tamworth CMF, Gympie Music Muster and Groundwater Country Music Festival.

Following their debut album, The Switch, they released Coro Drive in 2019. The album proved to be an outstanding collection of modern country-pop tracks, drawing influence from artists and genres that the pair grew up on. The album raised the bar on the ARIA Australian Country Album Chart, seeing the band achieve a #1 chart position on release. The record attracted heavyweight industry names like Sarah McLeod (The Superjesus) for a duet, Mark Williams (Dragon) on backing vocals as well as musicians from Reba McEntire and Rascal Flatts bands rounding out an impressive release.

They have since released a bunch of singles including Quarter Past You, Troublemaker, Free, Right Girl Wrong Time and the current one – Simple Things with Brooke Schubert.