COUNTRY music sensation Shandell Tosoni has come a long way since her first live gig at the Dimbulah Junction Hotel in Far North Queensland as a fresh faced 14-year-old with a passion for singing and talent to boot.
Performances and accolades at the Tamworth Country Music Festival and Gympie Muster, musical collaborations with some of Nashville’s best songwriters and a starring role in the Australian Outback Spectacular may have become the norm, but the talented singer-songwriter has never forgotten where she comes from.
That’s why she chose her hometown of Dimbulah – an agricultural town in a former tobacco-growing region, 47km west of Mareeba – to launch her debut EP, Take It Or Leave It, last month.
Despite being an accomplished stage performer Shandell admits to being nervous.
“This (the EP) is the love of my life at the moment and the launch was like bringing my baby into the world,” Shandell said.
She needn’t have worried as the crowd made sure she received a welcome home she’ll never forget.
“The reception was fantastic,” Shandell said. “I got a standing ovation which brought a tear to my eye. It was overwhelming.
“We sold double the amount of CDs we thought we would and people were lined up for ages to get autographs.”
Take It Or Leave It, Shandell explained, gives an insight into who she is.
The title track, with lyrics of “a heart of gold” and “a typically hard-headed Scorpio”, captured Shandell the first time she heard it as it resembles a little of the 22-year-old who grew up on the family’s mango and lime orchard, 7km out of Dimbulah.
The EP features tracks written by former Mossman country music artist Kylie Sackley, now a successful songwriter in Nashville, and fellow Aussie writer Phil Barton.
A trip to Nashville in 2004 as the youngest ever winner and first Australian musician to win the prestigious International Songwriters Award for Here With Me, opened her eyes to the world awaiting her and set her on her current path.
Shandell hopes the EP will help expand her audience base.
Work on the album, due for release in 2010, is underway and for the moment Shandell plans to release it, like the EP, as an independent artist to afford her more control. She also hopes to include her own songs.
Shandell draws inspiration for her music from her family - parents Frank and Sherrie, and sister Chakira, grandparents and a large extended family – who drove hours to get her to talent quests, helped her gain experience playing with live bands and have encouraged and supported her all the way.
When she is not gracing the stage, Shandell puts her energies into her other “love” - horses - one special man in particular, a nine-year-old gelding called Mack, who shares her Tamborine home and travels with her to rodeos where they compete in barrel racing and calf roping.
It was her talent on horseback that landed her a lead female role and pre-show performing role in the award-winning Australian Outback Spectacular on the Gold Coast.
Six nights a week Shandell performs alongside 23 other riders and 58 horses in a story about two rival cattle stations.
Its tough work – bareback and soon to be trick riding – but Shandell wouldn’t have it any other way.
Neither would she give up her love of performing where she feels right at home and thanks to her second “family” at the spectacular she is able to combine both passions.
In the immediate future, Shandell will be promoting her EP – available at selected outlets and from www.myspace.com/shandelltosoni and www.shandell.com.au
She also has to find time to study at the Sienna Jazz Academy in Italy where she’ll receive free tuition as the winner of the Pellegrino Scholarship.
In five years time, Shandell hopes to have secured a recording contract with a major label, co-write an album and make waves in the American and European markets.
Sounds like a golden dream but if the last five years are anything to go by this fiercely driven young lady is well on her way.
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