CENTRAL Coast country music star Gina Jeffreys is celebrating 10 years of marriage by recording an album with her musician and producer husband Rod McCormack.
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Jeffreys’ new album Old Paint will be released nationally on Friday and McCormack has played every instrument on the record.
‘‘It was an intimate and lovely thing to do as a couple,’’ Jeffreys told The Word yesterday. ‘‘If I hadn’t chosen this genre of music, I wouldn’t have met him.’’
The couple have a seven-year-old son Jackson and ‘‘the three musketeers’’, which is how Jeffreys describes her family, often record together in the studio at their Central Coast home.
Jeffreys met McCormack as her fame was soaring. She had been touring with the likes of Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson. Jeffreys recorded the hit Girls’ Night Out with McCormack and they were friends for four years before they became a couple.
‘‘It was all about my career at that moment,’’ Jeffreys said.
‘‘Now I’m happy to be a mother and lover.’’
McCormack has become a renowned producer of country music in Australia, now adding record label owner to his list of achievements.
He has created Core Music, the new country music label under the banner of Sony Music Entertainment.
Its artists include Beccy Cole and of course Jeffreys.
Jeffreys’ new album features songs such as Blue Bayou and Crazy – hits that inspired her as a child to become a singer.
‘‘Mum would always cry when I sang Crazy live when I was young,’’ she said.
‘‘Blue Bayou was the first song I sang publicly at age 14 to audition for a band.’’
The band was called Onyx and Jeffreys stayed with them for eight years.
The singer is in a reflective phase of her career at the moment and is enjoying celebrating several milestones.
These will accumulate in Jeffreys’ 20th anniversary at the Tamworth Country Music Festival early next year.
