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Darren Coggan Wins Golden Guitar Award

Tamworth, NSW, 24th January 2009: Australian country music’s night of nights, the 37^th CMAA Country Music Awards of Australia, were delivered to a capacity crowd. The 2009 Heritage Song of the Year Award went to Darren Coggan for ‘Too Dark For The Light Horse’, a track taken from his highly acclaimed and moving album ‘War Stories’.

‘War Stories’ is about as personal as you can get. It’s dedicated with the utmost love and respect to his 83-year-old grandfather, Arthur Coggan, who lives in the north-west NSW town of Inverell. Arthur spent his 16^th birthday in the Army during World War II.

‘War Stories’ is a salute in words and music to those men and women who served their country, in every arena, from the Boer War through to the latest terrorist threat. It salutes the Anzac, and tells the small stories of characters and incidents that make up the big picture that is Australia at war. The songs were penned by Darren Coggan and Ken McBeath and aim to make these chapters of our military history more personal, more human, to the listener through tracks such as the powerful ‘Too Dark For The Light Horse’. In light of the Rudd Government’s apology to the Aboriginal people of Australia, this song uncovers yet another blemished chapter in our nation’s history and the indignity and degradation inflicted on a proud people within the armed forces.

“Many of the songs on this album present the war experiences of those sidelined by the bronzed male ANZAC mythology. Many of the songs are inspired simply by the emotional context. The focus of the album was to present both small and personal stories, footnote-like, that are outside the big, simple mainstream history of Australian’s at War” commented Darren.

1996 Toyota Star Maker, Darren was awarded his first Golden Guitar in 2001. He was awarded Australian Independent Male Vocalist of the year at the 2003 Australian Independent Country Music Awards and most recently played the lead role in the world premiere of John Williamson’s Australian folk musical, ‘Quambatook’. Darren is currently starring in “Peace Train – The Cat Stevens Story” a brand new show on the life and times of the legendary singer/songwriter CAT STEVENS.