Henry Wagons ProfileReturning to Broadbeach for its 13th year from 16-18 October, Groundwater Country Music Festival curates a free live music program, delicious food/libation options and countless opportunities for line dancing under the Gold Coast sunshine across three days in October.
When we check in with Henry Wagons – songwriter, baritone, troubadour, broadcaster, storyteller and all-round world-class entertainer – he’s just taken his mum out for one of their regular lunches. The Harp (aka The Harp of Erin Hotel) in Kew East, Melbourne is their bistro of choice.
To complement “the roast of the day” (“lamb roast, a bit of mint sauce, a bit of gravy – classic old people food”), Henry reveals, with a cheeky chuckle, “I had the free wine she got with the senior meal!”
This year’s Groundwater Country Music Festival lineup is an absolute cracker, featuring Kasey Chambers, Kaylee Bell (NZ), The Wolfe Brothers, Josh Stumpf (Canada), Texas honky-tonk musician Jake Penrod, Canadian soprano singer-songwriter Ruth Moody (from the folk trio The Wailin' Jennys) and so much more.
On making his Groundwater CMF debut this year, Henry Wagons says, “It’s one of those things: a lot of people play it kind of regularly now – I’ve had people talk to me about it – and, you know, I’ve been waiting to get ushered into the fold.
“I always enjoy my time playing in the Gold Coast, so it’s awesome to be welcomed for the first time at Groundwater. It’s gonna be a good time, from what I understand. And from what I hear, it’s an absolute blast!”
Originally known as Broadbeach Country Music Festival, this annual award-winning festival’s updated name references both the farming community’s reliance on groundwater for survival and the profound cultural, spiritual and practical significance it holds as a vital lifeline for Indigenous Australians.
Like Kasey Chambers, Henry will be performing in full band mode at Groundwater CMF. So who will be accompanying him?
“I’ve got the rhythm section from my OG troupe Wagons, who I went to high school with – I was in the back row of the maths class with. I’ve got Mark ‘Tuckerbag’ Dawson on bass, I’ve got Si ‘The Philanthropist’ Francis on drums; I’ve been playing with them for longer than I care to say.
And I’ve also got a couple of proper twangy gunslingers. I've got super-producer and lead guitarist Damien Cafarella on lead guitar and Lachlan Bryan, gentleman of alt. country in Australia, joining me on keys as well. So, it’s an absolute supergroup. We’re leaving nothing behind.”
Henry then dishes “a potential Countrytown exclusive”: “I’ll be playing two solo shows, but also a secret pop-up solo show, too, where I’ll get up and shoot the shit – that’ll be a more intimate affair that may be more confessional than even the band shows. I’m not 100% sure how that’s going to unfold myself, but I think that’s on the Sunday during the day. And I’ll be able to decompress with everyone there. That’ll be really fun, too.”
A little bird told us a shit-tonne of line dancing goes down at Groundwater CMF. Will Henry get involved? “I get closer to Lyme disease than line dancing,” he jests. “No, I don’t line dance. But I love people line dancing while I’m playing, you know? And anyone that’s seen one of my shows will know that I love moving around and flinging limbs around, but it’s not usually with any kind of discipline. There’s a lot of chaos, and I kind of like more freeform dancing.
“I feel like line dancing and two-step dancing – that sorta Texan two-step partner dancin’, which also seems to be having a huge resurgence – I love them both in concept, but I’m pretty shocking at both of them. So maybe what I need is just someone to teach me while I’m up at Groundwater.”
We can’t help but wonder whether Henry had to endure square-dancing classes as part of the PE or Music program at his school. During these nightmare-inducing, enforced classes – which typically occurred between the 1970s to early-2000s – prepubescent and teenage students were forced into pairs, scuffing their school shoes during unco attempts at the old heel-toe, heel-toe, do-si-do.
“Oh, yeah! Heel-toe, heel-toe” – we can feel Henry cringing down the phone line. “Oh my god, you’ve unlocked some very, very traumatic memories,” he confirms. “I think every boy that’s forced to come in close quarters with a girl at the age of 12, while going through puberty – I remember just being clammy – clammy hands – embarrassed, awkward... All the teachers seemed to be having such a great time forcing these boys and girls together – at the expense of the cohort!” he trails off, laughing.
Dunno about Henry’s school, but we also had to face the humiliation of waiting to be chosen by partners – the ultimate wallflower experience. “Oh, horrible!” Wagons concurs. “It’s worse than a lineup for European handball teams at PE.”
If there was an odd number of participants, someone would have to sit it out, too. “Or maybe even be forced to dance with the vice principal or something,” Wagons chimes in. “Horrible, ha ha ha. Nuh, screw all that stuff. But, yeah, maybe that very moment that you’re talking about is why I still have a touch of trauma when it comes to line dancing and two-stepping.”
“We continue to be inspired by the rise of country music in Australia,” Festival Director Mark Duckworth enthused while discussing this year’s Groundwater CMF line-up, which features “everything from current country-pop and Americana to bluegrass, folk, traditional honky tonk and even a little Outlaw.”
“I don’t like when country music is too conservative,” Henry admits. “You know, country music can inherently be a bit of a stick in the mud, sometimes – the beats are a bit too straight. I love it when country music swings just a little bit, you know what I mean?... Country funk and cosmic country. I love it when country gets a little weird, ‘cause I’m a little weird and I wouldn’t have it any other way. So there’s a little swing to my country music comin’ up, which is exciting.
“There’s a new album in the works, as we speak. I’m very excited for it, and I think it’s the kinda stuff that’ll get the toes tappin’ on a festival stage.
“I think there might be a song before the end of the year, and then an album early next year, if everything goes to plan. There’s a possibility I’ll swing so much I’ll break a leg!” Wagons cracks up, before adding, “I don’t wanna do a Phil Jamieson. Did you hear about him? Can you imagine? With Grinspoon, all those years of climbing scaffolding and being an absolute tearaway frontman, and then you do a solo tour and break your back on a drum riser! That’s so unlucky for him. I love that guy and wish him all the best.”
He last released Queenie & Hank (2025): a duet album starring Queenie and Henry (as the title suggests). So will Queenie, the self-described “trash queen alter-ego” of Melbourne musician Eloise Thetford (ex Héloise, Bone Shack and Badgers), make a guest appearance during Henry’s Groundwater set?
Henry bursts our bubble: “I think not. She is sort of in solo mode; she’s out on the town touring her own solo record [Pleasance, released last month (August)]. But, my goodness me! She’s one of my favourite singers in the country/the world.
“I loved making a record with her last year. And I’m happy to say there’s more to come in the future, too, I’m sure. But, yeah, we’re both too egomaniacal and have our eyes on the horizon. We’re both on our own solo journeys at the moment. So unfortunately, no; she won’t be there.”
When asked whether he tried to mimic other artists when he first started out, Henry confesses, “Yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean, my trident of influences was: I was reading a lot of Cormac McCarthy novels, trippy Western novels; I saw Jim Jarmusch’s Dead Man, which was soundtracked by Neil Young, and that was sort of a weird Western period piece; and I had been given – by Mark “Tuckerbag” Dawson, my now-bass player – Johnny Cash’s American Recordings record – those three things kind of started me on a really avid journey for Gothic country music.
“And my first attempt at country music – and writing songs – was just trying to be like one of The Highwaymen [Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson], you know? I was trying to imitate my heroes, and I think a really good way of lowering the bar, when you first start, is just to try and have fun making music like your heroes do. Then I wasn’t hugely competent at it.
“So, in doing so, you end up giving your music your own kind of filter – whether you like it or not. So, yeah, I think doing a study in the writing of your heroes – or your mentors – is a great way to kick off your writing. And I’m still trying to write a song as good as Neil Young or Roy Orbison or Johnny Cash, to this day.”
A lifetime study, perhaps? “Yeah, exactly. One that I’m happy to fail at, too.”
So when was the first time Henry realised he had golden tonsils? He guffaws before replying, “I don’t know if I’ve ever realised that. I’m not a trained singer, but I had a resonance with music as soon as I started it. And my parents weren’t musical. My grandfather was a conductor in classical music, but he died when I was ten, and I never talked to him about music, and there was some weird genetic echo that happened with me.
“And even though I didn’t really do much music at school or anything, when I started hanging out with creative types in Melbourne – when I went to uni around the age of 18 – I just was on that wavelength, and I couldn’t stop. I somehow had found a best friend, and I have been compulsively making music ever since.
“I’m a hungry man, so there’s very few things that will stop me eating. But when I’m in the midst of making music – whether it be in my home studio or with others – the only thing that’ll make me skip a meal is when I’m in the zone playing. So it really resonates with me, and I really love it, and I throw everything into it. And I can only credit my singing as being, like – I just give myself over to music.
“I don’t worry about what I sound like. And I think there’s a way of: if you just throw yourself into it and you lose any cautiousness of what you sound like, or what you do – you know, being present and free is the biggest gift you can give someone else. So it ends up sounding good if you can somehow get into that state; I believe that.”
As well as the requisite cowboy boots and hat, Groundwater festivalgoers have been known to rock out in bolo ties and fringed, rhinestone-embellished garments. When asked whether he’ll be elevating his stage look for his Groundwater debut, Wagons considers, “I don’t know if I’ll hype it up more. Just based on what I wear – the bedazzlement and the hat and the bolo alone – I’m already dressed obnoxiously enough.”
Having “only lived in the dreary laneways of Melbourne” up to this point, plus a stint living in New York City in his twenties, Henry ponders, “I don’t know what it’s like to live in paradise. I don’t know what it’s like to live in a warm-temperature place where beaches, sushi and smiles are just a matter of course, you know? And I travel through these kinds of tropical oases, and I often think to myself, ‘My goodness me! I’d love to live in a place like this where I don’t have to rug up or deal with the types of people that live in an overcast town [laughs]. Yeah, I fantasise about living in a place like the Gold Coast one of these days, so maybe this festival will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.”
Henry is also a sought-after broadcaster – having presented arts programs on TV, radio and online – and currently hosts the Tower Of Song radio program on Double J and ABC Country. It would be remiss of us not to ask what he’s been digging of late...
“I’m really loving, from over in New Zealand – Mel Parsons’ new record [Castle Hill] is fantastic.
“A band from WA remind me of the best jam band, a little bit of Crosby, Stills & Nash – The Bures Band’s one of my favourites. And, look, there’s a guy in the UK called Henry Webb-Jenkins – always partial to other people called Henry, but I think that Henry Webb-Jenkins has made a great EP [Hank], too.
“And I’ve gotta mention Queenie’s new record is absolutely incredible, as well. Do you know who else I wanna mention from over in the States? Angela Autumn is kind of reinventing the Appalachian folk and giving it the most weird-arse indie twist. I think Angela Autumn is fantastic, as well.
“And a guy called Jay Skaggs, he’s a bellowing baritone that is pretty cool, too. Anyway, now that I’ve opened my playlist I could go on for hours, but I’ll stop at that.”
Australia’s ultimate country music beach party, Groundwater Country Music Festival returns to Broadbeach on the Gold Coast from 16 to 18 October.
