Country Comfort…One of the highest of highlights of 2024 for me was having the honour of editing this book “One of a Kind” by Clelia Adams, one of Australia's most celebrated country music stars of all time.
To quote my own back cover notes - "One of a Kind is full of the delicious aromas and recipes of true Italian cooking, of the rattle and hum of friends, relatives and fellow musicians who supported Clelia Adams over 60 years. It's a road story, a love story and a recognition of all who drove Australia's long, dusty country highways and those who still do. It's a paean to country music. It's not just a story of success, ultimately at the highest level, but of compassion, self-belief and sheer hard work. It's a long way to the top if you want to rock ‘n’ roll - or be a country star - and Clelia takes you all the way. She truly is One of a Kind.
And I'm not exaggerating. If you love a great music biography, in fact any biographies per se, then you have to read One of a Kind. From arriving in Australia as a child when her parents migrated to the lucky country, to eventually running away from home, working at the legendary music paper Go-Set Magazine (think bands, think shenanigans) in the late 1960s/early 70s, to Led Zeppelin, Yes, John Prine, Sandy Denny, before moving to Tamworth where she sang back-up vocals on the majority of releases recorded in Australia's country music capital from the mid 70s to 2000, you would think she had done it all. Not so. She became a songwriter in her 50s and found huge success in Europe and t home, and won nearly every country music award imaginable including the 2024 Dusty Boot Awards for Services to the Country Music Industry. It is an incredible story, told with a rare passion and honesty.
I reckon there's no other music memoir like it. I can't remember anybody who veers from Led Zeppelin to Tamworth to brain tumours to ukes to genuine Italian food recipes. Mike Gee, dual Walkley Award winning journalist.