Allan Caswell has written more than 1200 songs in a career spanning over 40 years, but 2016 has turned out to be one of his biggest yet.
The Medlow Bath singer-songwriter won an unprecedented five Australian Independent Country Music Awards this month – in the same week he marked the 50th anniversary of his arrival in Australia from the UK.
Caswell won awards for heritage track of the year, single of the year, best male vocal, album of the year and independent artist of the year at the awards in Mildura.
His friend Seleen McAlister won female artist of the year for her version of Caswell’s song, On The Inside, best known as the iconic theme song to the hit Australian television series, Prisoner.
The Southern Stars Australian Independent Country Music Awards continued a bumper year for Caswell. In January he picked up his seventh Golden Guitar (with Manfred Vijars) for bush ballad of the year.
He has also broken a personal record, set in the 1980s, when 52 of his songs were recorded by other artists in a year. So far in 2016, Caswell has had 56 of his songs recorded.
The debut single from his 2016 album, 50 Years in Oz, Nothing Left For Them gave Caswell his first number one as an artist since 1989 and the new single, Golden Days (a collaboration with The Weeping Willows) was released this October. A recording with Michael Carpenter called Back When I Was Older also hit the Top 10 on the country chart.
The 50 Years in Oz album is very much a Blue Mountains affair. The album was produced by the Bushwackers’ Roger Corbett at the Valley Studio in Springwood and is released on Pat Drummond’s Shoestring Records based in Medlow Bath. This is the fifth album Caswell has done with Roger Corbett netting them a Golden Guitar and nine Independent Country Music Awards. It is Caswell’s eighth album with Shoestring.
“I love being an independent,” said Caswell. “You don’t have to sit around waiting for people to make decisions on your behalf - you go ahead and get it done.”
He also praised his producer Roger Corbett, his label Shoestring Records and the many great writers and musicians who contribute to his recordings.
“When it stops being fun I’ll stop but, for now, I’m writing and recording my best stuff ever so I see no reason to slow down.”