By Helen Musa

Country music has a huge following in Canberra, so the title of the coming concert, Country Love: The Ultimate Date Night, is bound to have fans packing in.

A concept that might be hard to emulate in any other music form, Country Love will see three country music couples – Brooke McClymont and Adam Eckersley, Jay and Mark O’Shea, and Gina Jeffreys and Rod McCormack – take to the stage with hit songs from each couple’s repertoire.

Besides, with 47 Golden Guitar Awards, seven ARIA Awards and nominations, six kids, 149 guitars and one banjo between them, it sounds like a surefire recipe for fun.

When I catch up with one of the artists, Brooke McClymont, one third of multi-award-winning country music trio The McClymonts and married to Adam Eckersley, winner of five Golden Guitar Awards, I find that the whole idea began during a Skype call with Aussie country stars Jay and Mark O’Shea to Nashville, where they are living the American dream.

Jay, once a backing singer for INXS and Tim Rice and a songwriter whose songs have been cut in the US, Spain, Mexico, Japan and Australia, has, with husband Mark, won six Golden Guitars, performed at the Grand Ole Opry and the Sydney Opera House, and spent 10 years as social media hosts for the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo in Texas.

What a great idea, they all thought as they talked, if they could join together with other country couples for a tour. The O’Sheas bought the idea immediately, but figured it would only really work with an extra couple, and the names Gina Jeffreys and Rod McCormack came to mind.

Jeffreys, who in the 1990s became the first female artist in the genre’s history to achieve platinum record sales and a sell-out national tour, and McCormack, a noted record producer and banjo virtuoso who has been named Australian Guitar Champion and Australian Banjo Champion three times each, were, to McClymont, towering figures.

“I decided to give Gina a call, but she’s a singer I looked up to as a young person. She was always my favourite. I thought, oh well, she can only say no.”

But Jeffreys’ answer was an immediate: “Yes, we’d love to do it. We’d be proud to be part of it.”

The end result is sheer country happiness.

“It’s such a great tour. We’re having a great time together, always staying in the same motels, travelling together in a van. It’s like a real family. That’s country love for you,” McClymont says.

Regarding the likelihood of country singers marrying country singers, she says it’s only natural.

“We’re all in the same industry. You attract the same people. In this case, we’ve all got similar interests and are interested in the same thing.”

Unlike opera families, where as a rule there’s only room for one diva, she says: “I feel that in country music, it’s all uplifting. My philosophy is there’s always room for everyone.”

Although, in her eyes, all music is subjective, there is a lot to love in this country tour.

“We’ve got a lot of games lined up to create extra interest with the crowd. Between the six of us, we’ve got so many years in the industry, so there are a lot of questions fans ask, like how it all works and about our lives.”

“It’s not exactly a variety show, but it leans towards it, and the Harmonie Club will be the perfect venue for that,” she says, besides which, she really likes the food there.

They haven’t been to Canberra for a couple of years, so they’re looking forward to it.

“We each get to do some of our own love songs, according to the theme, and since Adam and I have got a new studio album coming out in September, we’ll showcase a couple of new songs from that. Fans will get to hear favourites and a couple of new ones.”

Country Love: The Ultimate Date Night, Harmonie German Club, July 2.