MANY of the biggest artists on the Australian country music scene will lend their talent in support of greater recognition for Slim Dusty and the centre honouring him.
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Lee Kernaghan has mustered many of his musician peers for the Slim Dusty Foundation and will appear at a fundraising concert in Sydney on June 13 - the 86th anniversary of the birth of the artist born David Gordon Kirkpatrick, in Kempsey.
Rooty Hill RSL Club will be the venue for the concert featuring Kernaghan, Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson, The McClymonts, Adam Harvey, The Wolfe Brothers, and the Adam Eckersley Band.
Funds raised from the event, which will include an auction of memorabilia, will go to the Slim Dusty Centre, at South Kempsey.
The musicians involved are also backing a campaign for formal recognition of June 13 as ‘National Slim Dusty Day’, alongside other well known Australians.
Keith Urban and his wife Nicole Kidman have joined entrepreneur and the foundation’s patron Dick Smith, radio personality Ray Hadley, musician Beccy Cole and Slim Dusty’s widow Joy McKean in signing an online petition calling for the permanent gazetting of the day.
The concert will be broadcast at participating licensed clubs across NSW and Queensland, via a link-up network.
Slim Dusty Foundation chief executive Kathryn Yarnold is hopeful the Kempsey-Macleay RSL Club will be involved with the concert, by hosting a link-up event for locals.
She is calling on the Macleay community to show their support for Slim Dusty on his birthday.
“As with the inaugural Slim Dusty Day last year, I would hope that local people wear their Akubras and country attire to school, work, the shops, or whatever they’re doing,” she said.
“What a wonderful and exciting event for the project to have people of that calibre coming forward to organise and participate in the concert and support the petition.
“It shows that support for Slim Dusty is not only out there, but increasing.
“The initial contact was made with Lee Kernaghan and it has snowballed.”
Ms Yarnold has urged the community to sign the petition that will be forwarded to the federal government.
The foundation has been promoting the petition through its website slimdustycentre.com.au and its social media.
Kernaghan said Slim Dusty had touched hearts and minds through his music and his life and a gazetted day in his honour was a way for Australians to celebrate their musical heritage, the man himself, and their everyday compatriots that made the country great.
“In the steps of Banjo Paterson and Henry Lawson, Slim Dusty embedded our culture and heritage into history,” he said.
Keith Urban said he had been forever changed by Slim Dusty’s passion for music, people and Aust- ralia.
“Slim Dusty is not only the voice of Australian country music, but the voice of the spirit of Australia,” he said.
“Nic and I are proud to add our voices in support of recognising June 13 nationally as ‘Slim Dusty Day’.”
Ms Yarnold said she hoped many music fans from the Macleay would make their way to Rooty Hill for the concert and said the event would benefit the community here in the long run by helping to get the Slim Dusty Centre up and running.
Tickets, which start at $120 - including a two-course meal and drinks - are available by visiting rootyhillrsl.com.au and following the links.
