Kirsty Lee Akers is the only artist in history to have won three of the major prizes in Australian country music - Toyota Star Maker, Telstra Road to Tamworth, and a Golden Guitar - and she’s done it with a combination of great songs and high-energy live performance. Her most recent album, Wild, took the #1 spot on the ARIA Country chart, it was the fourth highest-selling country record in 2022 and received two Golden Guitar nominations. Kirsty also launched a new band, Rhinestoned, and she’s performing at the Gympie Music Muster with that band as well as under her own name. Her first Gympie was at the age of 13, when she was in a talent quest, and she’s returned as a performer several times since.

Growing up in a musical family, Akers was immersed in the world of country music from a young age and started performing at the age of three. Her mother and aunts were avid competitors in the local talent quest circuit, and Akers followed in their footsteps.

This experience of competitions helped her hone her skills as a performer, leading to her winning the Telstra Road to Tamworth at the age of 16. One of the prizes was a trip to Nashville, where Akers began her songwriting life. She’s written many songs since, and returned to Nashville several times.

In addition to songwriting, singing and performance, Akers has produced her last two albums, Wild and Under My Skin, and there’s no doubt that the knowledge and skills she has been developing since that very early start are the reason why she has accomplished so much.

Moving away from music, Akers and her husband, Jesse, appeared in a season of the popular TV show The Block, and they are now also making music together in the trio Rhinestoned, with the third member being Akers’s longtime guitarist Dan Ebbels.

The story of the formation of Rhinestone is unexpected, as Akers is frank about the reasons behind it, as she is about every facet of her career that we discussed. It’s a long conversation and it could have gone for much longer because she has such a rich career and background that there is a lot to talk about. What came across throughout the interview is her passion for music and her determination to connect with others through music. It is clearly in every fibre of her being, so intrinsic to who she is that she seems to exist almost permanently in creative flow. It was so interesting to talk to her, and I hope you find our chat interesting too.

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