Clelia pauses to appreciate the Wildflowers

2008 LBS Wall of Honour inductee Clelia Adams’ new album, Wildflowers, is the summation of her career to date – and that is a pretty impressive career – both here in Australia and overseas. With its complimentary blend of originals, favourites and Clelia’s secret weapon – the FFF – "family and friends factor", her latest studio album is sure to entice quite a few listeners to pause and smell the Wildflowers.

This, her fifth studio album will be released in February, and first single Wildflowers goes to radio throughout Australia on NFS and internationally through longtime musical associates, Hillcrest. Clelia has been at the forefront of the Aussie invasion into the European charts, which brought her much international acclaim.

Wildflowers is Clelia’s own way of paying her respects to tradition and in gathering songs for it, she turned the full circle. "It’s me paying homage to tradition and going back to the real country music I fell in love with," Clelia said. "I loved that era of traditional country, with the gorgeous melodies, that elegant era within the style, where twin fiddles and great singers came to the fore. As a singer, I learnt so much from listening to people like Lefty Frizzel and the Louvin Bros. I just wanted to share those beginnings with the people who enjoy my music today."

Clelia readily admits this is the album where she’s worn her heart on her sleeve. "It’s a very personal album as all the songs mean something really special to me. In the long run, I hope they mean something to everybody else as well. They’re kind of the tracks of my life," she said. The songs Clelia sourced and wrote for this definitive release, have shaped her life up until this moment. "These songs really are inspired in my life, they come with meaning, with lyrics that I can sing and I can understand and reflect my personality in some way," Clelia said. You’ll find yourself rediscovering songs by Lefty, Hank, the Louvins, Emmylou and Gram all over again as well as falling in love with Clelia’s original works.

Recording again with good friend and colleague Stuie French at his Swingin’ Door studio in Sydney was a natural decision for Clelia, and inviting her family – brother Albert Calvo, and her children, Dan and Jessie, into the studio was pure inspiration. "Bringing my family together on record was a dream come true and it more than lived up to everyone’s expectations," Clelia said. "There’s something about family harmonies you just can’t beat and it was so good to have my brother playing guitar on what I believe is my finest album yet."

From the cover art featuring wildflowers from Clelia’s own garden, through to the choice of musicians and special guests who contributed to the disc, the album is class all the way. Clelia paid tribute to the professional team of musicians who made her sound like "the country queen of my dreams" – Stuie French, Chris Haigh, Brad Bergen, Bill Risby, Michel Rose, Mick Albeck, Albert Calvo, Dan Adams and angelic backing vocals by Camille Te Nahu and Jess Hammond. "Then I had my good musical mates Kevin Bennett and Bill Chambers join me on a couple of classic country duets, with Bill throwing in a little lap steel for good measure."

Her previous album, Heartbeat Highway, won Clelia the Gentleman Geoff Brown TIARA in 2006 and her music has yielded  six Top 10 and 3 Top 20 hits on the ECMA European Country Music Charts, and 2 Top 15’s on the Australian Countrytracks Top 30.