Sunburnt Country Music

Dead Beat Daddios is a collective of Melbourne-based musicians with the album Dashboard Elvis (2010) and EPs Third Time Around (2015) and House for Sale (2023) behind them. At their core are roots and country musicians Hugh Martin and Jim Carden, but it is James Stewart (Warner Brothers and Overnight Jones) who wrote their latest single, ‘Stonehaven Road’, which is the first single from their second album, Further Away. The song is having its premiere here today (link below) along with its accompanying video (watch further below).

https://deadbeatdaddios.bandcamp.com/track/stonehaven-road

‘Stonehaven Road’ is a semi-sliding-doors song that leans into wistfulness over nostalgia and never veers into mawkishness. It’s about remembering simpler, gentler childhood times and wondering what life would be like in the same place, if not at the same pace.

‘Some years ago James and I played together in a band called The Coalhouse Walkers,’ explains Martin. ‘Overnight Jones had just broken up and James was working up new material for his first solo album. This song didn’t make it onto the album but I’ve always loved it and have wanted to record a version for ages. He has such a lovely eye for detail as well… “past the cop shop and the Tarzan swing and the peppercorn tree.”‘

Martin sings the lead vocal on the track, and his sister Emilie Martin’s backing vocals enhance the storyline, as one imagines that these are the memories of more than one person, and that therefore the possibilities of ‘I wonder … if I lived on Stonehaven Road what I’d be doing now’ expand accordingly.

The accompanying video matches the emotion of the song: there is no lingering on any one scene or memory, as we move through the song and move on with the singer.

https://deadbeatdaddios.bandcamp.com

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