Rosie and The Thorns

Going solo has brought out the edge in Rosie Sutherland.

The Nambucca Heads singer was the only female in the cult surf band The Val Dusty Experiment for many years. Now out on her own her music has taken on a raw folk-rock sound all of its own.

The 37-year-old singer has performed in Port Macquarie before and found audiences a pleasure. "People in Port Macquarie seem really into their music," she said recently. "I loved the gig I played there last time - the audience was so respectful and it was wonderful."

Having spent the first 13 years of her life growing up on a cattle station near the Barrington Tops, 90 minutes southwest of Port Macquarie, Sutherland moved to a little town near Taree for school. Her desire to be a singer was well in place by fourth grade, when she was cast as Maria in a school production of The Sound of Music.

She said she now writes songs about everyday things from problems with friends to children growing up.

For the past five years the family has been living at Nambucca Heads, 90 minutes north of Port Macquarie. Alongside humble goals of wanting to finish her sentences more often, the young musician said she would like to make a difference with her music before her time is up. - Terri Van Dijk, Port Macquarie News - the happenings

Honourable Mention means:

a) The panel could not come to a consensus and therefore had to listen and evaluate your song on up to three different occasions,

Or

b) A number of individuals felt strongly about your song and wanted it to be heard several times before casting their vote.

An Honourable Mentions list is posted on the Winners page:

http://www.wearelistening.org/winners2006r2.php - The Singer-Songwriter Awards 2006 Round II

FOR the past 12 months, Rosie Sutherland has committed to getting out of bed at midnight.
While some might say she needs her head read, the Nambucca Heads singer said the decision was made in the name of music. Regardless, when inspiration hits, Sutherland now is dedicated to capturing it.
"I've been mucking about with music ever since school," the 37-year-old singer said. "Recently I've started writing for a new album and have decided to pen every bit of inspiration, even if it means getting up in the middle of the night."
After spending the first 13 years of her life growing up on a cattle station near the Barrington Tops, 90 minutes south- west of Port Macquarie, Sutherland moved to a little town near Taree for school. Her desire to be a singer was well in place by fourth grade, when she was cast as Maria in a school production of The Sound of Music.

Fast forward some years, and the now mother of three was introduced to her husband, surfer and artist Mark Sutherland. The first project they worked on together was a cult surf band called The Val Dusty Experiment. Sutherland provided a sweet aftertaste of vocals for the outfit's raw folk-rock sound.
"The Val Dusty Experiment is sort of what I did through the nineties," the singer said. "[we'd work on music for the album and then the boys would travel around collecting footage for the surf movie]. During that time, we also started our family." Since the '90s, Sutherland has gone on to work with various musicians. In 2004, she provided the backing vocals for musician Lea Gillard, as well as working on the soundtrack to another surf film, Glass Love in 2006.

For the past five years the family has been living at Nambucca Heads, 90 minutes north of Port Macquarie. On Saturday, Sutherland will make the trip south with fellow musicians Mark Wells and Dan Power for a performance at Live @ The Boathouse.
"I've heard really good things about the Boathouse gigs," she said. "The work I'm doing now is really guitar themed, which I think will work well in the intimate setting of the Maritime Museum. "It will also be a nice change to do some more acoustic style performances because I've been playing with the band a lot recently."

During the coming years, Sutherland is keen to keep doing more of the same. Alongside humble goals of wanting to finish her sentences more often, the young musician said she would like to make a difference with her music before her time is up.
"I would like to make a difference while I am here," Sutherland said. "In my music, I hope that I can describe feelings and experiences in a way that people can relate to, and help people work out what it is they should be encouraging and cherishing in themselves and those around them.
"I write songs about everyday things: sadness, problems with friends and lovers, children growing up."

A night with Rosie: Nambucca Heads singer Rosie Sutherland will be one of a handful of musicians performing at Live @ the Boathouse on Saturday, 26th May 2007
WHO: Rosie Sutherland and others
WHEN: Saturday, doors open 7.30pm for 8pm
WHERE: Live @ The Boathouse, Maritime Museum, opposite Town Beach - Terri Van Dijk, Port Macquarie News

"Crazy Talk" and "Nobody Else" advanced to the final round of judging before Semi-finals announced - out of 14,000 entrants!!

2006 International Song Competition
Folk/Singer-Songwriter category

http://www.songwritingcompetition.com - International Songwriting Competition

One ladies voice cut through so hauntingly beautifully especially on one number called 'Elizabeth'. Just to use a label i suppose I'd call the music folk/rock - simple chords and riffs with intelligent lyrics. Desperately waiting for her debut album...

Read entire post at http://kiwihobo.blogspot.com/2007/03/rosie-sutherland.html - Blog: Boardriding Scooter Trash

"Crazy Talk" and "Big Girl Now" were shortlisted in the Australian Songwriters Association Awards in Folk/Acoustic and Rock/Indie categories respectively! - Australian Songwriters Association Awards 2008

"Crazy Talk" and "Nobody Else" advanced to the final round of judging before Semi-finals announced - out of 14,000 entrants!!

2006 International Song Competition
Folk/Singer-Songwriter category

http://www.songwritingcompetition.com - International Songwriting Competition

"Rosie's song [Crazy Talk] is great. A unique and different sound with powerful, passionate strong words and a flowing rhythm"
Kaz
Presenter, 2BBB Radio
Bellingen - 2BBB Radio

"Rosie's song [Crazy Talk] is great. A unique and different sound with powerful, passionate strong words and a flowing rhythm"
Kaz
Presenter, 2BBB Radio
Bellingen - 2BBB Radio

"Listened to Crazy Talk. Really liked how sparse it is and sure hope your album shapes up that way.
Piss off the clutter I say.
Very U.S. underground if you don't mind my opinion... 1968 meets the better part of early 1990s.
Nice."
Derek Hynd
Musica Surfica project with Richard Tognetti - Derek Hynd, Surfer/Writer & cultural connoisseur

"Listened to Crazy Talk. Really liked how sparse it is and sure hope your album shapes up that way.
Piss off the clutter I say.
Very U.S. underground if you don't mind my opinion... 1968 meets the better part of early 1990s.
Nice."
Derek Hynd
Musica Surfica project with Richard Tognetti - Derek Hynd, Surfer/Writer & cultural connoisseur

Nambucca Heads musician Rosie Sutherland does not consider her music strictly 'country style'. However, the mother of three has been invited to show off her original tunes at the prestigious Toyota Star Maker competition at Tamworth in January next year.

She will be among 20 talents from around Australia invited to take part in the talent contest, which coincides with the Tamworth Country Music Festival. The prize on offer for winning the coveted contest includes a recording contract, gigs around Australia and promotion of a brand new album.

It was the promise of these opportunities which drew Rosie Sutherland to the competition. She submitted two of her original songs, titled 'Sometimes' and 'On My Words'. She said she was pleasantly surprised when she was chosen in the top 20.

While not a country singer in the traditional sense, Rosie said she was drawn to melodic tunes that described her life and emotions. She said she did not think about styles as she wrote her songs, and ended up with a mix of classic song structures and folk tunes, with some free-form music blended in.

"I don't do vocal acrobatics," Rosie said. "I sing in a clear, simple style so people hear the lyrics and take them in." Rosie has been singing, playing guitar and piano, and songwriting most of her life. She began while growing up on a cattle farm in the Hunter. Since then, she has been involved in several bands, including the alternate surf rock band The Val Dusty Experiment and Lea Gillard's Rock Chic.

Now with her own band, Rosie plays with local guitarist Mark Wells, bass player Geoff Dixon, Dan Power on drums and Princess Leah on backing vocals.

However, she will be all on her own when she faces the judges in January at a performance in front of the crowd at the packed Tamworth entertainment centre on January 20. After each talent has performed two songs, the top six performers will be selected. At the end of the night, the next 'Star' is selected.

This will be Rosie's first performance at Tamworth and she said she was excited to be performing her original works there in 2008. "I think most people recognise that country music is not as narrow as it once was – it can be enjoyable, funny and down-to-earth. Country music performers are not afraid to sing about emotions,” she said. The range of emotion is explored in Rosie's first solo album, which is currently in production locally.

Like many musicians today, Rosie has picked up a following through her Myspace website, where people can listen to her songs and find out her performance dates. "Myspace has been great for music. It helps you get in contact with other bands, and organise gigs," she said. "It is great to hear from someone in the Canary Islands who loves your music." Rosie has posted her Toyota Star Maker songs on her Myspace site at http://www.myspace.com/rosiesutherland, for people who would like a sneak peek. - Kirsty O'Leary, Guardian News

Nambucca Heads musician Rosie Sutherland does not consider her music strictly 'country style'. However, the mother of three has been invited to show off her original tunes at the prestigious Toyota Star Maker competition at Tamworth in January next year.

She will be among 20 talents from around Australia invited to take part in the talent contest, which coincides with the Tamworth Country Music Festival. The prize on offer for winning the coveted contest includes a recording contract, gigs around Australia and promotion of a brand new album.

It was the promise of these opportunities which drew Rosie Sutherland to the competition. She submitted two of her original songs, titled 'Sometimes' and 'On My Words'. She said she was pleasantly surprised when she was chosen in the top 20.

While not a country singer in the traditional sense, Rosie said she was drawn to melodic tunes that described her life and emotions. She said she did not think about styles as she wrote her songs, and ended up with a mix of classic song structures and folk tunes, with some free-form music blended in.

"I don't do vocal acrobatics," Rosie said. "I sing in a clear, simple style so people hear the lyrics and take them in." Rosie has been singing, playing guitar and piano, and songwriting most of her life. She began while growing up on a cattle farm in the Hunter. Since then, she has been involved in several bands, including the alternate surf rock band The Val Dusty Experiment and Lea Gillard's Rock Chic.

Now with her own band, Rosie plays with local guitarist Mark Wells, bass player Geoff Dixon, Dan Power on drums and Princess Leah on backing vocals.

However, she will be all on her own when she faces the judges in January at a performance in front of the crowd at the packed Tamworth entertainment centre on January 20. After each talent has performed two songs, the top six performers will be selected. At the end of the night, the next 'Star' is selected.

This will be Rosie's first performance at Tamworth and she said she was excited to be performing her original works there in 2008. "I think most people recognise that country music is not as narrow as it once was – it can be enjoyable, funny and down-to-earth. Country music performers are not afraid to sing about emotions,” she said. The range of emotion is explored in Rosie's first solo album, which is currently in production locally.

Like many musicians today, Rosie has picked up a following through her Myspace website, where people can listen to her songs and find out her performance dates. "Myspace has been great for music. It helps you get in contact with other bands, and organise gigs," she said. "It is great to hear from someone in the Canary Islands who loves your music." Rosie has posted her Toyota Star Maker songs on her Myspace site at http://www.myspace.com/rosiesutherland, for people who would like a sneak peek. - Kirsty O'Leary, Guardian News

Rosie Sutherland is not exactly fresh to music (she first popped up in Andrew Kidman and Mark Sutherland's Val Dusty Experiment in the mid-'90s), but this is her debut album under her own name.

Sutherland is a fan of left of centre American country - stuff like Neil Young and Lucinda Williams - but exudes a strong folk aesthetic in her writing and singing. She also exhibits the invaluable understanding of economy in her singing; delivering just what the song and lyric requires and no more. Unfortunately, the same can't be said of her guitarist to whom on more than one occasion you just want to yell, 'shut up for a second'!

Sutherland's songs are strong enough that they would have shined all the brighter with a more stripped back approach to the recording, a theory that is finally backed up in the closing track, which blends a compelling solo rendition of 'I Get Around' with Sutherland's own 'Sweet Dreams'.
Martin Jones, Editor Rhythms
January 2010 - Martin Jones, Rhythms

Transcript of radio interview
Tuesday, 15/01/2008
Available as mp3 download (songs & interview) at http://www.abc.net.au/rural/content/2007/s2138238.htm

It has launched the careers of country music stars like Keith Urban, Lee Kernaghan, Gina Jeffreys, James Blundell, and Beccy Cole and now Nambucca Heads singer songwriter Rosie Sutherland is hoping it will do the same for her.

The prestigious Star Maker talent quest is now into its 29th year and this weekend 20 finalists from across the country will perform to judges and a live audience with their sights set on a recording contract.

Rosie Sutherland saw the long running country music competition as the perfect opportunity to advance her music career.

"I was writing and trying to record an album and just saw this as a recording contract possibility with an established record label and it's got a high profile so I thought it looks like a good fit for what I needed," she said.

"Some very talented people have come through. I realise they were looking at high calibre artists and people who had the goods so I guess I reckon I have the goods."

As a songwriter and sing she says the greatest part for her as an artist is when her song moves the listener enough to show their appreciation.

"The best thing is when someone really hears a song and says you know that really affected me," she said.

"That's the ultimate thing out of songwriting and performing is for someone, even if it's just one person at a gig, that comes up and says that was a really special song and I can really relate to that. That's the ultimate thing."

Rosie Sutherland has come a long way since performing to farmyard animals with her sister on a cattle station near the Barrington Tops in NSW.

Although she had left the cattle station by the time she was a teenager the isolation of a country lifestyle early on has had an influence on her songs.

"I guess it did because there was a lot of time alone and without a lot of outside influences," she said.

"I would just hear the music that my parents had basically which could be anything from Debussey to Neil Young, a lot of Neil Young, and Muddy Waters."

"My dad was into blues and he played blues harmonica, so I guess in that isolation in a way we had a narrow amount of influences when we were young."

Even when performing in surf cult band The Val Dusty Experiment in the 1990s Rosie Sutherland felt she was throwing her country music touch into the mix.

"Now I find with the country music prospects especially with Star maker I feel like I'm coming at that from a different angle as well, coming from the coast, and not a pure traditional "yeehaa" country sound," she said.

"But a rootsy sound based around stories, lyric based music and traditional song structures, not pushing the envelope on that content, just trying to make nice music people relate to and be honest with it."

This is what she admires about country music star Beccy Cole, that raw honesty.

"The humour that she'll bring into her work and she's not worried about whether she sounds like an angel, she's trying to get the song across so she'll put on funny voices in her song," she said.

"I think it's just being true to the songs that you're writing and singing rather than worrying about how trendy you might look or whether it sounds Top 40."

"I think it's about being true to the songs which, I think, is a real country attribute."

The finals of Star Maker start at 10:30am on Sunday 20th January and the Grand Final will be held from 7:30pm at the Tamworth Regional Entertainment Centre. - Kim Honan, ABC Rural

Transcript of radio interview
Tuesday, 15/01/2008
Available as mp3 download (songs & interview) at http://www.abc.net.au/rural/content/2007/s2138238.htm

It has launched the careers of country music stars like Keith Urban, Lee Kernaghan, Gina Jeffreys, James Blundell, and Beccy Cole and now Nambucca Heads singer songwriter Rosie Sutherland is hoping it will do the same for her.

The prestigious Star Maker talent quest is now into its 29th year and this weekend 20 finalists from across the country will perform to judges and a live audience with their sights set on a recording contract.

Rosie Sutherland saw the long running country music competition as the perfect opportunity to advance her music career.

"I was writing and trying to record an album and just saw this as a recording contract possibility with an established record label and it's got a high profile so I thought it looks like a good fit for what I needed," she said.

"Some very talented people have come through. I realise they were looking at high calibre artists and people who had the goods so I guess I reckon I have the goods."

As a songwriter and sing she says the greatest part for her as an artist is when her song moves the listener enough to show their appreciation.

"The best thing is when someone really hears a song and says you know that really affected me," she said.

"That's the ultimate thing out of songwriting and performing is for someone, even if it's just one person at a gig, that comes up and says that was a really special song and I can really relate to that. That's the ultimate thing."

Rosie Sutherland has come a long way since performing to farmyard animals with her sister on a cattle station near the Barrington Tops in NSW.

Although she had left the cattle station by the time she was a teenager the isolation of a country lifestyle early on has had an influence on her songs.

"I guess it did because there was a lot of time alone and without a lot of outside influences," she said.

"I would just hear the music that my parents had basically which could be anything from Debussey to Neil Young, a lot of Neil Young, and Muddy Waters."

"My dad was into blues and he played blues harmonica, so I guess in that isolation in a way we had a narrow amount of influences when we were young."

Even when performing in surf cult band The Val Dusty Experiment in the 1990s Rosie Sutherland felt she was throwing her country music touch into the mix.

"Now I find with the country music prospects especially with Star maker I feel like I'm coming at that from a different angle as well, coming from the coast, and not a pure traditional "yeehaa" country sound," she said.

"But a rootsy sound based around stories, lyric based music and traditional song structures, not pushing the envelope on that content, just trying to make nice music people relate to and be honest with it."

This is what she admires about country music star Beccy Cole, that raw honesty.

"The humour that she'll bring into her work and she's not worried about whether she sounds like an angel, she's trying to get the song across so she'll put on funny voices in her song," she said.

"I think it's just being true to the songs that you're writing and singing rather than worrying about how trendy you might look or whether it sounds Top 40."

"I think it's about being true to the songs which, I think, is a real country attribute."

The finals of Star Maker start at 10:30am on Sunday 20th January and the Grand Final will be held from 7:30pm at the Tamworth Regional Entertainment Centre. - Kim Honan, ABC Rural