Keep giving.
They're both household names who have top charts and become two of the most recognizable country music artists in Australia. Tanya Kernighan hails from one of the great Australian country music families, while Jason Owen he hails from albert, a tiny Central West village. Now I'm thrilled to say I got both of them on the line. Hi guys, good, thank you. Jason. We started the hour with back Home Again. How did that collaboration with Tanya come about?
Oh?
Mate, great question. I was actually recording a John Denver tribute album at the time, and I knew that one of Ten's favorite songs was a John Denver song. I invited her on to sing it with me, and the rest is history. Bill, it really is, mate, and you know, I'm so honored to have her sing on that track with me.
Now, you guys are great friends. Tanya. When did you first meet?
Well, it was actually the first time we met face to face was about six weeks after I recorded the duet back Home Again. Because I live in Queensland, Bill and Jason's down in the Central Coast, and so we recorded our parts in different studios. But about six weeks after the recording was done, we met in mcwille and Barr in northern New South Wales where we shot the video clip for Back Home Again. And I got out of the car and I walked up to Jason. I said,
get a Jason, I'm Tanya Kernighan. He said, oh, get a Tan. You're great to meet you.
Now, Jason, what's it been like working with her?
Well, unbelievable, mate. I grew up listening to her and Lee and you know, we can get on about this a bit later, but I grew up listening to incredible country music, you know. And it's such an honor to work with TK. She's a beautiful lady. She's given me so much inspiration in my music and just phenomenal to sing with Billy. She really really is, mate, and I wouldn't change it for the world.
Tanya, I better ask you the same question, what's like working with him?
Well? I think Jason's a phenomenal talent. You know, he's only like thirty years old. He's got a huge future in front of him and already he's achieved so much. But I called Jason with much affection, the human jeepbox, because as we just heard there singing stand by your man. This kid can sing anything. Bill.
Now you hail from Albert, Jason, which I've never heard of, A tiny central at West village. What was your early life like?
Don't help that against me, Bill, Oh mate, it's only a little village. There's only ten people out there, and it's pretty much the geographical center of New South Wales. And there's only ten people there. I was the only child for probably four or five years growing up there, and my dad owned both the businesses in the town, and you know, at the end of the day made it was fantastic growing up out there. I learned how
to drive a car at an early age. I learned how to do a lot of things at an early age. And I was I remember when I turned twenty one, a lot of people used to say, oh goodness me, I thought you were thirty one the way I used to talk to people, because I was so grown up mentally from growing up around great adults.
So where'd you get the country music bug?
The country music bug, Mate, come in from the Rabbit Trap Hotel in Albert. The jukebox. I grew up listening to Tenure and Lee and Adam Harvey, Becky Cole, Slim, Dusty Brooks and dun you name it across the board, mate. And you know it got to about eight thirty nine o'clock at night, and you know we'd all used to be sitting in the pub there and mum and Dad would be having a beer and what have you like that, and you put the juke box on and listen to
great country music. And that's pretty much how it all started bill for me.
You know, Sotana, I don't really need to ask you where your music inmstration comes from. But what was your early life like?
Oh? Well, I spent a lot of time traveling around the countryside with mum and dad, my dad Ray Kernigan, and of course my brothers Lee and Greg, and my sister Fiona and our wonderful mother. And you know I remember going on my first tour with mum and Dad and the family in nineteen seventy eight. It was six months of traveling around Australia as part of the legendary
Rick and Fell Carey Traveling Country Show. And it was back in the days of when you traveled, you traveled with the car and caravan and you'd pull up behind the town hall, they'd load the gear into the hall and do the show that night, and then the next day they'd travel to another town and you'd be doing that six nights a week. And I was too young at that time to be on the stage, but I used to listen to Dad every night on the stage and listen to all his pattern and his jokes, and
sure learned a lot of traveling. And I think it was those early days Bill that gave me such a great love and appreciation for Australia and its people. That's the great music we have here now.
Taana seven chart chopping career albums, seventeen number one Radio Hits two, CM Double A Female Artists of the Year CM Double A Album of the Year CM Double A Vocal Collaboration of the Year ARIA Finalist, Golden Platinum Records. Blah blah blah. You definitely did the right thing, following in your family's footsteps A well.
I always wanted to sing ever since I was about six years old. I think I climbed up on a bar stool at the Boomerang Hotel and sing a song at the in the beer garden where they had you know, you could get up and sing a song with the local band, and I sang Morning Chown Ride, you know, the old speaker song. You know, rockn roll right, yep, and I've Got a few Collapse and I just loved it. And I wanted Mum and Dad desperately to take me back the next week and I'd learn another song. And
I just loved singing and loved performing. And I guess as I got as a molder now, it's the joy that you bring everybody to the audience and that's what kind of keeps me going now, is to see other people happy and how powerful music is.
And Jason, you were on The X Factor in twenty twelve. Tell us about that experience.
Yeah, I was Bill, And you know, growing up in albert there's only ten or twelve people there to be and train on a stage like that in front of three or four million people a night, Well, I think that explains it. It was an incredible experience, Billy, It really was, mate. I went to New York through the show, met some incredible artists Melby, you know, Ronan Keating, Guy Sebastian, Natalie Bathingswait, and you know, met some incredible people through it.
And what an experience it was. It really me in the deep end to learn what the industry is like to a degree. Bill, And you know, realistically, people always say, you know, it's a hard road to come off one of those shows, But twelve years later, I'm still doing it. Mate, was one of the best in the scene.
It was what twenty seventeen you put out and sings John Denver. He really meant something to you, didn't he he did.
Mate.
My Pop, my granddad. He's still living at Albert on his own. He's ninety seven in November this year, Bill, and he's still really adamant to live in on by himself, Mate, I should say. And my Armie lives just down the road. She goes and checks on him a few times a day. But I used to come home from school and go in there and literally we go out and you know, check the sheep and the cattle and all that type
of stuff. We were share farming on Alan McCrae's property there at Albert and listen to John Denver's music over and over and over. Because the tape was stuck in the ute. Every time say Pop, I've got to get it fixed, you'd say, no, leave it in there, mate. If you can sing John Danvy, you can sing anything. And the rest is history, Billy.
And then twenty eighteen you wrote and recorded the song these are the times with funds raised going towards strout relief. Was that's difficult. It's difficult for people living on the land, isn't.
It It is, mate, it is And I really I wrote that song with fellas from CBD. They are a pop R and B group from the nineties, right, But I sat down with them and I said to them, guys, this is what I want to write about. This. Albert's where I grew up. You know, my heart's there, it's in the bush, and I want to write about something to do with drought and how it affects regional businesses,
rural businesses and families on the land. Because my dad owned both the pub and the fuel service station Billy in Albert and the only two businesses in the village, right, so you can see it firsthand from farmers and businesses, and how it was like a domino effect, you know, through the game.
Right.
So these are the times I've written about that. And it was to the Baron by the ca Runners that song.
Now tenure. Apart from your country music career, you're a skilled horsewoman and a bee keeper.
M Yeah, I've got twenty thousand bees in my backyard in one of those flow hives, Billy, and they fascinate me. I'm just amazed at how you know that you don't micro manage bees, You just really let them be, pardon the pun. They just do their thing. And the beautiful honey that I get every year from them is few months,
is just divine. And of course horses have been a part of my life since I was a little kid, four years old, I got up on a horse and went riding with my mum and my grandmother, And You've always had a horse. And at the moment, I'm very much in love with the fifteen hand gelding. His name Spin.
Now we're going to come back to hear about the touring you've got coming up together, but first we're going to play one of your duets, try a Little Kindness. Where did the idea come for you and Jason to tour from.
To tour together? Well, it was really off the back of the back Home Again, the song that we released on Jason's album, and we started to do a couple of little shows together and then we seem to get a lot of response, and then we recorded let Your Love Flow, and that just went gangbusters. So that really was the catalyst to go out there and tour seriously. And then of course this is our third duet that we've recorded recently and released, and Trial Little Kindness is
very much the sentiment of our show. It's about, you know, spreading the joy, spreading the happiness and giving a lot of love and goodwill to people who come along to our shows. And it's through the music that we were doing that, and Trial Little Kindness was just fits perfectly in the set and it was an easy one to record together.
If you see your brother standing by the rope with a heavy low from the seat soul, and if you.
See your sister phone by the way, just stop and saying you're going the wrong.
Way, you've got to trial little kindness. Yes, show a little kindness, shine a lot for every scene.
And if you try a little kindness, then you'l o the blindness of the narrow minded.
People on the narrow minded extremes.
Don't walk around town and out.
Then the helping hand instead of doubt.
And the kindness that you show every day will help somewhere along the way.
You've got to try a little kindness.
Yes, show a little kindness, shine a lot for everyone scene hand. If you try a little kindness, then your the blinds of the Marimondes. People of the Marimondes seek. You've got to try a little kindness. Yes, show a little kindness, shine.
A lot every city hand.
Every trial time.
Of the darlined people, unarolanded.
You're listening to Sunday Night Crews.
In the Queen of Heart knowing any really fine jogger in the Olio.
You do anything.
Tonight, I'm talking to country music stars Tanya Kernighan and Jason Hawen. So, Jason, do you have any musical inspiration that comes from other country music stars?
Oh?
Mate, absolutely, Well, ten is one of them, you know, because you know it is It is t K. And you know that because I I've always said, you know, it's authentic. It's stories about real life things, mate, It's and it's the same with Lee, Troy Cassa, Daily, Adam Harvey, you know all of them. It's so authentic. Country music is so authentic, and that's not exactly what I love about it, Billy, It really is. It tells the story
as to how it is, mate. And you know, any country artist John Denver was obviously ambassive inspiration for me. And he wrote a lot about the rocky mountains and you know all that type of stuff. But you know what I mean, mate, Like it's authentic, isn't it.
Where does it come from for you?
Tan?
Musical inspiration?
Oh? Do I remember growing up around you know, when my dad was recording albums and back in the seventies and he'd go down to Melbourne, he'd record a full album on a six track mixer and we'd bring it back home and we'd played in the lounge room and all those kids were so excited to hear what dad had recorded and it came back. Even before that, we were had a little band, my brother Lee, I played the piano, Greg my brother played the drums, and my sister and I sang and we were called Angels and
the Blue Devils. And I was about ten years old at the time, and we used to go around the River Arena around Aubrey where I grew up down south and play for the pensioners for their Christmas parties and special functions. And you know, it was just in our blood. It was in our DNA, and Mum and Dad never said, you know, you've got to pursue music. It was just something that we just naturally gravitated to.
Jason, you're both on the road with Let your Love Flow too. What can we expect at the concerts?
A good time, Billy, Yeah, a very very good time, mate, like try a little kindless let your Love Flow back home again. Are only three songs that are featured in the show, but you know, the rest is history. Mate. Ten performs all her incredible hits, original hits that I grew up with and everyone else knows, you know, And of course we do songs that we perform online together. We've been very lucky to have an incredible following online and we take those songs out on Rage as well. Mate.
So what are the highlights for you, Tanya? Oh?
Well, I love to perform the songs that have really built my career. So the first half of the show, I go out there and I'll I'll sing you songs like Boys in Boots, the Veranda, a Bushman Can't Survive on City Lights, all of those songs that for thirty years, you know, that really established my career. And then the second and Jason does a similar part in the first half of the show, but the second half it's like it moves into a whole other gear and the band
come out with us. We're singing these great songs that we've made popular once again through the social media platforms. And you know, I think Jason sort of always on the on the edge a little bit because he never knows really what I'm going to say, and half the time I don't know what I'm going to say, but he's off. It's a lot of fun.
Like Jay said, Jason, where can we catch you both?
Oh?
Mate, Look, we're going everywhere this year, Billy, We're in We're going to the Central Western New South Wales through July, Ballama, you know, all over the place, mate, Bunderberg.
Yeah, go.
Ballama. We're all over the place, mate, Thunderburg at the Montcreve Theater. We're absolutely everywhere, Ballarat in Victoria, Western Australia.
We're going to.
Plan everywhere, mate, Yes, absolutely, yeah, yeah, Bunderberg, mate montre Theater.
So where can we get tickets?
Tenure, It's best to just go to the venues. Look at our websites, because all the dates are either on Jason's or my website, and we're always posting things on our Facebook pages and Instagram pages of new dates and ticket links and that kind of thing. Billy, But you kept saying Sydney, Sydney is something. Where's the best place? Do you reckon playing Sydney for our safe The opera?
Of course, the opera house.
I'll give him a.
Now, chasing the tourist called that Let Your Love Flow. What was the inspiration for that?
Mainly because after Back Home Again, Tenure and I released a single back Home Again quite a few years ago now, but when we join forces again to launch a tour, we release let Your Love Flow. You know, the Bellamie Brothers classic, and such a great story, made the songs beautiful, and to turn it into a duet with Tenure was phenomenal for us both. You know, we knew we had something magic when we recorded it. But that pretty much
the success of that song to us. We knew that it made people happy, it brought joy to the show, Billy, And you know, realistically, we just know that let Your Love Flow. When you read that title, you know you know exactly what it's about Yeah.
We better finish up. We'd let your love flow. And I'd love to think you're both for joining with us to God bless you both and come back on again.
Thank you, good on your billy, than you.
On your good thank you.
There's a reason for the sunshine sky, and there's a reason one feeling so high must be the seasons when that love life shines all around us.
So let that.
Feeling grab your deep be signs, send your reeling we love jam hide and then go steal less.
Through the moon is nice with your love.
Just let your out like him, out of strain, and let.
Your loveles with the smallest of dreams, and let your love show and you'll know what I'll mean. It's the season.
Let you fly like him away and let you love fine. It's all loving things, And.
Let your love shine and you'll know what I mean. That's the reason.
There's a reason for the warm, sweet nights, and there's a reason for the kind of lights. Must be the season when those love life shine all around us. I don't wonder, take you into space and lead you under it's loving embrace, just to feel the suner as it warms your own face.
You can't hold back out.
Just let your lock him out a stream and let your love grows to the.
Smallest streams, and let you love shows. And you know what else made? It's the seasons. It's the season.
Let you lie, lock a wing and let you love, button you to all those things, and let.
You love shot. And you know what else made? That's the craziest, you know, just.
A blue lock him out a stream and let your love to grow in.
The smallest streamers, and let you love shows.
And you know what i'se made. It's the seasons.
Let you legendip wing and let you love love all those things and today shots and you'll know what that's.
Names Studies is.
Spas came out on the stem
And small dreams and shoes and you know what name