Greg Storer

GREG STORER - BACKWATER
Released 18th June 2010

From the Carters to the Cashes and the Chambers – and many others whose surname
doesn’t begin with ‘C’ – it’s a roots music tradition to keep things in the family.

While it’s been a long time coming, Greg Storer has finally, quietly joined his award-winning sister Sara in the singer/songwriter spotlight. And his debut album, ‘Backwater’, has all the right people
talking.

They’re saying the right things, too. ‘With an accent that’s one part Texas and two parts Townsville, Storer regales us with the hard earned wit and wisdom that comes from a life on the land,’ Kim Cheshire wrote of the album. ‘He’s obviously no novice when it comes to expressing himself lyrically and musically.’

And to think that Backwater began to take shape as a lark, fuelled by a couple of stubbies and a simple rhyme. ‘I rhymed “tiger” with “Steiger” and away I went,’ laughs Greg, a father of four, who runs a family property in rural NSW.

Sister Sara joins in on that song, ‘when I was a Boy’ (winner of Video Clip of the Year Country Music Awards 2010), and their heartfelt duet makes a lot of sense – after all, the Storers share more than a few memories of growing up together on the Murray. ‘This song is about childhood dreams,’ says Greg. ‘Growing up and learning a few tricks from loving parents, like how to drive a tractor, a header, a loader and a dozer, while listening to the footy.’

The highlights of Backwater, like its moods, are many and varied. During ‘Lazy river’ Greg dreams of easier times, where he can have a lie in and ‘sleep off a dozen cans’, while a dreamy backwater melody rolls on at his back.

But the world and its demands is never too far away. ‘In Harmony’ finds Greg admitting that ‘the road’s been pretty bad/the relationships I’ve had/seem to all go up in flames’. Yet he soldiers on, smile intact.

Greg keeps good company throughout Backwater with a musical cast that features Rod and Jeff McCormack, who’ve played alongside just about every country music talent of the past 20 years. Fiddler Mick Albeck helps out, as does Sam Hawksley and Matt Fell with the latter in charge of production duties.

‘These are people I’ve been watching at Tamworth for years,’ Greg says with no small amount of awe.
Yet Australia’s answer to the Nashville Cats stay in the background, allowing Storer’s sand-and-
gravel voice and all-too-real stories to remain front and centre.

‘These are songs that I was singing at home, for friends at barbecues,’ says Greg. ‘My wife said I should record them, I wasn’t too keen, but she persisted. We took out a bank loan but it’s been
great fun. I’m glad I’ve done it.’

Jeff Apter (author of Fortunate Son: The Unlikely rise of keith Urban & ‘together alone: The Story of the Finn Brothers’).