Mutual respect in music and merino wool

JAMES Blundell clutched a sample of Merino wool from a bale at David “Scratchy” Talbot’s shearing shed at Glen Sherwood, Epping Forest, held it up high and said “there’s nothing better than that on the planet”.

The words were spoken with the same admiration that fans would use with the country music star – but on this day, James was well out of the limelight, helping out while hundreds of sheep were being shorn.

He was joined by his musical protege Jarrad Wrigley – both keen to learn more about producing the kind of wool that makes waves in Europe’s top fashion houses.

“That doesn’t happen by accident,” he said, while inspecting the well-crimped, strong, long staples of wool.

“You’re talking careful selection, good management and generations of knowledge. It’s ridiculous.”

Scratchy had no choice but to agree.

“That is as good a sample as we’ve had, around 14 micron I reckon,” he said. 

James met Scratchy and his partner Lorraine through Lorraine’s daughter Dani Shaw, the host of online music show Country Kickback.

“David is now my sheep and wood guru because I’ve never met anybody who knows more about it and is more understated about it,” James said.

“I take these samples home and put them in little presentation boxes and use them as my inspiration and optimal target so I know what I’m aiming for.

“I won’t get there in my lifetime but at least I know someone who has!”

The Blundell family farm, comprising 2500ha west of Stanthorpe in Queensland, has bred Merinos since 1926, but now has mainly first cross Dorsets as well as Hereford cattle.

James has also embraced hemp farming, growing trial plots as part of the Queensland Government’s hemp program while also serving as the ambassador for Aussie Legends Hemp, Australia’s leading provider of hemp seed oil.

“My hemp guru is here in Tassie too, Andi Lucas, I admire her so much for not only successfully growing hemp just up the road here, but leading the evolution of manufacturing - she’s so far ahead of the curve it’s not funny,” James said.

“Tassie is a very important part of my resource base, they’re incredible people down here and I’ve had a strong connection ever since I first visited the island as a support act for the Deltones in 1988.”

“I’d buy land here if I wasn’t so frightened of the weather,” he laughed.

While music has dominated his life, James said it’s always been a toss-up between the stage and his other loves – livestock, horses and dogs.

“During Covid I finally had that questions answered. In that year of not being able to travel at all I never once missed being on the road, but in the 36 years previously I never stopped missing being in the bush.

“Jarrad and I have both chosen the two most fickle industries known to mankind, which is music and farming.”

The pair have both been in Tasmania to play gigs in at Preston, Sprent, Forth and Craigie Knowe Winery while catching up and working with their favourite farmers.

James is also interviewing farmers for his podcast, No Drama Farmer.

After 40 years in the music industry, with farming at the forefront of mind and having just turned 61, James couldn’t have been more surprised than when an album he recorded in upstate New York in 2022 debuted at number one on the Australian Country Music charts earlier this year.

The surprises continued when Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in April helped launched a single off the album, “Almost Anzac Day”, written in support of veterans and their families.

Tasmanian music lovers enjoyed getting to hear some of the tracks live as he travelled around the state over the past few weeks.

“It’s these connections, through music, that bring farmers together and it’s a great way to help out with mental health,” James said.