Song of Joy
“I can be tough, but I think I’ve mellowed,” says Joy McKean with the sort of smile that tells you she hasn’t mellowed an inch more than she wanted to. It’s a warm summer morning when we meet at her house in a retirement village on Sydney’s leafy North Shore. It’s a very beautiful but modest house that doesn’t feel as if it has been properly moved into yet. There’s one person conspicuous in his absence and represented only by a large portrait, leaning against a chair – Joy’s late husband and partner in music and life, the legendary Slim Dusty. In fact, the electric piano in the corner and a few awards on a shelf are the only clues to suggest that Joy McKean OAM is Australia’s queen of country music – winner of six Golden Guitars and the songwriter behind Walk a Country Mile, The Lights on the Hill, Indian Pacific and some of the local country music scene’s biggest hits.
On January 14, Joy will blow out 90 candles on her birthday cake. A week later, the cream of Australia’s country music talent will gather in Tamworth for a jamboree in her honour – the biggest ever held under the Southern Cross. The line-up includes Paul Kelly, Kasey Chambers, Troy Cassar-Daley,
