Album of the Year: Country's Calling, with Cathy Briant & Charles Jenkins
The RegenNarration
What happens when a regenerative farmer decides the land deserves a soundtrack? Cathy Briant joins us alongside Australian music legend Charles Jenkins (of Icecream Hands and other fame) to tell the story behind Country’s Calling, the album launched at the recent Grounded Festival.
Country's Calling stemmed from the trials in Cathy's journey to becoming a regenerative farmer in Victoria’s Gippsland region. During a particularly difficult time in her life, Cathy discovered how deeply music could help. So she found herself asking: what if music could help us listen to the land?
She then teamed up with Charles, alongside fellow Oz music legend Douglas Lee Robertson, and young Indigenous talent Casii Williams, and Country’s Calling was the result. It’s wonderful, and we hear plenty of it in this rollicking ride of emotion, groove and inspiration.
It begins with some of Cathy's family history and farming pressure: rising costs, stressed relationships, sleepless nights and the deep ache of watching land and livelihoods pushed to the edge. Then Cathy shares how she became a lyricist out of nowhere, by letting the land lead. While Charles explores the craft of making it all work together in great songs.
Along the way we talk and listen to some favourite tracks like “Song For A Cow,” “Bare Ground,” “Best Foot Forward” and “My Name Is Soil, Don’t Call Me Dirt,” including why naming something can be the start of respect and relationship.
We also zoom out to the bigger picture: the parallels between farmers and musicians trying to stay viable, the role of community, and why we back Bandcamp as a direct way to support artists. A portion of sales also goes to the Bionutrient Food Association, connecting soil microbial diversity to nutrient density and human health.
If you love thoughtful songwriting, regenerative farming, thriving soil biology and real world hope, subscribe, share this one with a friend, and leave a review so more people find it. Thank you!
Recorded 11 June 2026.
Title image of Cathy by Alan Benson at Grounded Festival 2026, and of Charles off his website.
Accompanying the introduction to this episode is Around the Island – Night Ambience, SFX by Charles Rose (from Artlist).
You can hear that episode with Dan Kittredge and Matthew Evans in ep. 283, A Superhuman Finale to Grounded Festival WA: The Nutrient Density Conundrum.
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