MEMORIES OF KITCHEN TABLE

CAPTURED IN SONG BY COUNTRY

MUSIC `LIVING LEGEND'

By On With the Show's SHIRLEY BROUN

AUSTRALIAN COUNTRY music great Rex Dallas has released the second single off his acclaimed `Show Boat Kalang’ album.

Rex Dallas has released the second single off his latest Show Boat Kalang album called `Kitchen Table'.

The single `Kitchen Table’ was inspired by Aileen Manicaros, granddaughter of the late song writing sensation Stan Costa.

“Aileen wrote the words a couple of years ago and gave me the idea,” said Rex.

“I added to it, wrote the last verse and put a tune to it.”

Rex, who turned 80 on Melbourne Cup Day this year and has notched up more than 60 years of recording including over 50 singles and albums, said many of his songs relate to real life experiences and `Kitchen Table’ was no exception.

“The song refers to those great big kitchen tables with the big legs that many years ago were standard fixtures in most homes,” he explained.

“Aileen’s great grandmother brought this one across from Scotland where she had purchased it for 2 pence. It became part of the Costa family history. It was where they used to gather and featured legs as big as kegs,” said Rex.

Sadly the table, he said, got lost through the years and Aileen’s grandmother told her it had been sold off.

However, the latest single `Kitchen Table’ rekindles the memory of a much-loved family item around which many happy celebrations had been experienced.

CLIMBING THE CHARTS

It seems music enthusiasts love a good story for the single immediately jumped into the Country Top 40 Charts two weeks ago at Number 29, went to 25 a week later and is currently at Number 9 in the Top 10.

Accompanied vocally by his granddaughter Ashleigh Dallas who with record producer/father Brett last year won a Golden Guitar for Best Traditional Country Album in Tamworth, Rex says the single is a very bright tune that is ideal for singing along with or, appropriately, dancing around the kitchen table.

The `Show Boat Kalang’ album has, in fact, been a real family affair for the Dallas’s, many of whom have followed in Rex Dallas’s footprints for a career in music.

In fact, according to Ashleigh, the Dallas’s are also the first family to have three generations of golden guitar winners.

Rex, who lives 40km from Tamworth, is very proud of his talented family which is expected to expand further with Ashleigh expecting her first child early in 2019.

“I am so lucky to be surrounded by talented offspring especially with my own projects such as the latest album with family musicians featured on all 10 tracks,” said Rex.

Brett produced it, eldest son Lindsay played bass, younger son Shannon was on guitar, Ashleigh played fiddle and even their late son Jeffrey is heard playing didgeridoo.

“We had an old track of Jeffrey (who played both bass and didgeridoo) and it fitted in perfectly on `Borroloola Elder’, “said Rex.

LIVING LEGEND AWARDS

Rex has been a wonderful example to his family … so much so that in just the past year he has been awarded three `Living Legend’ awards.

Rex Dallas with one of three Living Legend Awards bestowed upon him in 2018.

They include the Gidgee Coal Bush Ballad Award in Pittsworth Qld, the Ken Cameron Lifetime Achievement Living Legend Award in Dubbo, and three weeks ago the Slim Dusty Festival Living Legend Award in Kempsey.

Asked how it feels to be a `Living Legend’, a humble Rex quipps “It’s better than being a dead one.”

For the first time in 40 years Rex said he will not be attending the Country Music Festival in Tamworth but says he will still be involved in the annual Country Showcase to be held at the nearby Manilla RSL during the festival to which many of his country `buddies’ will be featured.

Copies of Rex Dallas’s latest single `Kitchen Table’ and his album ``Show Boat Kalang’ are available through JB Hi-Fi or Sanity.

Please follow and like us: