:: The Sunny Cowgirls - Long Five Days

The Sunny Cowgirls

It’s about time something new and fresh hit Australia’s country music scene, so the old diehards have had too good for too long, and now comes a breath of fresh air in the form of The Sunny Cowgirls will their second album ‘Long Five Days’. This is a uniquely Australian album sung from the perspective of two country girls in the form of sisters, Sophie and Celeste Clabburn. So good is the album that I left it on all day and never grew tired of it. Those unfamiliar with Australian country music may take a little while to get used to songs like ‘Cuttin’ Up B&S Style’. It has an ‘ocker’ feel to it that makes you fall in love with it after a couple of listens. The song actually got me thinking I wonder how many city people now what a ‘B&S’ is; but those people are dealt with in ‘The City Thing’; which coincidentally is one of the best songs on the album.

‘Six Pack Short’ is a more traditional sounding country song and it is here that you realise what a talented songwriter Sophie Clabburn is. Her songs paint pictures with her words, and when it comes to tracks like ‘Back Into Gear’ also have feelings in them. So powerful are those feelings that you feel yourself traveling on an emotional road as you listen on. The one track that sums that up perfectly is ‘Stay’; a beautiful love ballad that has the potential to move you to tears. These days when songs are about making the charts and bringing in the cash you rarely hear songs like this recorded… a shame because they are what music is all about. The unique Australian feel returns with ‘Drinking Down Our Pay’ and ‘Still Circling’. The former about the typical hard-working Aussie and the later about the biggest enemy to farmers; bushfire. Tracks like ‘Gunshot’, ‘Gone’ and ‘Pick Me Up’ are just dying to be played at country and bush dances, while ‘Dry Land Crop’ and ‘Dangerous Tonight’ are all about what it is like to be a country girl.

Albums like ‘Long Five Days’ are rare these days. You simply don’t hear enough albums that are full of raw emotion anymore. While some while write off The Sunny Cowgirls as ‘quirky’ scratch under the surface and you find artists that are able to produce songs with beautiful lyrics and that mean something. A terrific album that is a must for all country music fans.