Brian Wilkie @ Cary's Lounge

It’s been a diverse musical journey for Steve Doyle since he first stepped on stage as a cocky nine-year-old with a one song repertoire. Back then, Buddy Williams, Slim Dusty and Stan Coster played on his stereo intermingled with INXS, Crowded House, and The Black Sorrows. These differing musical influences gave Steve a solid introduction to music and subsequently encouraged him to develop his own style, one which is hard to attribute to one genre alone, but clearly exhibits a strong country/roots grounding. Steve spent his early days on the Victorian country music club circuit competing in talent quests and clocking up wins in Bendigo, Maryborough, Cohuna, and also the Top Of The State talent quest at the Mildura Country Music Festival. During this time Steve was assigned the role of lead guitar and vocals in his family band and spent most of his teenage years travelling throughout Victoria and country New South Wales to play shows in pubs and clubs on the majority of weekends. Not satisfied with just performing other peoples songs, Steve began to write his own. These songs initially stemmed from his experiences growing up on the farm, and were subsequently influenced by his move to the city of Melbourne. Songs like She Looked Like You and The Lady proved successful at the Tamworth Country Music Festival and New Zealand Golden Guitar awards. Following on from there, songs such as Where The Highway Leads (AKA She Thinks That’s Too Far), In The Country, and If I Know You were successful in songwriting contests around Australia and also in New Zealand. Steve’s later works, including A Car Load Of People and Save Your Heart also proved successful at the Zealand Golden Guitar Awards in 2004. Other highlights of Steve’s career have been performing at the Edinburgh Festival, graduation from the Australian Country Music College in Tamworth 2001, and a finalist berth in the 2004 Toyota Starmaker Quest. After releasing his debut single, In The Country in June 2002, Steve followed it up in 2005 with the release of his debut album Where The Highway Leads. Both releases were recorded in Melbourne at Woodstock Studio with the assistance of producer Joe Camilleri. The recordings feature instrumentation by artists such as Stuart Fraser (Noiseworks, John Farnham Band), Tony Floyd (Things Of Stone And Wood), Steve Hadley (Rene Geyer, Paul Kelly), and James Black (Mondo Rock, The Revelators). Steve now continues to write and perform, and is currently in the studio again in pre-production for a new release, scheduled in 2009.