Oscar Litchfield is a singer-songwriter from the NSW Snowy Mountains/Ngarigo country, who released a rock EP, Front & Centre, in 2018 not long after finishing school and the single ‘Places’ in 2019. He grew up in the country and has been playing and writing songs from a young age, and his new single, ‘No Place Like Home’, is firmly in the country music camp. It tells the story of Litchfield’s experiences during his first national tour after the release of the EP, of the places he visited and people he met, and is one of several songs he has written while on the road.
Litchfield has a deep voice that no doubt cuts through noisy crowds in pubs – when he’s able to play live – and which sounds as if it could be turned towards powerhouse rock songs; in its current incarnation it’s a raconteur’s voice, which is to say he lets us hear the smiles and sighs in it as he tells stories in his lyrics. It’s a voice that makes the listener feel like they’re close to the story, and to the storyteller.
While there haven’t been many opportunities for musicians to play live over the past few months, Litchfield’s stated aim is to ‘stay on the road, release new music and play live for as long as possible’. And it will be intriguing to see what his next releases are like, since he clearly suits several genres. It might be a cliche to say that country music would be the winner if decides to stay with that genre – but it’s the truth.