Rockingham Holdings

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Long-time member of Aussie rock band INXS, Andrew Farriss shows that his flirtation with Nashville and country music is no shallow, fly-by-night relationship.

Filled with delightful moments of sound-craft, the second solo album from the rock auteur places him at the centre of a growing country music cosmology of performers mastering the traditional stylism without it being cultural appropriation. Hell, it’s cultural appreciation. Andrew Farriss is not a strict country music classicist. His songs are almost entirely devoid of Deep South posturing or Middle American pieties; his descriptions sharp and individuated and littered with cliches that have been turned inside out. With songs ranging from quiet country story ballads to boisterous country-rock tracks, this is a sonically sprawling record, with its punchy riffs wrapped around unusually literate lyrics, like New Yorker stories set to music from pick-up truck ads.

As heard on the flowing opening track, Gold Rush To Ghost Town, his thoughtful spins on the genre honour tradition while illuminating why it endures and how it can be moulded into new and original work. Brimming with pedal steel guitar, and  ethereal atmosphere, this song marries Americana and folk music with Andrew’s sublime vocals and sparse yet textured instrumentation, to create a mood that truly reflects the lyrics.Rolling Home, floating over bending steel chords that resemble a train rolling down a track, is built on sturdy rhythms, twists and turns, and a vocal hook that won't soon leave you. Feelings of emptiness and loss float to the surface, but the mood is light as he springs into the glistening sunshine, to leave his sorrow back in the big bad city. 

There are also a few sweet and intimate songs that have the immediacy of a pencil sketch and the depth of a mural. The reluctant acceptance of constant change is most evident on Southern Cross Shines. It’s a song that is evocative of the Australian Outback that follows in the exalted steps of the likes of Tex Morton, Buddy Williams and Slim Dusty. Just as authentic is Mending Fences. An expert in blending scrawling lyrics across expansive landscapes, through this stark realism and general looseness in the way that the music is constructed creating a wild world. A dreamy, introspective affair, Before You channels the smoothness and tenderness stylistic side with rather wonderful music that combines classic country-soul influences. Someone For Everyone explores a much wider, more country palette of textures and instruments with banjo, fiddle, pedal steel and mandolin being prominent in the mix. There’s an ear-catching and assured purity to this song that creates a vibrant resonance for the listener.

This is the sound of an old master letting go of the idea of making music that might chart, and instead making what comes to him naturally. The songs thrive because of melody and simple, direct lyrics that feel like snippets of thoughts and conversations but are too well-composed to be observations jotted down in a notebook and sung later. Time to shed the mundane and embrace the superb with Andrew Farriss, a musician dedicated to the transmission of something completely individual.

https://andrewfarriss.com

June 2026