Kane Vincent, Tori Darke, Pete Denahy: Highlights From This Week’s ‘Grass Roots’

Every week, ABC Country’s Grass Roots program shines a light on the best independently released country music. 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.

Kane Vincent - Spotfires

Kane Vincent is a storyteller. With his latest song, Spotfires, he takes listeners on a journey to enjoy a road trip, but with a twist.

With his husky voice in the spotlight, along with banjo and acoustic guitar, Vincent shares personal recollections about the support of loved ones, who remain by your side while life can feel like it’s falling apart.

Spotfires was co-written by Vincent during a Carter & Carter songwriting retreat with Lachlan Bryan, Andrew Hume and Charlie Brown. Brown also plays harmonica on the song, Ashleigh Dallas is on banjo, Mik McCartin on drums, and Liam Kennedy Clark plays the remaining instruments and produced the track.

Vincent recalled, “After my marriage breakup, I was in a pretty dark place. A really good mate of mine rang me and said, ‘We need to go to Tamworth.’ I didn’t know what I was going to do, but I knew I needed to shake things up. We made the plans and booked a bunch of gigs.

“I was really raw and didn’t even know if I wanted to do music anymore,” he continued. “We started with a men’s group, four men together. We were put together and we wrote the song.”

Tori Darke - My Boots Made Me Do It

My Boots Made Me Do It is an energetic, attitude-filled banger from Australian singer-songwriter Tori Darke. In the epic sing-along number, she summons a 90s-era country-rock performance of Shania Twain and reflects on how a stunning pair of boots can get a woman into some trouble.

The new single from Darke follows the release of her recent collaboration with Jay Santilli, Trouble. Keeping up the playful, sassy vibe, Darke joined forces with production team MSquared and co-writers Max Jackson and Gavin Carfoot for yet another exciting single.

Darke said of her new single, “I really wanted to capture that 90’s Shania vibe and working with MSquared again, they really saw the vision I had and brought this song to life. Recording with MSquared is always an amazing, fun time. The boys are so much fun to work with, and this song was no different.”

Pete Denahy - The Last Time I Saw Slim

In one of the most emotionally resonant songs we’ve heard in recent times, Pete Denahy pays tribute to Australian country icon Slim Dusty.

The mid-tempo, acoustic-based song, The Last Time I Saw Slim, finds Denahy recounting his first memory of Slim Dusty, as well as his last. He said, “The last thing Slim said to me – ‘I’ll see you on the road, mate’. I never thought to put it in a song, but it just popped into my head one day and I gave it a go.”

He added, “I don’t think I’ve ever had to stop so many times while writing a song. It really got to me. But when people come up to you and say they connected with it, that’s what matters.

Making the song even more personal, Denahy teamed up with Slim’s Travelling Country Band to lend extra heart to the track. He added, “Because it’s TCB – they just got it spot on.”

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