Say what, Daddio …?

 

 

The Dead Beat Daddios is a loose collective of Melbourne roots and country musicians anchored by Hugh Martin and Jim Carden. Further Away is their fourth release following their debut album Dashboard Elvis in 2010 and the EPs Third Time Around (2015) and House For Sale (2023).

Following the wistful and nostalgic single Stonehaven Road and the classic and melancholy alt-country sound of The Letter (both of which featured on ABC Country and the latter on Stuart Coupe's Dirt Music), the band released their third single Toast of the Town in August. The song also featured on the Sept/Oct Rhythms Magazine sampler.

The song is another example of the effortless quality of Martin's writing and delivery, very much in a Paul Kelly style where melody and narrative coexist in harmony. Toast Of The Town song is enhanced by the beautiful counter vocal of Hugh's sister Emilie Martin, as the pair tell the story of two small town lovers.

"The towns around where I live produce great football players. And the draft is the aspiration of every talented young player," explains Martin. 

“This song tells the story of a young couple who had everything going for them. But life sometimes sends you down a different road from the one you thought you were on, and that’s what happens to Tracy and Shane.”

The Daddios who Martin and Carden gathered for this recording have played in some of Melbourne’s best loved country, blues and indie acts. From the Warner Brothers and Chequerboard Lounge to The T-Bones, Luxedo, Penthouse Paupers, Rich Webb, the legendary Elroy Flicker (aka Paul Cumming), The Pheasantry, Melbourne Ska Orchestra, the Tonalists and Mr Cassidy.

As a bass player, guitarist and keyboard player Martin has played with the T-Bones, Paul Cumming, Rich Webb, the Dufranes and The Cracked Jaffers. 

Carden is an integral part of long running Melbourne band The Warner Brothers, former drummer with the T-Bones and currently holds the drum seat in the Rich Webb Band.

Since mid-2024 the band has been playing gigs regularly in Melbourne and across regional Victoria. Sometimes as a five or 6-piece, often as a 3-piece with a focus on the vocal interplay between the Martin siblings, Hugh and Emilie.

ABOUT THE ALBUM
Memories are always tantalising glimpses of the past that slip further from our grasp with time, making Further Away the perfect title for the new album.

“In one way or another all the songs are about memory - of people, landscapes, past relationships and how they change us,” says Martin. “But memories change over time no matter how hard we try to hold on to them.”

Across the album the band display a fine range of styles, with country-rock at its core. There's the upbeat barroom groove of the title track and '1000 Lives', the infectious, harder rocking alt-country of 'Standing Still' and the sublime, bluesy rhythms and licks of 'One Thing'.

There are tales of childhood fishing trips ('Shady Creek'), a post-breakup scenario ('High Time'), and on the closer 'Beacon', Martin meditates on the theme of regret, over some fine Fender Rhodes and Hammond organ courtesy of Mick Collopy.

"Life operates in the grey zones around possibilities. But so often we think “if only I’d done this or that, things would definitely have been different."

Further Away is available on vinyl and CD, as well as hi-fi digi download at our Bandcamp page.

We're also on Spotify, of course.

PRESS
“What the Dead Beat Daddios are doing today isn't a million miles from what the much-missed Greedy Smith was doing in Mental As Anything. They've just dialled up the country and dialled down the pop a little.”
- Rhythms Magazine

"Stonehaven Road’ is a semi-sliding-doors song that leans into wistfulness over nostalgia and never veers into
mawkishness."
- Sunburnt Country Music

“... the effect of having two singers is to give the story the sense of having being witnessed and remembered by others."
- Sunburnt Country Music on ‘Toast of the Town’

"Great music in the country and kinda-country genres isn’t just for those of us here in the southern states. There  are tunes brewing in Brisbane, as the Dead Beat Daddios prove." 
Sunburnt Country Music on Dashboard Elvis