By Ali Darrington
Finding your tribe is often life-changing, and so it was the case for singer-songwriter Benny Allen, resulting in his latest single, Never Knew I Was Country.
The singer-songwriter from the Dandenong Ranges has found his calling after discovering country music in 2018.
When Allen returned from his first Tamworth Country Music Festival in 2018, he wrote the autobiographical track, Never Knew I Was Country.
“It wasn’t until the band I’d been playing in, folded, that I went to the guitarist with a couple of songs and he said they sounded country,” Allen said.
“The songs that I’d been writing were for my own benefit and the guitarist produced the first two homemade singles that I recorded- Girl I Never Had and Yellowstone.”
Allen decided if he had a country song, he should look into performing at the Tamworth Country Music Festival and discovered The Academy, The two songs went out on AMRAP and CRS distribution and radio stations began playing Yellowstone.
Six months before Allen’s graduation from The Academy Allen had only taken the stage as a soloist, but had been playing keys and doing backing vocals in indie rock bands prior to that.
Allen’s previous single, We Will Remember, made the top 10 AMRAP Regional Chart and his new single, Never Knew I Was Country was released to radio on June 28 and is available on the album of the same name.
