BOTH types of music...

...Country AND Western.  

From Port Maquarie I headed inland to Tamworth.  Crossing the Great Dividing Range was a challenging drive, and about a third of it going up was done in 3rd gear, however the van did well - no overheating (yay).

I was about 9 months too late (or 3 months too early) to see the Country Music Awards, but there is still quite a lot of "Country" to see in Tamworth.  The giant Golden Guitar and wax museum, the Country Music Museum, the "hands", the "busts", along with the plaques for the Roll of Renown winners.  

It would appear that a taste for Country music is genetic and is only passed on in the male genes within the Peers family.  I have cousins who are truck drivers who love it, Dad likes it and now I like it.  But Mum and Jen - not so much (understatment).   Growing up, there was one country album in the house that I remember, and that was by Reg Lindsay. My favourite track on the album was "King of the road" - this was my introduction to Country Music, and I still like the track to this day.... "Trailer for sale or rent, rooms for let 50c...".

An unexpected bonus in Tamworth was the Power Museum.  Tamworth was one of the first towns to have electified lights in the town streets, and subquently in houses in NSW, and a museum has been put together in the building where the first generator was run.  There are two semi-portable steam powered generators on site, and these get fired up a couple of times a year for demonstrations.  Although only small, the museum has a great display of old electical gear and appliances, and has an especially good display showing the evolution of electricity from the creation of the idea by the Greeks through to the contributions made by Volta, Faraday, Ohm etc.  As an (ex) Electical Engineer I was in seventh heaven.   The museum is run by volunteers, most of whom are retired electricians or electrical engineers.  One guy gave me a personal tour of museum and we soon found out we had something in common - Melbourne.  He was an engineer down there working in the electicity industry.  I found out more about the history of electicity in Melbourne (including the old cable based trams) than I had while living there!!!  

Here's a LINK to further photos from Tamworth.