Sarah Grace Buckley - A song she couldn't let go becomes her solo debut single

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She wrote “Tequila In Mexico” years ago, pitched it around, and still couldn’t bring herself to let it go and that’s where this story starts. 

I’m catching up with Sarah Grace Buckley, the powerhouse singer, guitarist, and songwriter you know from the Australian country group The Buckleys, as she steps into her debut solo project with a brand-new creative lane and a whole lot of heart.

Sarah takes us behind the scenes of recording in Nashville and explains why her first solo single had to be the one she saved. We also talk about what it’s like to carry years of stage experience into a “fresh page” moment: new imagery, new sound choices, and the strange feeling of being established and brand-new at the same time. 

Along the way, she opens up about writing for other artists, how co-writing really works, and why the country scene thrives on collaboration instead of competition.

We zoom out to the bigger picture of Australian country music’s current explosion, from unexpected line-dancing crowds to the festival circuit that keeps the community connected. 

Sarah shares her long history with the Tamworth Country Music Festival and what it means to bring her full solo band to Tamworth for Toyota Presents Girls Night Out at Bicentennial Park.

If you love country songwriting, Nashville stories, Aussie music, and artists who bet on themselves, hit play, share this with a friend, and subscribe so you don’t miss what Sarah does next.

What is Sarah Grace up to at the moment?  Let's find out

Get out when you can, support local music and I'll see you down the front!!

Visit:  ThatRadioChick.com.au

Transcript

Welcome Back And Big News

Cheryl Lee 0:02

Sarah Grace Buckley is a triple threat. She can sing, she plays guitar, she's an unbelievable songwriter, and she commands the stage like someone twice her age. Part of the very popular country group, the Buckley's, consisting of the four siblings with music DNA in their blood from Dad, Mr. Buckley, who you may remember as drummer from the radiators. Sarah Grace has signed with Unified Artist Management and has just launched her debut solo project. You're with Cheryl Lee That Radio Chicken. I'd like to welcome back into the Zoom room once again, Sarah Bunkley. Lovely to see you again, Sarah. Lovely to see you too, Cheryl. Thanks so much for having me. Oh, always a pleasure. Last time we spoke, it was almost exactly 12 months ago. You were doing some writing with Alex from Kingswood.

SPEAKER_00 1:00

Yes. Yeah, absolutely. I was actually just talking to Alex yesterday and this morning about something else we have coming up.

Cheryl Lee 1:08

Well, funnily enough, I was speaking to Fergus from Kingswood on Monday. You're kidding. I might even I don't know. Do I even know what might be coming up?

SPEAKER_00 1:23

I mean we should just get that out there.

Cheryl Lee 1:28

So I first saw you at Bluesfest, and I think you were a threesome then. The Buckleys, your siblings. And then more recently, you've become a foursome. And here's the big, big, big news. Sarah Grace Buckley launches her debut solo project. Congratulations.

SPEAKER_00 1:49

Thank you. Thank you so much. Yeah, it's uh it's very, it's very exciting and strange. But no,

Why A Solo Project Now

SPEAKER_00 1:55

I'm like so stoked. It's just been such an incredible, heartwarming response and support I've got from everyone. And yeah, it's the Buckley's still doing stuff. It was just a really exciting, you know, new creative adventure, I guess. And yeah, it's it's been really cool. I was bit I was quite scared to do it. I never thought it'd be something that I was going to do, but here I am. I sort of still kind of try to pinch myself sometimes.

Cheryl Lee 2:18

So you're gonna be um very, very busy doing your solo thing and the Buckley thing sort of at the same time, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:26

Yeah, definitely, yeah. But but it's good. I I I love being busy and I kind of went through a period there where I kind of had quitened things down and was kind of, you know, not sure if I was gonna keep doing music or not. And it's just yeah, it's funny how the world works, and this is definitely I think what I meant to be doing. And yeah, the Buckleys and then this solo project and writing for other people. It's just uh yeah, definitely fallen fallen in love with music in a whole new way, and I'm just very grateful to be doing it in lots of different ways, and yeah, it's very cool.

Cheryl Lee 2:56

So the solo project happened in Nashville and Sydney. The first single, Tequila in Mexico, recorded in Nashville. Now that's out already, right? Yeah, that one just dropped a couple weeks ago.

SPEAKER_00 3:09

This is a song that I had written in Nashville a few years ago. I had written it for the Buckley's originally, but then didn't quite work for what the Buckley's you know sound is and what we were kind of going for. But I always really loved the song. I had pitched it to a few different artists over the coup last couple years and a few different people were keen to do it, but I just couldn't let it go. And I don't know, there was just something in me that was needed to hold on to it. And I didn't even know why. I just feel like, you know, you kind of know whether a song, you know, where it's supposed to belong. Or you sorry, you don't know where a song's supposed to belong,

The Story Behind Tequila In Mexico

SPEAKER_00 3:40

but you kind of know when the right thing comes along, and I just yeah, I was just like, no, I this song, I don't know what it's gonna what's gonna happen or what it's where it's gonna end up, but had to hold on to it. And when we started working on the solo projects, it just felt really like that was you know what what it had been waiting for. And um it's yeah, it's very cool that that's yeah, the first song to have launched this project, which has actually, you know, been in my orbit for a long time.

Cheryl Lee 4:05

You must have known in your heart that you were saving it for something special, and this is it.

SPEAKER_00 4:11

Yeah, yeah, exactly. It definitely feels like that. I'm a big believer in you know, the stars and the universe kind of aligning when things are meant to happen and at the right times, and yeah, it definitely feels like one of those things.

Cheryl Lee 4:23

Now, this is a a real compliment, you know. Really, Rolling Stone has described you as a masterclass in songwriting for zero grace. Now that is huge, and particularly for someone so so young.

SPEAKER_00 4:40

Yeah, it's crazy. I don't even know what to say to that when I um hear that quote. That yeah, it's such an honor. I mean, obviously, Rolling Stone is like one of the you know most respected music magazines out there, and yeah, to have that to my name is is very wild and cool. And I mean, yeah, I don't know how they came to that conclusion, but it's definitely an honor nevertheless.

Cheryl Lee 5:05

Now you mentioned you'd that you'd written some songs for other people.

SPEAKER_00 5:10

Yeah, I mean I've written uh yeah, lots of I mean, lots within the country space. I was just talking about this on another um uh just before. Yeah, Bella McKenzie's just been opening for Riley Green, and there's a song that I have on her record, which I which I absolutely love, and she's absolutely smashing it at the moment. So shout out to Bella. But yeah, lots of the um, I mean, Country Girls, Caitlin Chabot, Melanie Dyer, um written a bunch with James Johnston, written, yeah, I mean lots of people, honestly, and lots of Nashville. But yeah, mostly yeah, in the Australian kind of country space. Yeah, I mean Kingswood, yeah, lots, lots of different people.

Cheryl Lee 5:45

I think I was saying this to somebody the other day. I can't remember who, but you country artists do do the whole collaboration thing so so well. Like it it's not a competition. You write together, you play together, you perform at out back country music festivals together like a big family, don't you?

SPEAKER_00 6:07

Yeah, definitely. It really is a family. I'm very um yeah, I absolutely love our country music industry here in Australia. It's very close and tight-knit. And yeah, it's really special when everyone gets to come together at festivals

Songwriting For Others And Collaboration

SPEAKER_00 6:20

and you know, we have jam nights and you know, people just jump up. I'm always up for that. And like and whenever I'm playing a show and I run into a friend, I'm like, do you want to jump up during the set? The band always love it, throwing the songs last minute. But yeah, it's really special. It's uh a very it's a very beautiful community we have here in Australia and and overseas as well.

Cheryl Lee 6:42

Yeah. And some really great songs come out of these collaborations.

SPEAKER_00 6:46

Definitely, yeah, and it's kind of funny, like me and some of my girlfriends, like Caitlin Shabalt, Melanie Dyer, Sonny White, we'll do like just girls' trips, which to kind of end up just becoming songwriter trips as well. But we're kind of just you know, doing it just mainly to catch up with each other, but we can use you know songwriting as an excuse. And we actually came out and like we all recorded songs from this is like a year or two ago, and yeah, we we released like a collab between all of us, and a bunch of us recorded and released the songs that we wrote on that trip. So it is kind of funny, it's a good, you know, working friendships.

Cheryl Lee 7:18

That's one of the things I love about the country music scene. And goodness me, isn't that exploding?

SPEAKER_00 7:25

Yeah, it is it's so exciting to see. I was just here in Sydney in Manley, and uh they they had this rodeo night, which was a bunch of line dancing, and it was just like packed of people in their early 20s line dancing and listening to country music, and I was just like, this is absolutely insane. Like you never would have seen that, you know, five years ago, even and especially like when I was growing up, country music was very uncool. So it's just now you're super cool. Well, you know, I like to say so.

Cheryl Lee 7:55

Yeah, coincidentally, I'm going to a wild, wild west and no, on the weekends, I've got my boots boots out.

SPEAKER_00 8:05

Hey, how good. Oh, the best time. I know, I was like, I don't even have to go looking. A bunch of my friends were buying cow go boots and luckily I have them all in the closet anyway. Exactly. Ready to go.

Cheryl Lee 8:17

And we talked about country music festivals. You are returning to Tamworth. You sort of grew up in Tamworth, didn't you? Appearing in Tamworth.

SPEAKER_00 8:26

Well, yeah, definitely. Every year we've gone to Tamworth since I was about 11 years old, 11 or 12. And even, you know, before then we had done a trip or two to the festival. And yeah, I mean, I would say I grew up there because I definitely like, you know, found parts of my like found myself in a lot of ways. And you know, it was really it was yeah, it was a really special thing for me when I was younger because like I said, country music wasn't very cool, and there I was like writing country music and playing in a family band, and you know, it's school, it's kind of daggy, but then I go to Tamworth and there's heaps of people just like me that are in a similar boat. So yeah, it's a tribe. Absolutely.

Cheryl Lee 9:06

Yeah. You're heading back to Tamworth next year.

Australia’s Country Scene Is Exploding

Cheryl Lee 9:10

Co-headlining Toyota presents Girls Night out in Bicentennial Park.

SPEAKER_00 9:15

Yeah, no, I'm very excited for that one. We're gonna be it's gonna be a bunch of female artists who are all incredible, and yeah, somehow they've got me on the lineup and gonna be having my band there, doing a full Sarah Grace Buckley show, which is it's will be the first time ever in Tamworth. And I'm honestly so honored and grateful to be on that stage. It's such an iconic stage and uh such an iconic festival as well. And so to you know be doing my own solo show there for the first time is gonna be it's gonna be really unique. We played that Toredo Park stage a few times with the Buckleys, but it'll be definitely a whole different experience. I'm very excited.

Cheryl Lee 9:52

Yes, well, that's in January. Have you got any other solo performances happening between now and then?

SPEAKER_00 9:59

So, yeah, there's a few things we're kind of working on and considering putting together. I definitely would love to do some more. We have some other festival stuff that is going to be announced soon, which I'm very excited about. But I can't say too much yet, unfortunately. But watch this space. Watch this space, exactly. We're spilling all the tea here.

Cheryl Lee 10:19

So should people go to the Buckley's website? Have you got a website to find out all the dates and music?

SPEAKER_00 10:26

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So SarahGressbuckley.com and then yeah, Instagram, Facebook, and everything. It's been very funny creating new pages for everything. I had to make my own Facebook page and luckily I had an Instagram already. But yeah, TikTok and learning how to do. Apparently, that's very important these days.

Cheryl Lee 10:43

I remember the first time I saw you. I think I mentioned already that it was at Blues Fest, and I saw you and the rest of the Buckley siblings performing. And I couldn't take my eyes off you because you just commanded that stage, like someone so much older and so much more, you know. I mean, I say mature in performing, but having said that, you have been performing for a long time anyway, so it shouldn't be a surprise, but it was amazing.

SPEAKER_00 11:11

Oh god, that is so nice to hear. Thank you. That's that's very kind. It's yeah, it is a funny thing that because it's yeah, we were very young when we did Blues Fest, but have have been playing well now it's been about 14 years of the Buckley's. So yeah, I'm very I'm very grateful to have all of that experience. And now it's it's funny being a new artist in a way now with my solo thing, because it's kind of starting with a fresh page with the music and the look and the imagery and you know, deciding what we want to do and how we want it to feel, and which is really cool. But having like all of this

Tamworth Homecoming And Festival Plans

SPEAKER_00 11:45

experience from the past over a decade is a very unique position to be in. And yeah, playing things like Blues Fest, that's just unreal. Yeah. Yeah.

Cheryl Lee 11:54

Um I remember giving your dad I saw Mick Buckley in the crowd. I gave him my business card. I need to interview your children. Yes, love it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's so good. How does um how does dad feel about the you know, the progression from being with the Buckleys and now also having your own solo career too?

SPEAKER_00 12:16

Yeah, very supportive. Everyone in my family is just so supportive. We're all very close and yeah, just supportive of each other and whatever we do. Everyone's got their own things going on. And you know, Lochland has a has a honky tonk band that he does as well. The honky tonk swingers they're called, and they're they're playing at groundwater, actually. So everyone's got their own, you know, things that they do. It's it's funny being a family band, it's like it's never gonna, we're never not gonna be together or a family band in a way. So yeah, things will keep moving and we can kind of do, you know, whatever we want to do outside of that. But yeah, Lockie and Molly, Lockie surprised me actually for this. We did a launch show for my solo project, and Molly was there, she lives in Sydney as well. And then Lockie surprised me and flew off on the day and just rocked off at the venue. I was like, What are you doing here? So very cute. Yeah, very lucky.

Cheryl Lee 13:03

Oh, beautiful. Well, look, we wish you all the best. I know it's gonna go gangbusters. We're gonna play tequila and Mexico, the first single. Do you want to introduce us for us? Sure thing.

SPEAKER_00 13:19

Yeah, well, this is this is my very first song as a solo artist. I'm very excited for it to be out wherever you are in the world. Maybe you I don't know if it's time to have a shot of tequila or not, but go for it, I say. It's five o'clock somewhere. And yeah, thank you so much for having me. This is tequila in Mexico.

Cheryl Lee 13:34

You know, Champworth is one of the few music festivals that we haven't ridden the Harley to as yet. Seems to always, you know, coincide with something else, but it's absolutely on the bucket list. So all going well. I'll see you down the front at uh Bikes Genital Park in January.

SPEAKER_00 13:55

I would love that. Yes, please let me know if you end up coming. Yeah, let me know if you do end up coming. That'll be great to catch up. It won't happen overnight, but it will happen. Absolutely. Awesome. Thank you so much, and thanks for swapping the time as well. Appreciate it.

Cheryl Lee 14:07

Thank you. Bye for you. Have a great day. You too, thanks. A treat for you. Now remember, this was recorded from the front row at Blues Fest. Here are the Buckleys, including a special guest

Where To Find Dates And Music

Cheryl Lee 14:20

drum solo by dad. Mick Buckley from the Radiators. Great Radiators hit coming home.

Family Support And Final Sendoff

Cheryl Lee 18:02

Thank you so much for joining me on the Still Rocking Up podcast. Hope to catch you again next time. Get out when you can, support Aussie music, and I'll see you down the front.