IT has finally happened . . . and what a knockout it is!
Johnny Green's Blues Cowboys have released their debut CD, appropriately titled At Last, after 10 years of quality gigging.
The band - Johnny Green of Lorn on guitar and vocals, Flash Sheedy of Currabubula on guitar and steel guitar, Grunter of Tuncurry on guitar, Ed Matzenik of Maitland on cedar bass and Demo Dempsey of Woodville on drums - is unique.
Imagine a Hank Williams/T-Bone Walker hybrid blasting from the wireless in a sleek 1950s Cadillac with fins bigger than Texas, the thump of thunderous rain sizzling in the desert sun all around and you have something close to the feel of the Blues Cowboys.
Each member has too much fantastic history to document in one story.
It is better to concentrate on the future, which looks bright after the recent Tamworth Country Music Festival.
They played to packed houses at the Tudor Hotel and Joe McGuire's and sold more than 250 copies of At Last.
Public relations people from several record companies dropped their cards in Green's pocket.
'This is the right time,' Green, a Golden Guitar winner with The Three Chord Wonders in 1987, told The Post.
'Until now it wasn't right to do a CD, but Grunter joined a few years back and he's the secret element.'
It features so many classics: from the timeless Hank Williams' commentary on the cowboy life, Lost Highway, to the late Australian bush balladeer Stan Coster's full steam ahead rocker, Claypan Boogie.
In between are cuts such as Red Cadillac and a Black Moustache, Barmaid In The Honkytonk Downstairs and Death Don't Have No Mercy.
The Cowboys will launch At Last at Maitland's Grand Junction Hotel on Saturday night. Copies will be available for $20.
Newcastle blues fans can simply hop on a train, as the Grand Junction is bang opposite Maitland railway station.
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