OUR STORY
There are artists who make great records. There are artists who make you feel something as soon as they walk into a room. Brooke McClymont and Adam Eckersley exist as a rare partnership, because they are both.
Long recognised as one of Australia’s leading country music duos, they’ve now delivered their most honest and complete collection of songs with their newest album Souls on Show - and it delivers exactly what the title promises.
With 20 Golden Guitar Awards under their belt, alongside APRA AMCOS Song of the Year, Apple Music Single of the Year and Country Music Awards of Australia wins, there is little left for Adam and Brooke to prove. Renowned artists in their own right - Brooke as a founding member of the iconic The McClymonts and Adam with his own Adam Eckersley Band - they have been married for 17 years and playing together for seven.
In that time, they’ve lived internationally, toured relentlessly, and built a family on the road. Their profile stretches well beyond the stage too: Brooke was a standout runner-up on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!, while the pair charmed audiences on Celebrity Amazing Race and Travel Guides, and their grassroots Hang at the Wang’ farm concerts have become a cultural institution all of their own, a celebration of rural community and life as authentic and unfiltered as their music.
Their previous album Up, Down & Sideways announced them as a genuine force, debuting at #1 on the ARIA Australian Album chart, hitting #1 on the Country Album chart, and earning both ARIA and Golden Guitar nominations. Souls on Show is the next chapter; it dives deeper and celebrates harder.
It’s epitomised on the title track, an anthemic and hypnotic celebration of a world filled with beauty… if you’re willing to come on the journey. Just as Brooke & Adam pause to look at themselves in their lyrics, they welcome the listener to do the same, as building guitar and keys crescendo into a shared chorus that provides an apt metaphor for the record. In life, as in music, they are stronger together.
The record opens with 3, 2, 1, a joyous mission statement inspired by son Elroy's imagination, celebrating a life spent chasing songs, family and adventure together. From there, the album continues to reveal different sides of Brooke and Adam's world. Dance Dance Dance is a warm-hearted reminder that love is often found in life's simplest gestures, turning an ordinary night into an exuberant celebration of connection and commitment. Meanwhile, Nowhereand Back Again captures the easy chemistry that has become Brooke and Adam's trademark, finding romance not in grand plans or destinations, but in the comfort of simply being together.
One of the album's most poignant moments arrives with Beautiful American Morning. Written in response to the devastating reality of school shootings, it contrasts the optimism and promise of an ordinary day with the unimaginable heartbreak that can follow in an instant. It's a powerful reminder of the fragility of life and stands among the most affecting songs Brooke and Adam have ever recorded.
At the centre of it all sits Souls On Show, the album's philosophical heart. Built around the idea that every life is a canvas painted by our choices, words and actions, the song challenges listeners to consider what they reveal to the world and what legacy they leave behind. Its message of authenticity, compassion and human connection resonates throughout the entire record, giving the album both its title and its purpose.
You don’t get to their level without picking up a few stories, cuts and scrapes along the way, and Souls on Show is the most candid and cohesive collection of songs in either of their careers. Essentially recorded live with their band, members were given space to improvise and flourish. Producers Scott Horscroft and Andy Mac were collaborators, not polishers, and you can hear it in every moment of space and spontaneity the record breathes.
It’s an album born from community, connection and celebration, showcasing real emotion, honesty and performance in an era obsessed with polishing every human edge away in AI-driven plastic perfection. The songs come from a range of sources - old ideas, new inspirations, and the mind of a five-year-old - but the finished products are rooted firmly in the here and now.
Their daughter Tiggy is the youngest ever recipient of a Golden Guitar Award, having won one alongside her parents, and five-year-old son Elroy picks up a writing credit on this record, his imagination sparking the opener 3, 2, 1. They haven’t just built a legacy in music - they’ve built a life around it.
From rousing and defiant lead single Now I’ve Said It, born from a jam during a community festival soundcheck, to the Top 10 Australian Country Radio hit Someone Else's Dream, a track that takes the infectious cadence of walking through an unfamiliar city, Brooke and Adam are inviting and self-aware. These are their songs, but everyone’s welcome to share them.
One of the most pulsating choruses of the album appears in In and Out of Love, a song born from watching a friend fall apart. Brooke and Adam are as honest with their audience as they are with each other and it’s as frank as they’ve ever been: “We’ve loved, we’ve hated, right now let’s stay together while we fall in and out of love.”
Even in their rawest moments, community is ever-present. The Adam-driven Man I’ll Be Tomorrow is obviously told from one father’s desire to adapt in a changing world, but it never relinquishes the sense that these are universal feelings.
What is certain is that a lot of these are destined to become live favourites. In particular Too Long Between Drinks, which debuted at Tamworth Country Music Festival, is utterly joyous and jubilant - as fun to listen to as it appears it was to record.
By the time closer Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah finishes its cathartic sing-a-longs with the band jamming and Brooke’s vocals soaring, it’s impossible not to be optimistic and upbeat.
Their Tamworth show was one of the festival’s most talked about and the much-adored husband-and-wife-duo will take this collection of tracks on the road in the very near future.
Perfection doesn’t exist in real life, and neither should it in art. But when our greatest memories are shared with families, friends and some songs to share, Souls on Show might be the perfect soundtrack to our modern lives.