Steve Wallis, Katie Brooke & Emma Bosworth: The 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 9pm on ABC Country, showing the health of Aussie country music across all its sub-genres. Here are four 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.

Steve Wallis – What It Takes

Written in Berlin and recorded in England, Australia’s Steve Wallis’ new single What it Takes is a headlong rush of leaping acoustic guitars, wild harmonica and incendiary Dylan-esque prose. Beguiling turns of phrase ricochet off one another to paint a picture – at once bitter, funny, hopeful and cynical – of what it takes to be a folk singer in 2023.

Katie Brooke – Too Far Down

Born and bred on a cattle property, Katie Brooke has a penchant for western flair. She continues to live on the land to this day, believing it’s a fundamental part of staying genuine to who she is as a country artist. The opening lines of Too Far Down eloquently summarise the song, and its message of staying true to oneself is embossed cleverly onto a metaphor of alluring waters.

Emma Bosworth & The Meeting Seasons – Eggs On Toast

Eggs On Toast is much more than just a song, it's a profound musical odyssey that delves into a spectrum of emotions and themes. Emma Bosworth, a virtuoso storyteller, conceived this song as part of the I HEART SONGWRITING challenge in 2020, where the theme revolved around breakfast and participants were tasked with inventing a fictional word. Emma ingeniously coined the term tomdalificent, which beautifully encapsulates the sensation of a contented stomach.

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