Perfectly Natural

Newcastle Herald

Saturday January 20, 2007

BEN QUINN

Country songbird Felicity Urquhart has a hit single in Big Black Cloud, a critically acclaimed record in My Life and is in the running for three Golden Guitars at the Tamworth Country Music Festival which began yesterday.

The effervescent 30-year-old should be cruising on cloud nine, but she seems worried when we meet for coffee in her adopted home town, Avoca Beach.

"I just hope Mum and Dad haven't rented out my room," she chuckles.

"Mum reckons they could get top dollar at this time of year, but I know she's only stirring me. My room is exactly the same as when I left it about a decade ago. It's nice to head straight for home and not have to worry about accommodation."

Felicity and older sister Rebecca, now her publicist and always her "best mate", were born and bred in Tamworth. Their father Rex ran an upholstering business out of the back shed. Their mother Trish was a full-time homemaker and Rex's rouseabout.

During the early years the family lived opposite the Tamworth drive-in. Later they moved to their current digs at the wonderfully named Kingswood Estate.

"Kingswood Estate is out past The Longyard. While Dad was building the house we lived in a caravan park. We thought it was just like being on holidays for a year," Felicity recalls.

"I respect my folks so much, especially now that I'm a bit older and can really appreciate how they struggled for our family. They're hard workers. If I have a business situation I always ask them what they reckon."

Felicity's fondest memory of the family's first house on Hillview Road ("the main drag") is bouncing around on the couch to catch glimpses of Grease on the big screen across the road. Travolta made her melt. Newton-John made her imagine life's possibilities.

"It was the movie at the time and still is the movie for a lot of people. It's safe to say I was heavily influenced by Olivia Newton-John," she says.

"I also remember waking up every day to the sound of Dad whistling and singing to the radio while he was working. Always country stuff. Dad's mother died when he was seven, but apparently she won an amateur singing competition on the radio and received this little trophy that has always been Dad's prized possession. I think I got the voice from that side of the family.

"On Mum's side my nan played piano all the time she'd probably die if I said honkytonk, so I'll describe it as more of a Winifred Atwell vibe. My pop was a jockey who had the gift of the gab for reciting poetry. I did a gig at a Melbourne racing event once where [revered racing broadcaster] Johnny Tapp was MC. I told him I'd listened to his racing show every weekend at my grandparents' place when I was a kid. He rattled off all these great things about Pop. I was so proud. I get a great thrill out of my family's success."

A chatty young waiter arrives with coffees, clocks the familiar face and strikes up a conversation with Felicity about music. A female friend of his, he explains, has just sought his opinion on the new dress and CDs she has splurged on.

"What CDs?" Felicity asks with genuine interest.

"Oh, Justin Timberlake and a compilation called Dance Till You Drop 3," he replies.

"I didn't know there were two out already," the journalist interjects.

"There are. I've got them," the waiter sighs.

"Gosh, am I out of the loop," Felicity observes. "I'm so out of the loop I'm in the loop after the next loop."

Always has been, truth be told. While her primary-school friends were jitterbugging in fluorescent socks to Mel and Kim's Respectable, Felicity was dreaming about Patsy Cline and Dolly Parton.

About 100 children attended the little school called Timbumburi, which Felicity and Rebecca thought was cool because it contained the word "bum".

Smoky Dawson and Trevor Knight visited one day to perform The Days of Old Khancoban. Most of the kids were fidgeting and talking. Felicity scowled at them because she didn't want it to end.

She picked up a guitar at age 10 when a relative from Yeppoon, Queensland, came down to Tamworth for the festival.

"He tells the story to this day of how I hounded him to teach me a few chords," Felicity says.

"He had a few Olivia Newton-John songs in his songbook. Let Me Be There was one of them I remember that.

"From there I learned songs by Slim Dusty, Patsy [Cline], John Williamson, Dolly [Parton]. I was a big Dolly fan. I'd get these videos from America and just wanted to be like her."

Zeppelin breasts and all?

"You know, Mum always used to joke that one day they'd grow," Felicity laughs, gazing upon her bosom.

"I use that gag 'What happened down here? Mum promised!' in my show.

"As a kid it was more this bright face, sparky personality and lovely way. Dolly had these fabulous songs and it didn't take a scientist to work out what she was singing about.

"I saved up a hundred bucks slaving away in Dad's workshop, pulling tacks out of old chairs, to buy my first guitar. The blisters were murder. As soon as I earned the hundred I was out of there. Thanks Dad!"

The following year Felicity and her cousins, Anthony Walmsley on trumpet and Belinda Walmsley on lagerphone, made their Tamworth debut outside the Centrepoint Arcade. Anthony and Belinda went on to become accomplished musicians in their own right.

"We looked gorgeous with our cowboy hats and all the fringes. We couldn't believe it on the first day when we made ninety bucks," Felicity smiles.

"I was the senior member of the trio at 11. Can you imagine it guitar, lagerphone and trumpet! Mum reckoned it was OK because it gets bloody hot in Tamworth in January and she could duck inside the arcade for a quick blast of air-conditioning."

Eric Scott was an interested spectator over the next few years as Felicity developed her own style. He signed her to his local label, Hadley Records, when she was 15. The label is famous for Slim Newton's Redback On The Toilet Seat.

She finds her self-titled debut LP "a crack-up to listen to today".

"Have you looked at any articles from your early days lately? You might know what I mean," she says.

"It's frozen in time. I totally remember the innocent girl I was, my headspace, all that.

"Eric never pushed me to be poppy or older than I was. He never tried to tart me up. He let me be a 15-year-old country girl. The education he gave me was priceless."

Major label EMI soon snapped up the shooting star and released her LPs Nothing To Hide (1999) and New Shadow (2001).

Though the label's clout took Felicity's music to a wider audience, she felt like her ideas were constantly being watered down.

After New Shadow she quit the label and punted on making things work as an independent recording artist.

There were dark thoughts around the time she left Sydney and moved to Avoca Beach with her partner and producer Glen Hannah, who plays guitar with Kasey Chambers and has one of the best pairs of ears in the country business.

"I was going to give up music and become a park ranger," Felicity says.

"I got really depressed, actually. Spiralled lower than I've ever been. Self-doubt was creeping in. I struggled to get out of bed of a day. Had a bit of the old poor-me syndrome, which was totally against my upbringing to make the most of what you've got. When I told Mum and Dad they were supportive, as usual.

"Instead of getting therapy I wrote songs. Glen and I did some demos at home and sent those acoustic bedroom tracks to Randy Scruggs in Nashville. I couldn't believe it when he wrote back and said he was keen to hook up and do some writing together."

Randy Scruggs is the son of Earl Scruggs, the most famous banjo picker of them all. Randy is a Grammy Award-winning producer who has worked with, among many others, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Sting, Lisa Loeb, Johnny Cash and Emmylou Harris.

Felicity is in contention for Golden Guitars in three categories: Album of the Year for My Life and Video Clip of the Year and Female Artist of the Year for the single Big Black Cloud, which was co-written with Scruggs.

My Life has continued to sell since it was launched with a live spot in Peel Street at last year's Tamworth Festival.

The blues seem like a distant memory.

"When I got back from Nashville my confidence was sky high and it all felt fresh again," Felicity says.

"[Leaving EMI] was like becoming anonymous again. I poured my heart out to this total stranger and felt the weight of the world lift off my shoulders. Randy is salt of the earth, a wonderful gentleman."

Scruggs is not the only heavyweight in Felicity's corner.

At last year's Tamworth festival she shared the stage with Oscar-winning actor Russell Crowe, with whom she has developed a strong friendship.

They met four years ago when Crowe booked her to play the post-Christmas bash at his Coffs Harbour property, Nana Glen.

"The media pressure was enormous last year. I've never had so many phone calls in my life and they were all about Russell," Felicity says.

"That was my tiny little taste of superstardom. Imagine what it's like at the Oscars!

"When Russell first made contact with me I was holidaying with the family in Tamworth. I asked Mum if she wanted to come to Coffs for a party. She was umming and ahhing. I said, 'You might want to reconsider if you hear who it's for'.

"We were put up in this gorgeous five-star B&B. A driver picked me up, I did the gig and met all the who's who. At the end of the night I did a Patsy Cline number I think it was Crazy with the actress Kim Wilson."

How did Wilson's pipes measure up?

"Well . . . she's a top actress," Felicity laughs. "We had a ball."

The next fortnight looms as a golden period for the easygoing country girl with the sweet voice and old-fashioned values.

She shared a Golden Guitar in 2002 with Beccy Cole, Adam Harvey and Darren Coggin but desperately wants one of her own.

"As much as I love my mates, I really want one under my own steam. It's not about looking at a shiny chunk of metal on your mantelpiece. It's the recognition and how it gets the attention of Joe Blow who doesn't know much about country music but trusts the Tamworth hierarchy."

A warm goodbye and the clacking of thongs heralds Felicity's departure. The afternoon will be spent in dress shops chasing a knockout outfit for the awards ceremony.

"The blokes can get away with jeans and a shirt, but the girls are expected to frock up," she says.

"I could do with some advice. Where's that young waiter?"

? Felicity Urquhart plays West Diggers next Wednesday from 7pm, TREC Theatre next Thursday from 8pm (with Sara Storer and friends) and the Golden Guitar Awards next Saturday.

© 2007 Newcastle Herald

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