Graeme Connors @ Cairns Performing Arts Centre

Performers

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  Laing Entertainment

  Manages & promotes tours by local & international acts in Australia.

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  Graeme Connors

  Songs are special. In a matter of minutes they can sum up your life, make you feel completely at home, or spark a wonderful memory. Graeme Connors is someone who writes those kind of songs. As one of Australia's most loved songwriters, he creates cinematic-style stories with music that we can hold on to; that somehow make sense of our lives even when we can't. On the musical landscape, he represents an artistic integrity with an ear to our collective pulse.

  Dubbed a country and coastal artist, Graeme's songs move effortlessly across genres ranging from folk, pop and contemporary to country, all the while using his personal style to serve the songs. Particularly embraced and awarded by the country music community – fans and musicians alike – Graeme never set out to make country music specifically, but his honest stories captured the imagination of the 'heartland' music lovers as comfortably as the general audience. Unlike a lot of pop songs, Graeme's songs go somewhere and tell a story, always ending with a life lesson, conclusion or resolution.

  "When I start writing a new song, I never really know where it's going to end up," says the songwriter. "I often have a couple of really strong images and it goes from there." If experience is not what happens to you – but what you do with what happens to you, Graeme has wisely used every bit of experience to create songs which are meaningful, light-hearted, poignant or political. Regardless of their tone or style, they are always imbued with the beauty, depth and frailty of the human condition. He has an uncanny ability to simultaneously explore his own experiences in a song while talking your story too.

  Graeme's well-crafted songs have led to a distinguished career spanning more than 30 years and 16 albums, plus walls and mantelpieces full of awards. The award list includes 12 Gold Guitars, an ARIA award, two APRA songwriting awards, two American Song Festival Awards, two MO Awards for live performance, 12 Tamworth Songwriters Association Awards and a prestigious song-maker accolade for contribution to Australian songwriting.

  Highly respected by the Australian country music industry, in 2006 Graeme was inducted into the Tamworth Walk Of Fame and has been made a Tamworth Australia Day Ambassador by the Australia Day Council, has received the Centenary Medal in recognition of distinguished contribution to the entertainment industry and is a Rotary Foundation Paul Harris Fellow. He is also featured in the exceptional and highly-rating ABC TV documentary series Heart of Country. As a songwriter with a unique perspective and an immediately recognisable style, and with quality writing and recording as his hallmark, this dedicated and talented artist has already proved his longevity.

  Graeme's new album, titled Still Walking, is due for release in June 2010.