Linke to headline big bash

Western Australian Country Music female vocalist of the year Kate Linke will be the special guest performer at the Rocky Country Music Club’s seventh birthday bash next month.

Linke will travel from Moora to the event, which will showcase a range of songs from her two albums Red Dirt and Stay Where You Are.

“It’s nice to get down and play somewhere that I don’t usually play,” she said.

Growing up on a station 400km east of Wiluna, Linke said country music was part of her life, influenced strongly by her dad.

“Dad wasn’t a professional singer, but he was always singing around the house,” she said. “And we were always singing in the car. When you lived on the edge of the desert, they were always long trips.”

Piano lessons and classical music became a focus, but Linke rekindled her love of country music when she listened to it with a friend at 16.

“I remember thinking ‘this is cool, this is my life’,” she said.

“I don’t listen to much contemporary music anymore. I used to when I was young, but there is so much country music out there.”

Linke said it was the love of the stories in songs which attracted her to the genre.

“Contemporary music does not have a strong melody-driven message,” she said. “In country, it’s all about the music and how you sing it. As a singer, the song is all about the story.”

Despite plenty of accolades for her work, including WA Country Music gongs for Independent Country Album of the Year (2011) and Senior Songwriter of the Year (2010), Linke said she continues to participate in guitar, singing and songwriting lessons.

“I think they are starting to pay off,” she laughed.

Home for Linke will always be in country WA and she said she was always working towards the next release.

“I’m not the sort of person to uproot my life and head east for country music,” she said.

Linke and cabaret-style band Frisco will provide entertainment for the RCMC’s birthday party on Saturday, April 6 at the Safety Bay Bowling and Recreation Club.

Entry to the event is free.