Kathy's Bio

Kathy Coleman resides in the Hunter Valley of NSW & is married to Kelvin a fellow musician. Kathy originally comes from a small country town in NSW called Dunedoo, population 834. She has always been surrounded by country music, as a child at home her mother played the piano, acoustic guitar & Lap Steel, her brother the keyboard & 2 sisters played the piano. There were always plenty of sing-alongs and all the children were encouraged to join in & have some fun. Kathy learnt to play the classical guitar and to read music in primary school.

When Kathy was a teenager she entered a Talent Quest in Parkes while visiting her sister, she didn’t win, but she met a fellow there that was the President of the Hunter Valley Country Music Association & that was the start of regular practice nights, guest spots around the Hunter Valley & participation in Charity Events & Talent Quests, at which she won many trophies & this started her off on her musical journey that is still going strong today.

It was at one of these Charity events that Kathy met her future husband Kelvin; from then on they were inseparable & formed a 5 piece country covers band called “Rawhide” that played around the Hunter Valley area for many years. Kathy played acoustic guitar in the band, performed a 1/3 of the main vocals as well as backing vocals & harmonies. Performed in a variety of venues playing every week, which gave Kathy valuable experience in live performance.

When the band finished up Kathy formed a duo called “Double Deal” with her husband Kelvin and each shared lead vocals. Kathy learnt how to play the Bass guitar & she taught Kelvin how to play the acoustic guitar, as he was the drummer in their previous band, they continued to play as a duo for many years. Kathy loves the live performance side of music & entertaining the crowd as well as a love of country music that has been with her since childhood.

 

Kathy has played a huge number of gigs at clubs, pubs, Weddings, Tocal Field days, Steamfest & the 4wd expos at Maitland & the Central Coast. Double Deal was also the resident band at the “Old Texas Ranch” at Raymond Terrace for a period of 7 years & for 3 &1/2 years was the resident band at “Buttai Barn” near Newcastle on most Saturday nights with the “Buckin’ Country Show” providing live music, teaching bush dancing, and organising games together with mechanical bull rides on “Nutcracker” a full 4 hours of fun, laughter & entertainment, ending in December 2011, with the owners of Buttai Barn stating “It was the busiest Christmas they have had in 15 years”.

 

Kathy attended a song-writing workshop in Tamworth in January 2006 where Allan Caswell was the tutor & it was this that inspired her to start to write her own songs. It was one of those amazing experiences that day when Kathy truly felt & knew this is what she was meant to do.

 

Kathy entered one of her songs “One Piece at a Time” in the TSA National Country Song writing Competition in Tamworth in 2009 and was a top 5 finalist. This spurred her on to record an album of all original material, titled “Waitin’ on a Good Man” which was released on the  22nd November 2009 & no she wasn’t Waitin’ on a Good Man as she already had hers’, but there were plenty of other ladies still waiting & the song was for them.

 

Kathy attended the “Jaws 2009” masterclass with Renee Grant-Williams, Karin Paparelli, Bill DiLuigi & Gary Tally from Nashville which covered, voice, guitar & song writing & was a great experience, which she thoroughly enjoyed & got a lot out of.

 

Kathy’s 1st Album “Waitin’ on a Good Man” contains 12 beautiful original country songs about life, love & emotions that we all go through. Kathy’s songs are all true stories & come from the many & varied experiences she has had & shared over the years. “I didn’t realise that I could write songs until I was a little bit older & I think it was meant to be, as I had to experience life to be able to write the songs that I am writing that are connecting with people all over the world”. “I also didn’t have the time when my children were young & it was not until they had left school & started doing their own thing that I found I had a little bit of time for myself & so the beautiful journey of songwriting began.

 

The first single “Little Piece of Heaven” from Kathy’s 1st album was released to radio on NFS 137 in December 09 & reached the Final (top 5) of the 2010 TSA National Country Songwriting Awards in Tamworth, Traditional Section and gained Kathy a finalist placing in the People’s Choice Awards Bush Ballad Section 2010 alongside Lee Kernaghan & Graham Rodger which was pretty special. A video clip accompanied the single release & did very well on CMC, making it to the top 50 clips chart. Lots of furry friends (dogs) feature in this video about getting back to the Country.

 

The second single "The Old Man's Money" was released to radio in May 2010 on NFS 140 & performed extremely well on national radio. This song gained Kathy a Finalist (top 5) spot in the TSA/Capital News New Songwriter Award 2011 & a top 10 placing (4th) in the ASA Songwriting Awards in 2010.

 

Kathy's 3rd single was released to radio on the 1st November 2010 on NFS145 being the title Track from her debut album"Waitin' on a Good Man".

 

Kathy’s 4th single “Just Friends” was released to radio on the 3rd May 2011 & did extremely well on radio in Australia. “Just Friends” is Kathy’s favourite song from her 1st Album, with the song gaining a finalist placing in the ASA Songwriting Awards in 2010.

 

Kathy was a 3 x finalist in the Country Section of the ASA Songwriting Competition in 2010 with “Just Friends” “The Old Man’s Money” & “I’m So Glad He’s Mine”. She was a 4 x finalist in the country section in 2011 with “You Should’ve Said” “I Couldn’t Help Myself” “I Can’t See You Anymore” “It’s Been a While” & was nominated for the prestigious "Rudy Brandsma Award" in the ASA songwriting Competition in 2010 & 2011.

 

Kathy was the 2010 Winner of the Gold Medallion Award for NSW New Talent of the Year.

 

Kathy originally recorded this album for herself, as this was something personal she wanted to do & she didn’t care if she didn’t sell 1 copy because the number one reason you play music for is the love of it, not the money. It just so happened that the album turned out absolutely beautiful & she wanted to share it with people out there that love true country music and songs that touch the heart, the kind of songs that make you cry and the ones that make you smile.

 

“Being able to connect with people through music is a beautiful thing, very special & so very rewarding. It brings you true happiness & makes you feel like you are really making a difference to people’s lives. I am totally addicted to songwriting & love it with a passion”.

 

Kathy completed writing all of the songs for her 2nd album in March 2011 and engaged Dan Drilling from Nashville as Producer. The album was released on the 6th November 2011 & is titled "Hot & Bothered.

 

The first single was released to radio on the 24th October 2011 & was the title track "Hot & Bothered", there was also a video clip for CMC that accompanied the single release. This song did really well on radio in Australia with people also loving the clip.

 

Kathy's new album "Hot & Bothered" made it onto the Airit/Amrap Southern Charts on the 6th December 2011 sitting at no 5, which was a fantastic response.

 

The 2nd single from Kathy's new album was released to radio in Australia & Europe in March 2012 & is titled "I'm Gonna Love You" & has charted in both Australia & Europe. Kathy music has been very well received; radio loves Kathy’s songs, which is really special when you are the singer & also the songwriter.

 

Kathy's 3rd single was released to radio on the 23rd July 2012 in Australia & in Europe in September & is a great catchy country tune called "Til the Cows Come Home"; country music radio loves the song; listeners have been contacting Kathy after hearing it on the airwaves wanting to purchase not just the song but the whole album, which is fantastic. I thank the radio presenters that are supporting my music & getting it out to the listeners, you play a very important part in the whole process.

 

Kathy's 4th single "Dunedoo Station" was released to radio in October 2012 & gained extensive radio airplay. This song also won a major songwriting award in December 2012 being the Australian Section of the National Australian Songwriting Association Songwriting Awards, the largest songwriting competition in Australia. Kathy performed this song live at the Awards Dinner & Presentation night in Sydney in Dec12 in front of 500 people.

 

Kathy won 2 songwriting awards in November 2011 at the Canberra Country Music Songwriting Awards for "Dunedoo Station" in the Australiana Section & "Why Did You Go" for the Judges Commendation Award. Both of these songs are from Kathy's 2nd album "Hot & Bothered".

 

Dunedoo Station is a true story of the history of the Railway coming to Kathy’s home town back in 1910. The town celebrated the centenary in 2010 at which time a local said to Kathy it would be nice to have a song written about the celebration, which was enough to get her started & start sifting through the hundreds of photos & pages of information to finally arrive at her song “Dunedoo Station”. Kathy has returned home & performed 2 live gigs for the town, they absolutely love this song & are very proud of it, Kathy is also very proud of it as it is where she came from.

 

Kathy gained a Finalist placing in the Country Section of the Musicoz Awards 2012 with her award winning original song "Dunedoo Station".

 

Kathy won 4 Awards at the 2012 Canberra Country Music Awards; the 1st being for Best Traditional Country Song at the Music Awards with "He Still Remembers" & 3 songwriting awards - Best Australiana Song; Best country lyrics & Best country song silver for "They Call 'em Coopers" which was released on Kathy's 3rd album "Because of You" in January 2014.

 

Kathy gained numerous finalist placings in the 2013 TSA Songwriting Awards in Tamworth with 3 songs from her Hot & Bothered album being; Til the Cows Come Home in the Contemporary section; He Still Remembers in the Ballad Section & Dunedoo Station in the New Songwriter of the Year. Kathy also gained 2 finalist nominations in the 2012 Songsalive songwriting competition being Dunedoo Station & They're too busy.

 

Kathy has a love of pedal steel which is very evident on her albums, featuring two of the finest players, Michele Rose on her 1st Album & Mike Johnson from the USA on her 2nd & 3rd Albums.

 

Kathy released her 3rd original self-penned Album "Because of You" on the 19th January 2014, which was very successful both on the charts & in the songwriting field.

 

Kathy released a new digital single 'Go Marry A Cowboy' in August 2020, and a further single on the 24.06.22 titled 'White Butterflies' from her Album "Go Marry A Cowboy'  that was released on the 27.10.23. The album contains 11 beautifully self-penned tracks about love, loss, grief and hope, as well as a Cowboy named Kenny.

 

Kathy has very high hopes for her songs & would love to see them placed in Movies, TV programs & Television commercials in the future. Kathy is no different to any other songwriter that strives to achieve success for her songs. I am interested in writing children’s songs in the future, I think I will still be writing songs when I’m 90 & loving it!