What the critics say about The Re-Mains:

“… there’s enough here to advance the argument that The Re-mains are the best country-rock band in Australia.”
(Jeff Glorfeld, The Age)

"Wilco and Uncle Tupelo fans will require very little convincing.."
(Tom Jellet, The Weekend Australian)

“Once the Re-mains cranked up, the joint exploded from slumber to an unmissable event. We’d long heard of these kings of the road, but nobody expected that much.”
(Ben Quinn, The Newcastle Herald)

“Their earlier work drew comparisons to American alt-country heroes, but I’m betting there’s a rich vein of Australian influence here. The Re-mains walk that tightrope with pride and skill.”
(Music Australia Guide)

"The Re-mains sound like a well-oiled touring machine, with material that sounds well tested down dirt tracks and cattle grids."
(Time Off Magazine)

The Re-mains are a pioneering original country rock and roll band from across NSW. In their five year tenure at the coalface of country rock and roll their banjo and pedal-steel powered dirt-track and highway songs and sounds have won them devoted fans and critical acclaim across Australia and further to parts of Europe and lately the USA. Their music has been likened to influences as diverse as The Band, Nick Cave, Bob Dylan, Gram Parsons, The Who and The Blues Explosion.

The band has toured extensively across all parts of Australia: it was their brief from the outset to take the sound of country rock n roll to far-flung destinations nationwide, from the city to the outback. Throughout July and August this year, The Re-Mains undertook one of the most extensive remote tours this country has seen: more than 30 gigs across 5 states, covering nearly 20,000 kilometres.

Their debut album, "Thank You For Supporting Country Rock and Roll" (2003), earned four and five star reviews from numerous National dailies and was Album Of The Week at no less than six ABC Regional radio stations. It also established the benchmark sound of country rock n roll as a style quite different from the output of the country (and rock) industry's various leading lights.

Since then, The Re-mains have released the EP "Burnin' Daylight" (2004) and the epic long player "Field Conditions" (2005) to sustained critical acclaim with regular reviewer for The Age, Jeff Glorfeld declaring "There's enough here to suggest that The Re-mains are the best country rock act in Australia."

Fresh off the press (Feb 07) is the live album, "Love's Last Stand - The Re-mains LIVE!" which is a testament to the power of the band. Rolling Stone magazine gave this album four stars and Croxton Records reported a record early demand for a second reprint from MGM Distribution for this album. Renowned blues legend Chris Wilson reckons it's the best Australian live record. Ever!

The Re-mains are possibly the only band currently conducting regular and extensive tours to the remote parts of Australia - including Arnhem Land and Central Australia - while still maintaining an ever increasing foothold in the urban centres. Outback audiences know the band come from afar but warm to them in only a matter of a few songs while city audiences can detect the desert dust from the downbeat.

They've successfully straddled the gap between Rock and Country as shown by their repeated appearances at festival as diverse as the Tamworth Country Music Festival, Splendour in the Grass, The East Coast Blues and Roots Music Festival, The St. Kilda Festival and many others too numerous to list.

Their driving, infectious style is generated by a road-hardened and inspired group of five musicians whose individual talents give the Re-mains a sound that sets them apart from their peers and has won them dedicated fans far and wide.

The Re-Mains are:

Mick Daley: Frontman and chief bard, Mick’s big hands work tirelessly to shorten the life of a pair of battered and somewhat frightened Maton acoustic guitars. He sings, he shouts and he cajoles the message of CR&R in his own words and more than a few chords. He loves Holden cars and won’t say the word “die” about the coalface or his car.

Mick has been the songwriter, manager and driving force of the band since its inception. He's a highly experienced international freelance journalist and solo performer, having worked and performed across Europe and Australia. These experiences have given him an excellent background for his work as a travelling bard, documenting life in Australia and on the road from a social, political and professional perspective. He's led the band through over 250 tours, 600 shows and sixty major festivals. The band has recorded 42 of his songs and currently plays 75 of them.

Grant Bedford: has played drums for a host of fellow antipodeans including the Toe Sucking Cowgirls, the Railroaders, The Red Hot Poker Dots, The Thoughtful Hussars, The Pudding Thieves, Big Sook and too many more to mention. Grant has considerable national and international touring experience. In Australia he's played with The Re-Mains for two years, has done national and two US tours with The Red Hot Poker Dots, toured nationally with The Toe Sucking Cowgirls and done shows with Texan Bo Jenkins, Rob Lucky and The Lucky Bastards, The Detonators, Jerry and The Rollers and countless other bands. A native of New Zealand, he played with many punk and rock bands there before moving to Australia. Whilst in the US with The Red Hot Poker Dots, he shared stages, beers and war stories with the likes of Southern Culture on The Skids, Hank Vegas and the Supersuckers.

Tom Jones : Tom had been plying his trade with Northern NSW band Jimmy Willing and his Real Gone Hickups when the call of the road bit him. There was only once choice - head to camp Re-Mains. His early background in jazz and funk has since been soundly beaten out of him and he's now a great country rock and roll player, solid, yet adventurous - and he's taken to wearing good Millers shirts.

Phil Daniel: After the departure of Uncle Burnin' Love, the Re-mains thought they'd never find a replacement who can play with equal joie de vivre on the stage and off. But Phil's bluegrass roots were given the requisite country rock and roll treatment and Dr. D'Wayne Daniel was born. His resemblance to a certain Allman Brother notwithstanding, Phil continues to lash the Re-mains with the undeniable twang of that particular fretted instrument. On top of all that, he also tickles the ivories of a Mac simulated Hammond Organ for extra rock and soul.

David Ramsay: Another graduate of the Jimmy Willing and The Real Gone Hick-Ups, Dave decided to hit the road this year and has adapted his blues flavoured guitar and slide guitar playing to the Re-Mains sound with aplomb. He is a subtle and understated player who has lent a new dimension and colour- and as the world's nicest guy, he's easy to boss around.

Tucked mid-way through the Re-Mains third album is 'Free At Last', a song pleading for Christians, Muslims, Hindus and Jews alike to give up their fundamentalist fantasies. So say all of us. It¹s a song that illustrates the very real world the Re-Mains live and want to reveal in their songs, which musically straddles rock and roll. That part of the group¹s work is illustrated by ŒBlack Asprin¹, a rock and roll thumper with echoes of Creedence Clearwater Revival on the way to the Dingoes and Australian Crawl. In the middle of the rock singer Mick Daley calls for some ³steel², the country music staple. But that quickly makes way for boogie woogie piano. The Re-Mains earlier work drew comparisons to American alt-rock heroes Wilco and Uncle Tupelo, which is very nice, but I¹m betting there¹s a rich vein of Australian influence here. Cold Chisel¹s Don Walker has exposed his country heart in latter years. The Re-Mains walk that tightrope with pride and skill.

THE RE-MAINS / Field Conditions ****1/2
Donat Tahiraj, Time Off Magazine
July, 2005

Not that anyone these days could possibly confuse this band with the 60s garage band from Boston of the same name, but the path's been cleared for The Re-Mains, a boot-scootin' band from f**k-knows-where, Australia. Well, this certainly isn't garage, but more like a shed with an old tractor and a restorable FC Holden with a sticker on the back window proclaiming 'Honk If You Love Country Music'. Field Conditions shows a band with a less-than-discreet love of the genre riding pleasantly past city lines. With Mick Daley's voice at times resembling Wall of Voodoo's Stan Ridgeway, his lyrics are distinctly Australian, without having to be flag-waving and patriotic. A song like 'I Want Every Make Of Holden Ever Made' proves you can rhyme something with "balustrade" and is most definitely the standout on this consistently toe-tapping album. With moping pedal steel and claw-hammer plucked banjo, The Re-mains sound like a well-oiled touring machine, with material that sounds well tested down dirt tracks and cattle grids. It's a record to dig your heels into, hard to fault and worth investigating.

THE RE-MAINS / Field Conditions
Mike Wafer, XPress Magazine, WA
August, 2005

A lot of musicians, young ones specifically, are drawn into the established and heavily stylised beauty that can be country music, and the results of this exploration are becoming increasingly interesting. Though the idiosyncratic style guide is often followed a little too closely for the music to be a derivation, in the case of someone like The Re-Mains, enough of the stereotype is left at the door to allow a few more freaks to join the party. The essentials abound - the twang, the slang and the attitude - but force is not the power of The Re-Mains... subtlety is. A rich rock 'n' roll heritage that has grown and evolved as we know it (through the timeline that gave birth to heavy metal, punk, funk and all the other 'unks) is present within The Re-Mains take on country music, be it intentional or otherwise. Mind you, it would be a musician in a world where punk, metal and so on already exist and not have them at least a mild subconscious consideration. The end result is fascinating, because The Re-Main sound like country music as one would describe it to an alien, but are different enough for the aficionado to notice there's a few of them exotic spices in that thar possum stew.

THE RE-MAINS / Field Conditions
Phil Edwards, www.americana-uk.com
August, 2005
Currently on tour in Australia, the Re-Mains prove that you don't have to be from south of the Mason-Dixie line to successfully mix country, rockabilly and full tilt banjo-delic rock. Hailing from Northern NSW, these guys have laid down 15 tracks that reinforce their title as Australias' 'outlaw country rock and roll renegades'. This album, their third release, covers all forms of the country genre. From swampy southern feel good ('Motherlode', 'I Want Every Make Of Holden Ever Made') through to twangy pedal steel drenched alt-country sagas ('Horse', 'White Dress'). They also visit the occasional country-pop fast paced ballad on their single 'Quit Singing The Blues'. Compared to the likes of Creedence Clearwater Revival and The Byrds, The Re-Mains are fast gaining a fierce reputation for providing quality music and putting on some pretty raucous shows. If you like your country music straight from the coal face with real earthy lyrics then The Re-Mains are for you.

THE RE-MAINS / Field Conditions
David Dawson, Beat Magazine
August, 2005

They added a hyphen for historians to distinguish them from the Barry-Holly Tashian band of the same name who supported The Beatles on their 1966 US tour. And, of course, four decades down the lost highway the Aussie country rockers sound nothing like their namesakes on this, their fourth release. The NSW north coast quintet writes, sings and performs about and beyond life in the city limits. Albury reared singer Mick Daley sets the rocky mood on his autobiographical entree song Out Singing The Blues and the vitriolic He Died With His Boots On. But the band tempers angst with melancholia on his metaphoric Horse and banjo-mandolin player Shaun Butcher tunes Roberts Road and Stoked laced by Lee Ivins pedal steel.
But The Re-Mains are no one-trick ponies galloping blinkered down the dead-end ravine that claims so many. Perhaps the pinnacle is Daley's peace anthem Free At Last, an evocative plea for truth in religion-and-greed-fuelled modern wars it's a sibling song of Boy Howardy fear parody Letterbomb.
Beyond the bar room bravado of the Butcher penned Motherlode, replete with Johnny Cash name check, Glenyss Raes violin is the oasis in tempo changes of Karaoke Caravan. The uranium metaphor in Black Aspirin swirls in a sea of guitars and Ed Matzeniks rollicking honky tonk piano and segues into mixed messages on romping Thank You Mr Ellis and spirited finale Dont Go Back. The Re-Mains aren’t The Tractors sonically or vocally but exude suffice soul and roughage to elevate them above our barren bar band badlands.