Camille and Stuie

It is good to be home, but boy did we have a great time in USA. Ourfirst stop was Telluride Colorado where we played at an AmericanaFestival as part of a VIP night along with our good buddy Audrey Auld.Telluride - what a place. It takes your breath away, literally.Stunning views like something out of a movie, seriously! The altitudewas something new for us, and at times was a little hard to breathe,headaches etc, but nothing an oxygen can side of stage couldn't fix inbetween songs!  

From there we flew to California with Audrey and were fortunate toopen three of her shows around the area. We had a ball, and we got tomeet some lovely folk who came to the shows.  
Our final stop was Nashville, Tennesee. We got off the plane @ 6.30pmand had tickets for a 9pm show of one of our all time favourite bands"The Time Jumpers". What a night that turned out to be.  
In between getting off the plane and going to the gig, we shot to ouraccommodation to freshen up and there was a parcel waiting for Stuiefrom Tommy Emmanuel. There were two beautiful books from him, a lovelyhand-written note and a very special package. It had a set of usedguitar strings. These were the last set of strings that Chet Atkinshad on his guitar and when Tommy restrung it for him (back in 2000) hesaved them for Stuie. We were both very emotional and felt verypriviledged. The fact that these came from two of the greatest guitarplayers in the world and ended up in Stuie's hands, it was a veryspecial moment. These are the sorts of things that make all the hardwork you put in to playing an instrument so worthwhile! These stringsare going to be proudly displayed on the wall in our studio, alongwith a thumb pick Chet Atkins once used, that was given to Stuie 10years ago by a well known Nashville musician Gregg Galbraith.  

The Time Jumpers gig was fantastic, we were still on a high fromStuie's gift from Tommy, and then to turn up and see Vince Gillplaying in the band that night, well it couldn't get much better! TroyCassar-Daley was also in town songwriting, so we all sat together forthe show.  
We were in celebration mode and in the middle of Camille scoffingdown her second round round of chicken wings (whilst enjoying thefabulous music), there was an announcement from Kenny Sears, the bandleader. He said the band had some friends visiting from down under'and looking our way, he asked us to join them on stage for a couple ofnumbers. We looked at each other, stunned but very excited! Vince Gillhanded his guitar to Stuie and went out the front to watch. 

Vince Gill was very complementary after our performance and again at the end of the show when we got photos.  What a night - we could've happily come back home after that!  Here we are pictured with Vince Gill after the show.

What a crazy month January was.  We had family visit from Tasmania, then we headed to QLD to play a run of shows, then it was home for a day to hang with the children before heading off to Tamworth.  Our one day at home proved eventful with Stuie taking the boys fishing and 10 minutes into it, our five year old slipped down a bank, cut his hand open (on an oyster shell) ended up in A & E for five hours getting stitches!  

We had a great festival -  Stuie's Pickers Night was a huge success with some great Pickers and musicians turning up to play including Redd Volkaert, Louie Shelton, Michael Fix, Beccy Cole & Troy Cassar-Daley.  It's always a night full of suprises and this night was no different.   Our album launch was a beautiful intimate gig with an enthusiastic but attentive crowd.  Thanks to those of you who came out to support us.  Camille also got to work in the backing band for the CMAA Awards on the last Saturday which was a thrill for her.

We're back home now, back to school and daycare for the children and back to work for us.  Stuie's in the studio recording a new album for Jeff Brown, a fantastic Bush Balladeer from QLD.  Keep your eyes and ears out for that one.  

We're working on a bunch of things for the new album including a new video clip for the second single which was recorded with 2012 CMAA Video Director of the Year Duncan Toombs.  This should be out in the next month or so.     Next week you can find us at Canterbury Hurlstone Park RSL as part of the Canterbury Country night and we'll be playing songs off the new album.  At the end of the month we'll be playing at Notes, Newtown opening for the Johnny Cash Tribute Show which Stuie is part of with Daniel Thompson.  You can order tickets for that show here:  http://noteslive.net.au/events/the-johnny-cash-80th-birthday-tribute-show-daniel-thompson-is-cash javascript:mctmp(0);

Things Change

Things Change is sitting at Number 33 on the Country Music Channels top 50 clips - we'd love you to keep requesting "Things Change" from their website www.countrymusicchannel.com.au.  It would be great to see it keep climbing the charts!

Big Days & Little Years Release

The New album is out now, available at all major music stores, or online via our website www.camilleandstuie.com.  We had a launch at Tamworth which was fantastic.  Big thanks to our band Geoff Simpson, Doug Gallacher and Garry Steel for making it so special.

Well Christmas is just around the corner, and we only packed the lights away last week! The requests from Santa in our house, is entertaining to say the least. Our four year old came home from kindy last week and told us very forthrightly that "Naughty boys don't get Christmas presents, they get a sack of old potatoes". We're not sure who told him that, but he's been on his best behaviour ever since. This Thursday we leave for Tasmania, Stuie's home state and we are really excited to be playing three shows there at LATROBE, WYNYARD AND ROCKY CAPE. You can see more info re dates etc on the gig column to your right. We'll be showcasing songs off the new album, and we may even have a few pre-release copies available! Tickets are selling fast, so ring the venue for more information. Things Change The latest single is getting airplay on the Country Music Channel - we'd love you to request "Things Change" from their website www.countrymusicchannel.com.au [1]. And if you like, ring your local community radio station and request it too. We've had so much positive feedback about the song, and how it's connected with a lot of people. The message will strike a chord almost anyone. Big Days ">We have put the official release date for the album back a month or two to sometime after Tamworth. So keep your eyes and ears peeled! We have a brand new website up and running - head to WWW.CAMILLEANDSTUIE.COM [2] and let us know what you think. Tamworth Tamworth is not far away and we would love to see you at our main Show on FRIDAY 27TH JANUARY AT WESTS\' DIGGERS. We'll be showcasing the new album and we'll have limited pre-sale copies of the new album available. We're also looking forward to Stuie's annual Pickers Night at "The Pub" - it's set to be huge! Also on Wednesday 25th Jan (2-5pm) @ the Longyard, there is set to be a reunion of the original line up of The Feral Swing Katz featuring Peter Busher. Rumour has it Camille will be showing up to perform a song or two as well! Stuie and Lee Forster will also be launching their "Long Necks font-size: 12px;">We are excited to have been invited to play at the Telluride Americana Music Festival (CO, USA) in July 2012. We will spend time at the festival and a week in Nashville and we're keen to play shows in Nashville if anyone has any contacts. 2012 Caloundra, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Tamworth, Hobart, The Blue Mountains, The Entrance, Telluride (USA), Noumea, Isle of Pines, Norfolk Island are some of the places we'll be heading to next year and hopefully a bunch of other places! Let us know if you've got any great venues that you think we should play at. The more intimate the better. Thanks Thank you so much for your support. We feel blessed and are very grateful that we get to play music for a living. We want to take this opportunity to wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Much love from our family to yours.

Coming Soon ....