Welcome
New album 'Further Down the Road' released 23 July 2021 - order your hard copy now (see 'Music' tab above) or stream via your favourite streaming service at https://gyro.to/FurtherDownTheRoad
Based in Gerringong and Kiama, NSW, The Water Runners play a high energy blend of Australian folk. Our songs combine influences from bluegrass, country, traditional folk and roots as well as the work of contemporary folk artists like Paul Kelly, The Morrisons and The Bushwhackers. Since 2016, we have played festivals, radio, pubs, clubs and events around Australia. Tight harmonies, strong musicianship, clever song writing and great stage banter have earned us a reputation for engaging and entertaining live shows.
Our first album release was 'Heading South' in 2017. In 2019, we finished recording a second album, 'Point of No Return', under the guiding hand of Australian Bluegrass legend, John Kane (Flying Emus.)
In 2020, The Water Runners played for the first time at Tamworth Country Music Festival and were also semi-finalists in 3 categories for the Tamworth Songwriters' Association (making the finals in the Bluegrass category).
The COVID-19 lockdown put many live shows on hold in 2020 and 2021 but we managed to squeeze in as many shows as possible and spent time writing songs, rehearsing, doing radio interviews and hosting several live-stream shows. We were stoked to finish off 2020 to find out we'd won the 'Band' category and had come second in the 'Open' category in the 2020 Australian National Busking Championships!
We recorded a new album in January 2021, 'Further Down the Road' with multiple Golden Guitar award winning producer Matt Fell in Sydney. The album was released in July 2021. Folk Alliance and Sounds Australia invited us to perform their 'Folk Unlocked' Isol-Aid showcase concert early 2021, sharing our music globally.
We were thrilled to be amongst 9 wonderful nominations for The People's Choice Award for the inaugural Australian Folk Music Awards 2021. Thanks friends for all your votes. We were also happy to make the semi-finals in the 2021 Tamworth Songwriting Association Awards with 6 songs!
2022 saw festivals and live music returning and we've had the pleasure of playing the National Folk Festival, Tamworth CMF, Cobargo Folk Festival, Sydney Folk Festival and Folk By the Sea, Kiama and we played many shows at a range of different venues.
We started 2023 with a bang-Tamworth and then Illawarra Folk Festival were wonderful. We played Majors Creek and Yackandandah in March and finished the month off with a weekend residency at Tathra Hotel. We are planning to release some new music in May/June and look forward to Peak Festival in June and some exciting festival announcements are to come!
Check out our upcoming gigs and listen to/purchase our music via the 'Music' tab in the menu bar above. Please sign up to our newsletter if you'd like to stay in the loop. Thanks for dropping by!