Troy Cassar-Daley (born 18 May, 1969) is an Australian country music songwriter and entertainer. Born in the Sydney suburb of Surry Hills to a Maltese-Australian father and an Aboriginal mother from the Gumbaynggirr and Bundjalung people, he moved away with his mother to Grafton in north-eastern New South Wales. At 11 years old, he attended the Tamworth Country Music Festival, only to return the next year as a busker. By the age of 16, he and his band, Little Eagle, were touring the North Coast of New South Wales, and he made the top 10 in Tamworth's Toyota Star Maker Quest. Winning the 1986 Search for a Star competition, he began to hone his songwriting skills, eventually replacing James Blundell as the leader of the country music band The Blue Heeler Band. Cassar-Daley’s first single, "Dream Out Loud," was released on 24 October 1994 by Sony Music and reached Number 1 on the Australian country music charts. His debut album, Beyond the Dancing, was released in January 1995 and won the award for Best Country Album at the ARIA Music Awards of 1995. After winning Best Male Vocalist at the 1996 Country Music Awards in Tamworth, he performed at the Australian Country Music Showcase in Nashville, returning a year later to record his new album True Believer (1998). The album peaked at number 58 on the ARIA charts and was certified gold. His follow-up album, Big River (1999), won another Best Country Album Award at the ARIA Music Awards of 2000. His subsequent studio albums were Long Way Home (2002), Borrowed & Blue (2004), Brighter Day (2005), and I Love This Place (2009), with the latter two also winning Best Country Album Awards. Gaining considerable momentum, he continued to release popular records such as Home (2012), which reached number 9 on the mainstream charts, platinum-certified The Great Country Songbook with Adam Harvey (2013), which hit number 2 and Freedom Ride (2015), which peaked at number 4. In August 2016, he published his autobiography, Things I Carry Around, along with an accompanying album of the same title. In October 2018, he released a 42-track double album, Greatest Hits, along with a new single, "Wouldn't Change A Thing," on the Bloodlines label, part of Mushroom Group, signing a worldwide label deal with Sony Music Entertainment Australia in 2020. He released the albums Christmas for Cowboys in 2020 and The World Today in 2021, the latter winning Best Country Album at the ARIA Music Awards and peaking at number 3. On 10 May 2024, he released his 14th studio album, Between the Fires, which brought him back to the number 2 position, a testament to his enduring legacy in the Australian country music scene.
