Last month, Troy Cassar-Daley released his first album in five years, the transcendent The World Today.
Thirty years into his career, Troy Cassar-Daley has cemented his status as a bonafide country music legend. The World Today, his eleventh studio album, is his most personal record to date.
The album was inspired by a brush with rock bottom, following the passing of his father in December 2019. “An old uncle of mine used to say ‘it’s not all beer and skittles’ and that saying is so true. Over the last couple of years the family life and work life balance that I’d always had, shifted. It became a monumental struggle”, Casser-Daley explained of the record.
“On top of that I lost my Dad in 2019. People knew of his passing but what I didn’t share is that he took his own life. It hit me incredibly hard and I feel I didn’t give myself the time to grieve. Then came Covid and that’s when I really hit rock bottom.”
Troy turned to music to find a means out of the darkness. Enlisting the help of his friends and collaborators, Don Walker, Paul Kelly, Kevin Bennett, Shane Howard, Greg Storer, Ian Moss, producer Matt Fell and engineer Ted Howard — together they recorded the album in just under a month.
You can listen to The World Today below, and see what the Tone Deaf staff had to say about it:
Five years since his last album release of original material, Troy Cassar-Daley clearly kept us hanging for good reason. The Aussie legend croons us through 14 classic country tracks, moulding together an emotionally driven yet joyfully captivating collection of powerfully personal songs.
⁃ Mairéad Bilton-Gough
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With The World Today, country stalwart Troy Cassar-Daley offers his manifesto for modern times. Taking cues from country music fodder of yesteryear, the album is rich with imagery of long drives, small towns and jail cells. However, Cassar-Daley avoids pastiche and keeps his eyes to the present—to surprising effect. ‘The World Today’ may look at the past through rose-tinted glasses, but ultimately, Cassar-Daley is a realist. The results speak for themselves.
⁃ James Di Fabrizio
