Album Notes

Part swing chanteuse, larrikin cowgirl and passionate witness, Aussie singer songwriter Tracey Bunn is hard to pigeonhole. Her debut solo album "By The Wayside" recorded in Nashville and produced by fellow Aussie Anne McCue, is a mighty collection of songs that reflect her extensive travels and experiences along the way. She draws inspiration from Irish shores, the seedy soul of New Orleans, 40's jazz to 60's jangle pop, all tied together with an unmistakable Aussie rock flavor, courtesy of Anne McCue, Bones Hillman (Midnight Oil) and Mark Moffatt.
Tracey has spent over 20 years honing her craft. She toured relentlessly in venues and festivals across Australia, Ireland, Europe and the UK, both solo and with her original band the Toe Sucking Cowgirls. Her exuberant live shows have garnered praise around the world and her songwriting has drawn a swag of awards.
With a powerful voice and gutsy style she grabs her audiences, finds the remarkable in the ordinary, and swings from rollicking sing-a-longs to moody ballads and tender songs of yearning.
Her lyrical landscape is found in mining towns, remote pubs, luckless love affairs, and unforgettable characters. She travels across this emotional battlefield, writes the tune—then shoots the survivors.

The songs on 'By The Wayside' are rich with plaintive reflections on people and places and some intensely personal moments. That doesn’t mean the music itself is fragile though. Indeed, opening track ‘Adelaide’ presents reflections on that city in robust, jangling guitar pop that’s a little reminiscent of that great Falling Joys/Hummingbirds era. The influence of McCue is apparent (her guitar playing is everywhere), but Bunn’s voice and, more importantly, personality stand out compellingly.
Martin Jones RHYTHMS MAGAZINE April 2011

“Tracey Bunn is a Darwin native, a singer-songwriter best known for her work with the Toe-Sucking Cowgirls. Recorded in Nashville by label-mate (and kindred spirit) Anne McCue, her first solo album is lean, direct, and no-nonsense, testament perhaps to twenty hard-scrabble years on the road. A blend of a rootsy rock, country swing, and 60′s-flavoured guitar pop, the songs express mixed feelings of desire, regret, and wanderlust, leavened with a healthy dollop of good humour. ****”
Brian Yatman – ALTERNATIVE MEDIA GROUP

“Darwin diva Tracey Bunn bit the bullet to join the huge expatriate Aussie posse in Nashville. The former Toe Sucking Cowgirl enlisted another ex-pat Anne McCue to produce her latest ten-song disc By The Wayside in Music City. Bunn kicks off with nostalgia-fuelled Adelaide - imagery is her strong point while her gypsy wanderlust, pain of found and lost again love, is echoed in biographical Wishes. Running - the salient signpost to the damsel's demise - drips with rural roughage as her beau flees. "We had a love that set the night on fire/ tight as a drum, as strong as fencing wire." Not even fencing wire can withstand nature or human desire to flee as our floods and fires remind us. Bunn's imagery reigns as her character primes her pathos with lovelorn lava as she reaches her finale - the title track.”
Dave Dawson – NU COUNTRY, BEAT MAGAZINE

“If Shania is the painted, pouting, princess of country then Tracey Bunn is the no-nonsense tomboy of the genre… her honest heartfelt songs convict her of the heinous crime of being a fine writer, observer and teller of tales. She is a woman who demands we listen and then delivers.”
Michael Mee – MAVERICK MAGAZINE UK