Classic country duets let the love flow

TWO of Australia’s finest country artists, Tania Kernaghan and Jason Owen, are bringing the Let Your Love Flow tour to the Northern Rivers.

Kernaghan is a passionate apiarist who spoke enthusiastically with this masthead from her Gold Coast home about the honey harvest from her 20,000 bees.

“I love the bees, and I could talk to you for hours because they fascinate me,” she said.

“Seeing from when they’re born to then take their first flight foraging is amazing,” she said.

The country star’s collaboration with Owen began three years ago with a shared love of a song.

“I heard Jason was doing a John Denver album, and I rang to say I loved Back Home Again,” she said.

“He asked if I was interested in a duet, and that’s how we started.

“We recorded separately and about six weeks later filmed the video, just out of Murwillumbah, and we met for the first time.”

Owen loves the story and often tells it on stage.

“Tania called me on a blocked number, and I didn’t answer at first, thinking it was a scammer,” he said.

“I grew up listening to Australian country music – Slim Dusty, Adam Harvey, Becky Cole, Tania, everyone,” he said.

“To get a call like that was surreal, and to think that they knew me or heard my music was special.”

Owen’s star rose as runner-up on X-Factor, and his debut album Life Is a Highway reached No.1 on the ARIA Country Chart.

“I don’t sugar coat anything, but it’s not easy coming off those shows,” Owen said.

“It was an incredible experience having grown up in Albert, a tiny village in central NSW with only 12 people.

“It’s a great platform, but there’s a lot of work after it, and it took me eight or nine years to start feeling that I’d done something good and that people were connecting with me as an artist.

“I was lucky to have a great team around me, and here I am today, doing what I love. I am very blessed to be able to do it.”

Kernaghan said Owen was part of the family, and the show promised hits from both singers and classics, which they hoped would inspire joy.

“I call him the human jukebox because he can sing anything,” she said.

“He makes every song his own. He’s very authentic and comfortable in his own skin.

“Our collaboration is what you see on stage – it’s comfortable and easy, and nothing is contrived.”

“Our latest single is Try a Little Kindness by the great Glen Campbell, and I think people need more of that in their lives.

“We need more happiness and positivity to counterbalance the stuff we face these days.”

To experience some of the joy on June 28, visit ballinarsl.com.au/event/tania-kernaghan-and-jason-owen