Watty Thompson
In a gloriously unabashed antipodean drawl, bush balladeer Watty Thompson explores themes of inward and outward love, togetherness, and a desire to strive and live beyond the material. It’s affirming, joyous and inspiring, all played out against a background of rollicking country flavoured Australiana folk.
Watty plied his trade for over a decade, treadin’ sticky carpets with various bands before making for the rugged coastland and the mountains of the Otway Ranges to bunker down and craft material for his dream project. As he wrote and gathered a cohort of friends around him, Thompson found he was creating something that held a new space for the listener. That space was one of love and empathy, where hard won experience could be readily shared, a space big on community, a space big on honesty, a place big on love.
Voted Music Victoria’s Regional Artist of the Year in 2023, Watty has connected with a growing number of believers through stellar showings at various festivals and sold-out performances across the country.
Youtube:
www.youtube.com/@wattythompson
Audio:
https://wattythompson.bandcamp.com/album/watty-thompson
Social media:
www.instagram.com/wattythompson
www.facebook.com/wattythompsonmusic
Annie-Rose Maloney
Annie-Rose Maloney writes country-ish music about the deep kernels of pain we all carry around in our pockets. Fast becoming a favourite in the alt-folk worlds, Annie-Rose Maloney’s highly anticipated debut album, Circle Walking, was released earlier in 2025. A project grounded in the simple values of sincerity, love, and truthfulness.
Raised on Wadawurrung Country with a piano in the house and a granny who yodelled at bedtime, Annie-Rose grew up inspired by the likes of K.D.Lang’s ‘Hymns of the 49th Parallel’, The Be Good Tanyas and The Waifs. After, she played a single One Day International (ODI) for the Australia women's cricket team against India in July 2011, she started and ended her first award-winning band, Murdena, before spending the last decade honing her solo project - only now coming into fruition.
Annie-Rose has a simple ethos when it comes to writing a song. It must have a pulse, it must feel nice to sing, and it must bear a truthfulness about our human experiences. Her assured presence holds the audience gently as they move through moments of heartbreak, loneliness and elation.
Brodie Buttons
From the shearing shed to the scrub, songs both new and old Brodie Buttons will stare you down and hit you where it hurts.
Travelling all over chasing work and the music he’s found a way of crooning an old ballad or thumping out some blood boiling mountain tune on the banjo that can stop a dog in its tracks.