Artist of the Week: Pat Kenny

CountryTown in partnership with iHeartCountry Australia is proud to announce Pat Kenny as our Artist Of The Week, following the release of his new EP, Can’t Afford Happiness.

The EP continues the former Australian Army Officer turned singer-songwriter’s exploration of sounds for modern western cinema, and contains his previous singles, Fly Me To Mars, My Enemy, Devil's In The Details and Watch It All Come Down. The latter garnered national attention, receiving rotation on ABC Country’s National playlist and was added to Spotify’s ‘New Music Nashville’ playlist.

To coincide with the release of the five-track EP, Kenny has also released the title track of the same name. The single features layers of wandering banjo, fierce harmonica, and soaring fiddle that delivers a sonic punch that would feel at home in a True Crime series trailer.

Featuring performances from prodigious singer/songwriter, Dan Parsons, swamp blues/rocker, 8 Ball Aitken, and award-winning producer, Matt Fell among others, Kenny reflects on the recording process, “To be able to work such an incredible group of talented people on this song during COVID lockdown was an absolute dream for me. All of the musicians I worked with were true professionals, and they really brought the quality of the song to another level.”

Discussing the inspiration for the track, Kenny says, “I wrote Can’t Afford Happiness after I heard someone offering the sage advice that ‘money can’t buy happiness’. I jokingly thought to myself ‘well it might not be able to buy happiness but I’m sure it could rent it’. I feel like the song’s message is fairly open to interpretation, but the essence of the track is about escaping your problems through self-medicating, and ultimately only achieving temporary happiness.”

Earlier this year, he released the EP Spark a Flood with fellow Brisbane-based singer-songwriter Kelsey Berrington, as part of his acoustic indie/folk duo project Freight Train Foxes.

Keep up to date with everything Pat Kenny and follow him on Facebook here.

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Image: Supplied