Australian country music royalty comes to the Potato Shed this month when multi-award-winning superstar Sara Storer and her brother Greg’s eponymous project Storer comes to Drysdale.
Sara said while the pair have played music together “forever”, this was the first project based on their musical partnership.
“Greg’s been in my band for ever and a day; whenever I can get him off the farm, he’s been tagging along,” she said.
“We’ve been a duo for a long time, but it’s nice to come back, not as Sara Storer, but as Storer. We both can share the stage and share the song.”
The concept behind Storer has been a long time coming and, strangely, the COVID-19 pandemic helped in some way to kickstart the new album.
“Teaming up with Greg, it’s something we’ve been wanting to do for a while,” Sara said.
“It was just timing, really; with COVID we had a couple of years off for songwriting. He’d penned songs, I’d penned songs, and we’d done a fair bit of co-writing.
“So we made the decision to go ahead and do the album because we were worried we’d just keep putting it off and that we’d never get it done. And that we’d look back in many years time and really regret it if we didn’t.”
The songs on Storer show traits that will be familiar to fans of Sara’s work; honest lyrics, a complete lack of affectation or Americanisation, a focus on story and narrative and raw Aussie charm.
“It’s about songs with a story; when we write, it’s not a business for us,” Sara said.
“We write purely for the joy of writing about our personal experiences in life or writing about someone else’s.
“We write because we’re moved, and we think, well, that would make a lovely song. Our songs always come with some kind of story.”
Bassist James Gillard (Mondo Rock, Mental As Anything) served as producer for the album, which also features Michael Moko (guitar, mandolin), Scotty Hill (drums) and Greg’s daughters Bonnie and Pip on vocals and mandolin.
“At the moment it’s just the two of us at the Potato Shed, but we’re looking forward to getting back to Victoria,” Sara said.
“Geelong has always been so supportive, that’s why we keep coming back; we love you, basically.”
Storer perform at the Potato Shed on Thursday, February 23.
