River Sessions 2010

2010 will behold the second year for River Sessions, Mackay and Central Queensland's premier music festival. River Sessions will commence Saturday June 12th at Harrup Park in Mackay showcasing a multitude of Australia's leading live dance, hip hop and rockindie acts taking to two stages.

	BIRDS OF TOKYO Since the release of their sophomore album UNIVERSES, it's been a non-stop ride for Birds of Tokyo. A number #3 album debut, a GOLD record, two sold out national tours, three songs in the prestigious TRIPLE J HOTTEST 100, a main stage slot on the national BIG DAY OUT festival and countless glowing reviews of their album and live shows. They were also nominated for two awards in the 2007 AIR Awards (Australian Independent Record Association) for 'Best Performing Independent Album and 'Most Outstanding New Independent Artist, "Wayside" was voted in at #61 in Triple J's Hottest 100 of 2007,, best Male Vocalist, most popular album, best Rock Act in 2008 and Most Popular Act, most Popular Album, most Popular Live Act, Best Male Vocalist, Best Rock Act in 2009.			BLUEJUICE In 2009, Bluejuice recorded their second studio album with producer/mixer Chris Shaw (Bob Dylan, Public Enemy, Super Furry Animals, Weezer). Lead single "Broken Leg" debuted on the Australian Singles Chart at number 47 on August 23, 2009. They released the album Head of the Hawk on 18 September 2009, and it debuted at #37 on the Australian Albums Chart. "Broken Leg" eventually peaked at #27 on the Australian Singles Chart and #5 in Triple J's Hottest 100 of 2009 , supported by a music video directed by Samuel Bennetts. The band performed the song on Channel Seven's Sunrise and Channel Nine's Wide World of Sports. The second single from Head of the Hawk is "Ain't Telling the Truth", which was added to Triple J airplay. The band have also been nominated for two ARIA Awards in 2009 for Best Breakthrough Artist (Single) for "Broken Leg" and Best Video for "Broken Leg" "Broken Leg" was also voted #1 on Rage's inaugural "Rage FIFTY" in 2009.

	OPERATOR PLEASE In 2007, Operator Please released the singles "Get What You Want", "Leave It Alone", "Just a Song About Ping Pong" and their debut studio album, Yes Yes Vindictive. "Just a Song About Ping Pong", their most successful single to date, was nominated for two ARIA Awards in 2007, winning one for Breakthrough Artist - Single.[2] The single debuted in the ARIA Singles Chart on August 6 2007at #15, and topped out at #12. The band also recently opened for Arctic Monkeys and Kaiser Chiefs on their Australian tours and have recently toured in the UK, Europe, and Asia.			BERTIE BLACKMAN Bertie appeared on the Australian music scene in 2004 with the single "Favourite Jeans" taken from her debut album, Headway (2004) a folk-inspired acoustic album featuring musicians Cameron Deyell, Laurence Pike and Cameron Undy and was co-produced by Richard Belkner. This album established her as an Australian headline alongside contemporaries Something For Kate, Ben Lee and Alex LloydIn. In 2008 Bertie began working on her third studio album, entitled Secrets and Lies. Musicians involved included Neal Sutherland, Evan Mannell and Ben Hauptmann with producers Lee Groves (Goldfrapp, Gwen Stefani).

	ASH GRUNWALD Ash Grunwald - In May 2005, Grunwald was invited to take over as host of Triple J's Thursday night show 'Roots N All'. In August 2006 Grunwald released Give Signs recorded on his own record label, Delta Groove Records. As with preceding albums it was recorded live and solo which received another ARIA Award nomination for 'Best Blues and Roots Album'. In 2006, Grunwald supported James Brown at his Tasmanian concert. In December 2006 Grunwald finished his role as a Triple J presenter. In September 2007 he was nominated for another ARIA award for Best Blues and Roots Album. Ash released his next studio album, Fish Out Of Water on the 30 of August 2008, with the album reaching #43 on the ARIA charts. The new album was greeted with positive reviews with many of the critics saying it is one of the best blues/roots albums of the year and a career highlight for Ash.			PHRASE PHRASE's debut album Talk With Force ushered in a new era for Australian Hip-Hop with its raw subject matter and unrivalled sonic foundations courtesy of the CROOKED EYE production team (J-Skub, Daniel Merriweather & PHRASE). The breakthrough single from the album entitled “Hold On” solidified PHRASE’s position at the fore-front of the Australian Hip-Hop movement. 2006/2007 saw PHRASE perform almost 100 live shows across the country, touring and performing with artists like Snoop Dogg, Bliss N Eso, Mobb Deep, Pegz, Method Man & Redman, Rahzel, Scribe, Mark Ronson and DJ Premier. The achievements of PHRASE in this short 2 year period have been nothing short of phenomenal – from being a young rapper with a hope and a dream to being both an Aria and Apra award nominee and later taking out two awards at the 2007 Urban Music Awards.