Keesy Timmer at The Listening Room Cafe

Sackley currently resides in Nashville, more than 10,000 miles from her hometown in Port Douglas, Queensland, Australia where she conquered the Aussie country music world, winning The 2002 Country Music Association of Australia’s coveted “Best New Talent” a.k.a. CMA Horizon Award. At the time, Sackley was just a teenager coming off her successful Australian run as the country’s winner of “Star Maker,” which included a C.D single released through a ABC/Universal Music, various performances throughout Australia’s largest music festivals and the sponsorship of a brand new Toyota Camry for the course of the Star Maker year. “Star Maker opened the doors to many great things for me,” says Sackley. After working with Toyota for a year, the automaker decided to re-sign Sackley as the ‘youthful face’ for Australia, targeting the younger demographic and featuring the young artist in a series of advertising campaigns and participating in various promotional events for the motor corporation. Following the success of her debut single (released as part of her winning Star Maker) “Love’s like a train” (ABC/Universal), Sackley took home the CMAA’s “Best New Talent.” Former winners of “Best New Talent” include the likes of Adam Brand, Sara Storer and Nashville based Aussies - Sherrie Austin and Keith Urban. The young artist also began working with INXS’s Kirk Pingilly and Daniel Jones of Savage Garden on various projects. Shortly after the CMAA, the award-winning Sackley ventured to Nashville to further develop her talents as a songwriter and explore the possibility of breaking into the US market as a performing artist. She currently works in Nashville as a staff songwriter for Faith Hill producer Scott Hendricks’ Big Tractor Music Publishing, where she is already making waves in Music City with major-label artist cuts and co-writing sessions with top dogs Kim Ritchey, Michael Dulaney (writer of Faith Hill’s “The Way You Love Me) and Gary Burr (writer of numerous hits for Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Patty Loveless, Clay Aiken and more). Recently, Sackley also secured one of her tunes on the upcoming LeAnn Rimes album, slated for release in 2004.