Barrier Daily Truth

Music dream comes true

Thursday, 2nd February, 2012

DREAM COME TRUE: Chris Edge-Dodd with his proud sister Sharon.

By Erica Visser

 Former Silverton local Chris Edge-Dodd grew up in the town listening to Slim Dusty and playing a right-handed guitar upside-down, like Jimi Hendrix. 

It was there through his mother Nellie’s music he formed his life-long love of country music, but the self-taught guitarist never thought his ultimate dream would come true.

Chris recalled seeing his idol, award-winning lead guitarist for Slim Dusty, Lindsay Butler, play on stage some 30 years ago at the Musicians’ Club.

“I’ve been into music all my life. I was brought up on country music, but when I saw Lindsay Butler at the Musicians’ Club I said to myself, ‘I’d love to stand up there next to him and perform’,” he said.

Decades later, in 2011, what was once just a dream became a reality.

Not only was he able to play with Lindsay, Chris was given the opportunity to record his debut album, ‘Back to Silverton’ in Lindsay’s Tamworth recording studio. 

“There was another Aboriginal fellow from Alice Springs and I heard one of his songs on the radio and found out he’d had help recording from Lindsay,” Chris said.

“I actually rang Lindsay and I left a message saying ‘I met you at the Musicians’ Club a long time ago.’”

Things took off from there and Chris recorded 10 of his own songs. On one, ‘Outback Boogie’, he sang as a duet with Lindsay.

“All I wanted to do was just record my songs,” Chris said.

“I didn’t expect anything else to come of it.”

But more did come when Chris’ music became popular. The first song on his album, ‘Spinifex Man’, won most popular new song and he won an award for the 2011 “Central West New Talent of the Year”.

He was also a runner-up in this year’s Gold Medallion Media Awards, where he missed out on winning the best new male talent by just one point.

Despite moving from the region as a young man to “follow work”, Chris returns to the Silver City, which he still refers to as “home”, frequently to visit old family and friends.

“I’ve been all around the country but there’s no place like Broken Hill,” he said.

Chris now lives in Maraylya, near Ceduna, where he works with heavy machinery.  

Fresh from the Tamworth Country Music Festival earlier in the month, he decided to pass through the city this week to show old friends his accomplishments.

“It just shows that if you focus on your dreams and goals and don’t let anything get in the way, you can achieve them,” he said.

“A long time ago I played in a band here with my older brother who was one of my greatest inspirations.

“And I had this music written for a long time. But when my brother passed on recently I thought ‘If I pass away these songs aren’t going to be heard’ and that was my motivation.”

Chris said that his other source of inspiration were his family. Younger sister Sharon was so happy for him as were his wife Annette and his three sons and one daughter.

So what’s next for the talented musician now his greatest dream has come true?

“Later in the year I’m going back to Lindsay Butler’s studio to record my second album,” he said.

“It still hasn’t sunk in. I never thought it’d go this far. I just wanted to record my songs.”