Brooke McClymont and Adam Eckersley, partners in life and in music, were thrilled to be among those asked to be Stranded in the Snowys.
This isn't the grim fate the title might suggest.
Stranded in the Snowys is a new music festival that will take place in February next year, run by the Music in Paradise group, which usually hosts music and surfing events in places such as Bali and the Whitsundays.
McClymont and Eckersley will be joining a varied lineup that includes Jimmy Barnes, Richard Clapton, Mahalia Barnes & the Soul Mates and the Black Sorrows.
"It'll be awesome - it's a great line-up," Eckersley said.
McClymont said their music was a blend of her modern country style and his southern rock.
The single What Are You Waiting For? from their second album Up, Down & Sideways was inspired by not being able to find a parking spot in the middle of Sydney and wondering why anyone would choose to live in the city.
In January they won three Golden Guitar Awards at the Tamworth Country Music Festival: APRA AMCOS Song of the Year (Star of the Show), Apple Music Single of the Year (Memory Lane) and Country Music Capital News Group or Duo of the Year.
Their 10-year-old daughter Tiggy Eckersley co-wrote Star of the Show, becoming the youngest winner of a Golden Guitar.
"She was playing the piano," Eckersley said, "and Brooke and I heard her playing a riff over and over again.
"We thought it was really cool and asked if we could write a song with it - she wrote the song with us."
A fourth songwriter Dan Biederman, also shared the award.
It remains to be seen whether their three-year-old will follow in the family's musical footsteps.
Up Down & Sideways received an ARIA nomination for best country album and debuted at #1 on the Australian ARIA all genre album chart.
Audiences at each performance at the Stranded in the Snowys festival will be limited to 500.
McClymont and Eckersley hold their own even more intimate performance events, 14 so far, under the title Hang at the Wang, at their farm on the NSW Mid North Coast near Nabiac.
They met as teenagers living on the same street in Grafton and got together as musical and life partners about a decade later.
They each have their separate own projects.
McClymont is one third of the Australian country music trio the McClymonts with her sisters Mollie and Samantha.
They have enjoyed 200,000 album sales, 40 million streams, two ARIA awards, 15 Golden Guitar awards and other honours.
In 2022, McClymont appeared as a contestant on the eighth season of I'm A Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here! and came second (Dylan Lewis was the winner).
Eckersley's five Golden Guitar awards include New Talent of the Year (2015).
The following year he won in the Group or Duo of the Year category with the members of The Adam Eckersley Band whose 2014 debut album, The First Album, debuted in the Top 5 on the ARIA Country Chart.
But most of McClymont and Eckersley's time now seems to be spent working together - much of it on the road.
Eckersley said, "We do a lot of pub and club shows" and in 2024 so far they have 50 shows booked.
"We normally do about 60 or 70 shows a year," he said.
Stranded in the Snowys is on at Lake Crackenback Resort from February 12 to 16, 2024. See: musicinparadise.com.au
