Even though she’s the daughter of a sheep farmer, Broken Creek frontwoman Erin Heycox thought she would never write a shearing song.
That all changed during the Echuca-Moama floods of 2022.
“We were on tour and I was on the phone to my mum, who was exasperated: ‘Your father can’t find any shearers. He’s over 60 and will have to shear a thousand sheep before the rains come’,” Ms Heycox said.
“As soon as I heard that I knew I had to write a song about Dad.
“There wasn’t much else I could do, being so far away during the floods.”
Both Ms and Mr Heycox grew up with parents playing in bush bands and are well versed in the traditional Australian shearing songs such as Click Go the Shears and Ryebuck Shearer.
“Those old shearing songs can be a bit blokey and full of bravado,” Ms Heycox said.
“Our song explores how traditional farming ways are changing in this age of climate change.”
This kind of re-examination of traditional Australian music is what Mr Heycox who features on the guitar and banjo and Ms Heycox on vocals and violin explore in their ‘old time Australiana’ duo Broken Creek.
Named for the creek Ms Heycox grew up near, the name Broken Creek signals a love of traditional folk music with an adventurous musical bent, to “break” with the same old ways of playing folk music.
After their three-month national Small Town Tour across Australia in 2022, Ms and Mr Heycox moved back to Ms Heycox’s family farm in Picola from their inner city apartment.
They then set up a studio in their grandmother’s hundred-year-old farmhouse to record a follow up to their 2022 album, Small Town Anthropologies.
Alongside the single, Broken Creek are releasing a music video shot on the farm that traces the traditions through in situ historical photographs, footage precariously shot from the back of the ute and Broken Creek performing around the farm.
The Gathering Wool features guest musicians Emily-Rose Sarkova on accordion and backing vocals, and Nick Henderson on bass and backing vocals.
The Gathering Wool is available on Friday, June 23 on all streaming services.
To listen to Broken Creek’s new single, head to brokencreekband.com/gatheringwool
To watch their music video, head to tinyurl.com/gatheringwoolvideo
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