ARIA award-winning country music artist Lee Kernaghan will perform his Backroad Nation tour at Riverlinks Eastbank, close to his former stomping grounds in the Riverina.
Born in Corryong in north-east Victoria and raised in Albury, the Goulburn Valley is a familiar area for Kernaghan.
‘‘I’m a Riverina boy; my formative years, particularly in music, were spent all around the Riverina,’’ Kernaghan said.
‘‘A lot of my DNA is there.’’
Kernaghan fondly remembers belting out a tune or two at Shepparton’s GV Hotel many years ago.
His tour will take him to some of Australia’s remote rural cities with an extensive run of 45 shows.
The tour announcement coincided with the release of the first radio single Wheels from his forthcoming album Backroad Nation due to be released on May 10.
Wheels features an accompanying music video, filmed on location in outback Northern Territory.
‘‘It was absolutely spectacular out in that desert country and we were shooting in 46-degree heat — it was even too hot for the flies,’’ Kernaghan said.
He said the tour would be an exciting event after he totally redesigned his stage show with new lighting and backing screens.
Songs inspired from the area such as Three Chain Road, written about a road outside of Wangaratta, and High Country, based off the mountains behind Corryong, will be among those played at the Shepparton performance.
‘‘I think I’d be run out of town if I didn’t sing Boys from the Bush,’’ Kernaghan said.
‘‘Boys from Bush was written in the Riverina and so much of its heart and soul is in the country there.’’
He said the new album and tour was ‘‘a celebration of us, our way of life and the people who make our country great’’.
‘‘Much of the inspiration for the songs has come from the people I’ve met and the places I’ve travelled to, from Alice Springs to the Deni Ute Muster, from the mighty Pilbara region in WA to the backroads of Queensland, and everywhere in between,’’ Kernaghan said.
Tickets are on sale for the Shepparton show on Saturday, June 15, at the Eastbank Centre. To purchase, visit www.leekernaghan.com/
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