Casey Barnes was poised to make a name for himself on the lucrative US country music scene in early 2020 when COVID hit.
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He had already signed with a US agency and momentum was building with the release of his second album, Town Of A Million Dreams, in April. Then the pandemic forced him to press "pause" on his overseas ambitions.
Barnes was disappointed but didn't let it get him down for long.
"We'd been over there and had a couple of really important meetings and signed with a big agency called WME, plus I'd just done some big shows in Kansas City and Nashville," he said.
"Thankfully it's given me an opportunity to build more of my story here in Australia."
Over the past 18 months Barnes has had four No.1 songs on the Australian country radio charts, and eight of his songs have surpassed 1 million streams. His all-time streams are closing in on 20 million.
Town Of A Million Dreams debuted at No.16 on the ARIA Albums Chart and No.1 on the Australian Country Chart, the iTunes Country and All Genre Charts. It has now chalked up more than 60 consecutive weeks in the ARIA Country Albums Chart.
Barnes collected an ARIA nomination for Best Country Album and also scored an APRA Award Nomination (Most Performed Country Work) and an AIR Award Nomination (Country Album of the Year), before being crowned Artist of the Year at the 2020 Gold Coast Music Awards.
Fast forward a year and for Barnes, patience has indeed proved to be a virtue.
He performed at the 2021 Golden Guitar Awards - where he was nominated in four categories - and last weekend was named Artist of the Year for the second year running at the 2021 Gold Coast Music Awards.
His single Come Turn Me On is on some of the biggest US country music playlists and, of his 200,000-plus monthly listeners, more than 25 per cent are from the US.
It's a solid foundation for him to build on as the world begins to open up to touring artists.
"We've been lucky and have done a bunch of shows up here in Queensland over the past few weeks - it feels like we are on another planet at the moment. It's really strange," he said.
"I've done some very random gigs recently. We just want to take them while they're here. You never know what's around the corner so while we can work, we won't say no."
It helps to have veteran Australian concert promoter Michael Chugg in his corner. Barnes signed with Chugg Music in 2019.
"Putting the album out last year, even though we were in the middle of COVID, was the best thing we could have done," Barnes said.
"We've become best mates - Chuggy's like a second dad to me. He's passionate about Australian music and wanting to put it on a global scale."
With Chugg's help Barnes has followed in the footsteps of crossover country stars Keith Urban and Morgan Evans by having songs played on mainstream commercial radio.
"That's what has made the biggest difference for Morgan with Day Drunk and a few other tracks of his that did really well," Barnes explained.
"I've been lucky enough to have had two or three songs that have had plays, and Come Turn Me On was added to Triple M nationally.
"My sound really does cross over. It's got country and rock elements to it but the guys I've worked with produce a lot of pop records.
"We're merging some of my headspace with theirs and the blend of the two creates this magic mix which seems to have worked really well."
The second single from his yet-to-be-announced new album is God Took His Time On You, a heartfelt ballad that is a change of pace for the up-tempo Barnes.
"I teamed up with my US buddies in Brown & Gray co-writing tracks for this next album and we knew straight away this song was something really special.
"Every lyric in this song is a dedication to the one you love. I think is the ultimate tribute of how perfect you feel your partner is."
The album is due for release in early 2022 and will be followed by a national tour. Barnes can't wait.
"If [overseas success] happens, it happens; if it's meant to be, it's meant to be. In the meantime we'll just keep pushing out the best music we can, and putting on the best shows we can," he said.
"I love performing live - taking songs on the road and testing them out with the crowd. And what's even better is when they're singing the words back. That's really special."
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