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It’s fair to say that Australian CMA (Golden Guitar) winner Angus Gill is a veteran of the Aussie music scene, having released 5 AU Billboard (ARIA) chart topping studio albums, garnered 13 #1s and 11 Top 10 hit singles on Australian Country Radio and an ARIA Awards nomination. He is also the youngest Australian male solo artist to have ever performed on the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee. He has either collaborated with or had songs recorded by US & Australian music royalty such as Steve Earle, Jim Lauderdale, Buddy Miller, Charles Esten, Eric McCusker (Mondo Rock), Diesel, Anne Kirkpatrick, Melinda Schneider, Graeme Connors, Beccy Cole, Adam Harvey, James Blundell, Pixie Jenkins, Allan Caswell, Billy Miller (The Ferrets), Bill Chambers, TC Cassidy and many more. 

Off the back of a huge 2023, which saw Gill release his fifth studio album Departure & Arrival (as Angus Gill & Seasons of Change), which rocketed to the #1 on both an ARIA & AIR Albums Chart. Gill has now released his first compilation album, titled The Songwriter…So Far.

The 20 track release features Gill’s best, most requested and thought-provoking songs that have established him as a leading young Australian songwriter. The record also features 2 brand new recordings, including a re-vamped version of Gill’s staple song Roadworks, the poignant new Can You Imagine, a taster of Gill’s forthcoming collaboration project with Mondo Rock’s Eric McCusker. 

“I’m incredibly excited for this release. The last few years have been wild for me, juggling songwriting and production work with touring my new album projects. Winning my first Golden Guitar Award was a huge highlight and a full circle moment.” says Gill. 

The Songwriter…So Far is out now via Rivershack Records/MGM. 

Track Listing

1. Roadworks [2023 Version] (Angus Gill/Matt Scullion)
2. Can You Imagine [feat. Eric McCusker] (Angus Gill/Eric McCusker) 
3. Little Green Man (Angus Gill/Billy Miller)
4. Listen to the Country [feat. Kevin Bennett] (Angus Gill/Kevin Bennett)
5. The New Old Me [feat. Steve Earle] (Angus Gill/Allan Caswell)
6. Start Up The Old Dance Again (Angus Gill)
7. Cornerstone (Angus Gill/Matt Scullion)
8. The Scrapbook (Angus Gill/Bill Whyte)
9. Sweet Sister Jasmine (Angus Gill/Thomm Jutz)
10. Starin’ Out the Back of a Car [feat. Kevin Bennett & Amos Morris] (Angus Gill/Kevin Bennett)
11. Whittling Away [feat. Jim Lauderdale] (Angus Gill/Jim Lauderdale)
12. The Apron (Angus Gill/Vickiree Melouney) 
13. In the Cards (Angus Gill/Jerry Salley)
14. Always on the Run (Angus Gill/Thomm Jutz)
15. Departure & Arrival (Angus Gill)
16. Still Missing (Angus Gill/Thomm Jutz)
17. Waiting for the Boss [feat. Anne Kirkpatrick] (Angus Gill/Alan Mackey/Mary O’Brien)
18. Origins (Angus Gill/Lance Carpenter)
19. Forget Me Not (Angus Gill/Bill DiLuigi/Kirsti Manna)
20. Don’t Get Your Tinsel in a Tangle [feat. Melinda Schneider] (Angus Gill/Bill DiLuigi/Kirsti Manna)

Angus releases his fifth studio album Departure & Arrival today, along with the rocking third single You Wouldn’t Steal a Heart, co-written with Billy Miller from The Ferrets.

The album was recorded with Miller and the members of Paul Kelly’s touring band, featuring Peter ‘Lucky’ Luscombe on drums and percussion, Bill McDonald on bass, Dan Kelly on guitar and Cameron Bruce on keyboards. 

Gill’s publisher Philip Mortlock was the catalyst for this project, encouraging him to do a record purely made up of his own lyrics and compositions. Gill wrote six of the nine songs solo and three of them with Miller writing the music, while Gill wrote the lyrics. Among the songs recorded is April Fools, the opening track and a Top 5 radio chart hit for TC Cassidy and Bill Chambers, who originally covered the song. 

Bernard Zuel writes. If you’re looking for two words to describe Departure & Arrival, the new album from Angus Gill, he suggests you start with evolution and experimentation, and work from there.

Now they may seem contradictory: evolution being a slow process of adaptation and change; experimentation being more immediate, more haphazard. And those words might be dangerous when you’ve come up through country music, where things take time to adjust.

But not for Gill, who’s in a hurry. A hurry to make more, a hurry to try more, a hurry to match the artists who are inspiring him.

“I’m categorised as a country artist, and there are still elements of country there, but I didn’t necessarily set out to create a country record,” he says of Departure & Arrival, whose title tells you almost as much about this restless songwriter as the songs within it, which have the punch of rock, the elegant lines of old school pop, some Latin moves in the mould of ‘70s Paul Simon, and experiments like a spoken word track (In iambic pentameter no less.)

“I’ve always been a fan of albums like Harry Nilsson’s Nilsson Schmilsson, Sgt Pepper’s, City to City and these classic albums I’ve been listening to since I’ve become a vinyl hoarder, and I don’t like listening to an album where every track is the same tempo, the same feel, similar subjects.”

A veteran at the age of 25 – apart from the songs he’s written, played on or produced for others, like Diesel and Adam Harvey, he’s been writing and playing since he was nine or 10, releasing music from the age of 14 and been his own producer for five albums since his debut long player at the age of 18 – Gill has his sights on a long, varied career full of surprises. Among them, his influences.

With a novella on the go, alongside his recordings and a couple of Covid years of a heavy reading load behind him, he’s as likely to spring literary references as musical ones. The album title was inspired by pop culture philosopher, Alain De Botton, the mid-tempo pop charmer, Little Green Man, was sparked by Australian author Trent Dalton’s Love Stories, and his guiding lights are the likes of Cormac McCarthy, Charles Bukowski and John Steinbeck.

“Steinbeck is very simplistic in the way that he writes but his words say a lot in a short space,” Gill says. “And that’s what songs are about.”

Closer to home for the kid who grew up in timbertown Wauchope, just inland from the NSW Mid North Coast, Gill’s been bending the ear of genuine veterans of Australian music Mondo Rock’s Eric McCusker and The Ferrets’ Billy Miller, who has co-written a couple of tracks on the new album. It’s fair to say Gill’s been fired up by the exchanges.

“I love hanging out with them and it’s a mutual thing: you pick up different ways of thinking and I’m very open to all of that. I am a very curious person. I am a very passionate person and I’ve always had a good relationship with my elders.”

You can add two more words to the Angus Gill story then: curiosity and passion, and then watch them at work in his work.

“Something I have learned as a producer too is you’ve got to be open to certain things presenting themselves. If they’re good moments, then you’ve got to lean into them and start embracing them, almost reshaping the song around that particular change in direction halfway through a project.”

And when that’s done, do what another of his mentors, the giant of modern Americana, Steve Earle, would do: change again.”

Gill recalls that when he asked the American why he changed direction so often “He said ‘I just get bored’. And that was a precedent he set very early in his career, and I was inspired: that’s what I want to do.

“I heard somebody say [about me] ‘when’s he gonna find what he wants to do?’ And I’m like, I’m never gonna find what I want to do. That’s the definition of an artist.”

Maybe Gill has found what he wants to do. Anything. Everything.

That’s two more words for you.

DEPARTURE & ARRIVAL IS OUT TODAY VIA RIVERSHACK RECORDS/MGM DISTRIBUTION

CATCH GILL & MILLER LIVE AT THE GYMPIE MUSTER ON AUGUST 24 & 25

For interview requests or other enquiries, please contact Stuart Coupe: Email: coupe@laughingoutlaw.com.au

Off the back of a #1 ARIA Australian Country Album and 3x #1 radio singles, Angus Gill nabbed the Golden Guitar Award for Bush Ballad of the Year for his song The Easy Way, co-written with Manfred Vijars, at the 50th CMAA Country Music Awards of Australia. 

A beaming Gill said, “I’m totally lost for words and this is a first for me. This has been seventeen years in the making and I am so grateful that I won my first Golden Guitar for Bush Ballad of the Year. This was the style I started playing as a seven year old, after being inspired by local entertainers William Lane and Ken “Chainsaw” Lindsay. I got my first gig singing bush ballads at the Timbertown Heritage Theme Park, in my hometown of Wauchope. I’d sing for four hours every Saturday for twenty five dollars and a meat pie. The four years I did at Timbertown taught me so much about stage craft and how to captivate and entertain audiences of all sizes. And now to win a Golden Guitar for Bush Ballad of the Year, it’s a very special “full circle” moment for me.” 

As well as performing The Easy Way on the awards show and delivering what some declared as one of the most memorable Golden Guitar Awards speeches, Gill was praised by Australian Country Music legend John Williamson, who described him as “a breath of fresh air” and “a bronze statue in the future” of Australian Country Music. 

Gill’s latest single The Scrapbook is at radio now. It reached #1 on the Country Songs Top 40 Australian Airplay Chart last week, marking the second #1 song for Gill in 2 weeks. 

Never one to confine himself musically to just one box – ARIA and 3x Golden Guitar nominee, Angus Gill – has shed yet another musical skin with his fourth album, “The Scrapbook”.

The Wauchope wunderkind stretches his musical and songwriting talents even further on the new bluegrass release that boasts a vast array of internationally renowned musicians including Tim Crouch, Randy Kohrs, Clay Hess and Tony Ray. It also features stellar collaborations with Jim Lauderdale, Jerry Salley, Gary Burr, Thomm Jutz, Rivers Rutherford and Charles Esten (from the hit TV series, Nashville). 

“I’ve always been a big fan of traditional bluegrass music. From a young age, I’ve been drawn to the high and tight harmonies, vocal stylings, phrasing and virtuosic playing. There’s also this beautiful juxtaposition in some bluegrass music when a poignant lyric is set against a rapid tempo and a major chord structure. I just love that!” said Gill.

The project came about in late 2020, after the release of the critically acclaimed “3 Minute Movies” featuring Paul Kelly’s band billed as The Seasons of Change. Gill started laying the bed track down for a song Whittling Away, written with multiple Grammy™ winner & bluegrass icon Jim Lauderdalein 2019. This eventually became the catalyst for a bluegrass record. 

“Jim and I wrote Whittling Away in 2019 and I liked it then, but after revisiting it in late 2020, the sentiment of the song hit me even harder than it did when we wrote it. I realised it would work as a duet and Jim agreed to do it with me. I was hearing a slow bluegrass production, so decided to take that approach with this song”, says Gill.

“I remembered I’d written several bluegrass songs over the years and I also had some straight country songs I’d written, which I realised were better served as bluegrass songs. I’ve always wanted to record a traditional bluegrass album with players that have bluegrass in their blood. I called up Tim Crouch and asked him if he would play and co-produce an album with me and we brought Randy Kohrs, Clay Hess & Tony Way onto the project and recorded it all remotely at the start of 2021. It was pretty cool because it sounds like we were all playing in the same room, despite being over 15,000 kilometres away.”

The album opens with a rollicking homage to hard working women “Always on the Run”, co-written with 2021 Grammy nominee Thomm Jutz. Gill quips, “she’s moving like a bullet that was fired from a gun/she’s always on the run.” The narrative based “Samson” is a master-class in character development while the Jim Lauderdale duet “Whittling Away” highlights the resilience and strength that people are displaying during these trying times. Gill’s signature wit comes to the forefront in the swing-grass romp “Caught Between a Rock and a Heartache”. The challenges of a paternal bond are explored in the heartfelt “Feet of Clay”, co-written with Charles Esten. “Let’s Have a Drink (To Not Drinking Again)” is the ultimate high-spirited bluegrass drinking song, featuring Music Row veteran tunesmith Jerry Salley. Gill sings of his grandmother’s affection in the autobiographical title track “The Scrapbook”. After a near 300-bpm sprint in “Heartquake”, the album closes with the exquisite epitaph “Forget Me Not”. “Our heartstrings will be tied up in a never forget me not” Gill sings a cappella in perfect 4 part harmony. 

Angus Gill’s new album, “The Scrapbook”, is further proof of this artist’s ability to shape-shift into any musical form and do it exceptionally well.

“Angus is one of the most creative and talented people I’ve ever worked with. It was an honor to get to write with and sing with him. I hope we can do much more down the road!” – Jim Lauderdale

“Angus Gill is easily one of the most talented and hardest working young men in the music business – anywhere! His passion to pursue songwriting and identifying the right songs to record is very admirable, and his smooth tenor vocals deliver those songs in a believable way that only a true artist can do” – Jerry Salley

“I’m not just a co-writer with Angus, I’m a fan too. He’s truly creative and thinks outside the box. Heck, I’m not even sure he owns a box. This “grass” album more than suits his great tenor voice. And how cool is it that the title track that he allowed me to write with him is so touching and personal about his grandmother? He might just win “Grandson of the Year” as well as “Bluegrass Album of the Year” – Bill Whyte

“The Scrapbook” is out on September 24 on Rivershack Records/MGM Distribution.

TRACK LISTING

1. Always on the Run (Angus Gill/Thomm Jutz)
2. Samson (Angus Gill/Bill DiLuigi/Kirsti Manna)
3. Whittling Away featuring Jim Lauderdale (Angus Gill/Jim Lauderdale)
4. Caught Between a Rock and a Heartache (Angus Gill/Rivers Rutherford)
5. Feet of Clay (Angus Gill/Charles Esten)
6. Let’s Have a Drink (To Not Drinking Again) featuring Jerry Salley (Angus Gill/Jerry Salley/Bill Whyte/Aaron Wilburn)
7. The Scrapbook (Angus Gill/Bill Whyte)
8. Put ‘Er There (Angus Gill/Gary Burr)
9. Still Missing (Angus Gill/Thomm Jutz)
10. Heartquake (Angus Gill/Thomm Jutz)
11. Forget Me Not (Angus Gill/Bill DiLuigi/Kirsti Manna)

Produced by Angus Gill & Tim Crouch

Mixed by Angus Gill

Mastered by Jeff McCormack

Jim Lauderdale appears courtesy of Yep Roc Records. 

Jerry Salley appears courtesy of Very Jerry Records.

Angus Gill – vocals, acoustic guitar, dobro, background vocals.

Tim Crouch – fiddle, mandolin, banjo, double bass, acoustic guitar and percussion.

Randy Kohrs – dobro and background vocals.

Tony Wray – banjo and acoustic guitar (track 10)

Clay Hess – banjo and acoustic guitar (track 1)

Thomm Jutz – background vocals (track 1 & 9)

Gary Burr – background vocals (track 8)

Georgia Middleman – background vocals (track 8)

Never one to confine himself musically to just one box – ARIA and 3x Golden Guitar nominee, Angus Gill – has shed yet another musical skin taking him in a whole new direction.

“Always On The Run” is the first single lifted from his forthcoming bluegrass release, “The Scrapbook”.

The song came together on a six-week song writing trip to Nashville in 2018 with co-writer and Grammy nominee, Thomm Jutz.

“I had the title and the line ‘You might think she’s an outlaw, but she ain’t done nothing wrong’. I liked the misdirection with the title and the idea of setting the song up to be a predictable, literal Outlaw type song, but when derailing that thought with one wry line”, says Angus.

“Thomm and I were talking about the hard working women that serve as an inspiration to what we could all get done, if we were a little wiser with our time and had the indelible determination to get the job done. My Mother came to mind and Amber Lawrence’s name also came up in conversation”.

The new album, “The Scrapbook”, was produced by Angus Gill and Tim Crouch, mixed by Gill and mastered by Jeff McCormack. It features further collaborations with Jim Lauderdale, Jerry Salley, Gary Burr, Rivers Rutherford and Charles Esten (star of the TV series, “Nashville”).

“Always On The Run” is released across all digital platforms on Friday 25^th June while “The Scrapbook” is available from Friday 20^th August 2021 through Rivershack Records / MGM Distribution.

For further information and interviews/radio ids, please contact:
Karen Waters – Red Rebel Music E: enquiries@redrebelmusic.com