It has been a lifetime in the making, but we were blessed with the news of the forthcoming “Slim & I” documentary. The film tells the story of Australia’s King & Queen of Country Music – Slim Dusty and Joy McKean. Their contribution and influence on the Australian country music industry is unparalleled and the opportunity to get an in-depth behind the scenes look at the journey is one we can’t wait for.
With country music originally finding its roots in the South of the United States of America, primarily in the Appalachian Mountains, the history and evolution of the sound has been well documented. Most recently Ken Burns created the docu-series “Country Music” (which can be streamed on SBS), however, after watching this, as a keen Aussie country enthusiast, it left me wondering why so much of the history of our rich musical tapestry was yet to be told.
This documentary goes a long way to remedying that, celebrating the Australian industry starting with two of the most successful artists in Aussie music history.
For over 50 years country music legend Slim Dusty and his wife Joy McKean trail-blazed their way across Australia performing, writing and collecting songs of the bush and its people. They created a musical legacy that to this day continues to entertain and inspire, a catalogue of plain speaking yet profoundly insightful music documenting the rural Australian experience. Theirs is perhaps one of the greatest partnerships in Australian music history.
SLIM & I is a feature documentary that tells the incredible story of that partnership and of the brilliant woman who lived beside, rather than behind, the legend. Australia’s own “Queen of Country Music”, Joy McKean.
Slim & I is due to hit Australian cinemas on August 20th, check out the trailer: