Things I Carry Around

Trade Paperback

The bestselling memoir from the ARIA Award-winning country music star

Troy Cassar-Daley is one of Australia's most popular country musicians. Since bursting onto the scene with his ARIA-winning debut album, 'Beyond the Dancing', he's won more than a dozen Golden Guitars, recorded with the cream of Nashville and toured with Slim Dusty and Johnny Cash.

Troy's path to success wasn't always smooth but his irrepressible nature and determination ensured what others might have seen as obstacles didn't slow him down. Instead, they made him who he is today. At two, he was sent to live with his nan in Grafton after his Maltese father and Aboriginal mother separated. As a young kid, he cleared trees and repaired fences while others his age were riding bikes and going to the movies. In his teens, he was introduced to country music by his mother, uncles and aunties and life began to change. He learned the guitar and played in bands with his cousins, and then, as a rising star in country music, he replaced James Blundell as lead singer with the Blue Heeler Band. In that moment, he leaped unexpectedly into the limelight. He was just 22.

In THINGS I CARRY AROUND, Troy writes candidly and with humour about the people and places that have shaped his path, revealing a fierce attachment to his family and his Indigenous heritage, while confessing to among other things - a tortured history of car ownership and an expensive obsession with guitars.

With a dry wit and generous heart, in THINGS I CARRY AROUND Troy Cassar-Daley at last tells the story his fans have been waiting to hear. His own.