With the rise of the Taylor Swift juggernaut, country music artists are becoming a more prevalent fixture on our television screens and radio airwaves of late. With a ten-year track record in the biz; Sara Storer is no stranger to the industry.
Ask Storer about her plans for the next ten years and she will answer with the same humble honesty you hear in her music.
“I really hope that I’ll be around. The country music audience are such a loyal and lovely crowd of people…it’s more about the music and the realness of people.”
Storer has just released a ‘best of’ album named Calling Me Home which sees her part ways with producer Garth Porter and set to work with Matt Fell. But according to Storer the reason for the shift is simply for a change.
“I think after three albums I think I needed a change, a breath of fresh air…I don’t know how long down the track I might have another change and get someone else in and try something different. It’s such a healthy thing to do and it stops you from becoming stale and getting stuck.”
Storer’s passion to stay in the game is clearly evident. She’s made four albums, collaborated and toured with fistfuls of artists and has an unbeaten record of seven Golden Guitars from the CMA’s in 2004. When asked if she felt any pressure to match her record, she drily responded:
“It’s a record and one day if someone comes and knocks me off the top, I may let down their tyres secretly in the car park…but if they do something like that well good on em’, they must have a fantastic album.”
Storer has recorded duets with some of Australia’s most prized musicians including Paul Kelly and Josh Cunningham (from The Waifs) but her favourite partnership is a lot closer to home.
“I love writing with my brother because I can let my guard down and be myself; and he can be himself. We have a lot of fun and laugh at lines that are a bit corny without feeling the pressure.”
The ‘best of’ collection also boasts five new tracks, written with the same method she has always used. Storer is not one to sit on her back porch and watch the sun set before writing about it; she is known for her road trips that lead to hit singles on the country music charts.
“I’ve really got to see pictures to be honest, see them with my own eyes, hear things and feel it, because if I don’t the song doesn’t end up real.
“90% of my songs have come from experience…they are pretty much a diary, a journal of my life.”
From her new tracks, the clear standout is the song Tears, written while watching television.
”I had seen a man who was caught out abusing a child…I was aware of his tears and I couldn’t understand him. Why they were there today and they weren’t there yesterday. Why couldn’t he have done something about it yesterday before he was caught out.”
It’s songs like this one, deep with emotional content, that reinforce Storers solid place in the country music industry and in Australian’s hearts. Her popular favourites show loyalty to old fans, while the emotional new tracks prove she still has much more of her soul to bare, all while maintaining her sweet Aussie twang.
“It’s what musicians do, we sing about things that we are affected by.”
The result of her modesty is one of the most unabashedly honest collection albums to surface this year and after her successful ten years Storer may still have more to give.
“It looks like ten years, there’s a few more wrinkles. It’s gone really quickly and I hope there will be another ten years left in me as well.”
Sara Storer’s album Calling Me Home – The Best Of Sara Storer is out now on ABC music.
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