Australian singer brings trucking tunes to GATS

Jayne Denham’s next album, “Stacks,” will be released in 2018.

Jayne Denham has never worked as a truck driver, but the Australian singer’s music makes it quite clear how she feels about truckers and the industry.

“I just love writing trucking songs to cheer on the truck drivers and an industry that we certainly can’t do without,” Denham said.

Denham, who recently released the single “Stacks,” will be performing Friday, Aug. 25 at Great American Trucking Show in Dallas, along with OOIDA members Tony Justice and Bill Weaver. The concert, which is called the Take a Load Off With GATS and Uber Freight Party, begins at 5:15 p.m. Friday at Eddie Deen’s Ranch in downtown Dallas. The concert is free with a ticket, which are available at the Uber Freight booth in Lobby B of GATS. People also can preregister for tickets here.

“Stacks” is also the name of Denham’s next album, which is scheduled for release in early 2018. The album includes such other trucker-centric songs as “Highway Rock Star” and “Black Coffee and White Lines.”

Denham said she grew up around family and friends, who operated big rigs, while growing up in Australia.

“While writing for my next record in Nashville, my producer, Brian White, and I were brainstorming ideas about trucking songs,” Denham said. “He mentioned the title, ‘Stacks,’ which immediately took me back to my childhood. I remember as a kid going to truck races and seeing all those blinged-up rigs screaming around the track. One of my favorite parts of the day was when the drivers would put the pedal to the metal and you would hear this loud roar, and smoke came from those 11 feet of galvanized chrome stacks.”

Denham’s country rock style has achieved quite a bit of success in Australia. She won the Australian Independent Country Music Awards Best Rising Star Award in 2008, and her song, “Addicted to the Diesel,” reached No. 1 on the Australian Country Single charts in 2014. Among her other top 10 Australian singles: “Shake This Town,” “Trucker Chicks,” “Farmers’ Wife” and “Shelter.”

She works to make her songs authentic.

“I like to do my research,” she said. “I want to make sure my lyrics are accurate. Truck drivers tell me the songs resonate.”

Denham’s popularity is increasing among truck drivers in the United States as well. She performed at GATS in 2016 and in March was on the Red Eye Radio stage at the Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, Ky. At GATS, she played songs for the Women in Trucking organization.

“That was an incredible experience to get to meet all of those women truck drivers,” Denham said. “Many of them had been driving for a long time.”