Troy Cassar-Daley and Adam Harvey have withdrawn from the CMAA Awards because of criticism about the Americanisation of their album.
Country star John Williamson criticised the number one Australian album ‘The Great Country Songbook’ by Troy Cassar-Daley and Adam Harvey for being too American despite its lead song being a cover of Aussie superstar Slim Dusty’s ‘Lights On The Hill’.
“The conversations and debates about the album over the past few days has fragmented an already fragile music community. We are very proud of the achievements of the project however wish to not have the album as part of the awards. We are just sad for Country Music that this has all happened. The last thing we wanted to do was cause any controversy. It was just two mates paying tribute to our musical heroes.” said Troy and Adam in a statement.
‘The Great Country Songbook’ was the biggest selling Australian country album of 2013 and was a top 3 album overall on the ARIA chart.
Troy’s manager Roxanne Brown said, “The Great Country Song Book has been extremely special to both Troy and Adam and they have had a lot of fun touring the country together over the past 5 months with a talented band of Australian musicians, many of whom recorded the album with them”.
Brown justified the nominations saying, “The decision to nominate in various categories was due to the success of their near-platinum selling album ‘The Great Country Song Book’ and it was at that time encouraged by the CMAA.
“There was and still is no problem with the albums’ legitimate qualification in the categories for which it was nominated, however due to recent objection and the ensuing industry debate, both Troy and Adam have decided (with respect) to withdraw their nominations”.
The CMAA Awards will be held in Tamworth in January, 2014.
