The Stetson Family - The Stars, If You Look Closely (2024)

This is an unrelated Australian “musical family” absorbed in Americana-Bluegrass but why not? Australia has gone through many formidable years as America has & the country adopted similar music through its wonderful storytelling songs.

I’m not surprised that a Down Under group plays this music. B.B. King during an interview once said in so many words that once you put the music out there – it’s out there for anyone to interpret. If an Italian from Milan, Italy such as veteran rocker Eugenio Finardi can sing the blues effectively on his English-lyric “Anima Blues” (in a Tom Waits-like growl) & make a stab for Texas charts (which he did) then an Australian pedigree like The Stetsons need checking out.

I have heard many great Australians in my career (Daryl Braithwaite, Keith Urban, Cold Chisel, Midnight Oil & Colin Hay among many others). So here are 11 original sparklers from the Stetson Family’s 4th CD recorded pristinely in Melbourne. I assume instinctively that a family like the legendary Carter Family would appreciate what this group does together. Their music on The Stars, If You Look Closely was produced by Ern Rose & Nadine Budge (lead vocal/rhythm & resonator guitars).

Coming from such a distance as Australia may be the reason for its rural authenticity & clarity. They also emit a style similar to America’s Cox Family that isn’t artificially sweetened by requiring a hit, checking off the boxes for possible chart success & showboating. This music will be a success in the hearts & ears of people who understand the ancestry of such music. Lead vocalist Nadine sometimes lets loose with gutsy Reba McEntire intonation & tone, a marvelous vocalist.

Young players will more easily embrace these arrangements than rummage through old 78 rpm records that may sound too antiquated for their ears. But they’re picking up on bluegrass, country, folk & Americana. This gift is a lesson on one CD. They’re rich songs. Rich as a well-made jug of Kentucky moonshine. And bootleggers are artists – I’ve tasted it. You could drive a truck on that instead of gasoline. Typical of what an Australian would do.

Australian bluegrass band The Stetson Family have an excellent new single, ‘Dollar In My Hand’. The band’s lead singer, Nadine Budge, delivers a powerful vocal with an edge and a touch of grit. Her voice is swept along by flowing musical currents underpinned by John Bartholomeusz’s rhythmic strum and warm double bass from Luke Richardson. Flourishes of fiddle from Greg Field and banjo from Colin Swan add absorbing layers and the result is an upbeat, atmospheric bluegrass song.

Budge says of the song: “‘Dollar’ draws on many aspects of lives lived with greed and a sense that you always have to have more and be ahead of the pack or you’ll get ‘left behind’. These days we see so many people sell their souls to get ahead. Be careful what you wish for!”

The moody video was filmed by the Yarra River in Melbourne by Zoe Bartholomeusz, and produced and directed by Budge. She says of the video: “The ‘Dollar In My Hand’ video is shot in black and white in an Australian bush setting at night with lights shining on the band, trees and trails to give shadow and light, a dynamic that offers a darkness with the intention to express the greed and desperation in the content of the song.”