AFTER quite a long layoff, two-time Golden Guitar nominee and local country singer Doug Bruce and his band, the Tailgaters, are back rocking stages.<\/p>\n
Due to a scheduled break, to avoid burnout, and then the pandemic, it had been nearly five years since Bruce and the band had been in action.<\/p>\n
But after a couple of smaller gigs in regional Victoria and Frankston, Doug Bruce and the Travellers officially announced their comeback with a large gig at the home of country music, Tamworth.<\/p>\n
Bruce said he was shocked by the turnout considering their time away from the stage.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was around 580 people, so it had sold out nearly, there was a line getting in all the way out of the building which was amazing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey band was cracking; it was just like we never left.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now Bruce and the band are ready to get back into it, though Bruce said their schedule won\u2019t be as jammed as it used to be before the break.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are going to do as much as we can, I don\u2019t think we will go as hard and fast as we used to,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe used to travel all over the place to these gigs, festivals, pubs and clubs.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are at a point now where we are all a bit longer in the tooth and everyone is a busy doing other things as well, so we will pick and choose where we play.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Texas born singer is a long way from home here in Bendigo.<\/p>\n
So, what brought him all this way? Love of course.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just happened to walk into Legends Corner, a bar there in Nashville to see a friend of mine perform,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was nobody in there, probably a handful of people, when these two girls walked in and one sat down next to me and started up a conversation, she was from Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got some lunch and did all the music stuff before she had to leave to go back to Australia and I thought I would never see her again but she called me when she got back home and we never stopped calling.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
AFTER quite a long layoff, two-time Golden Guitar nominee and local country singer Doug Bruce and his band, the Tailgaters, are back rocking stages. Due to a scheduled break, to avoid burnout, and then the pandemic, it had been nearly five years since Bruce and the band had been in action. But after a couple […]<\/p>\n