For this edition of the Overdrive Radio podcast, I had the opportunity to sit down with Australian singer-songwriter Jayne Denham here in Nashville following her performance at the Ohio Buckeye Invitational show last weekend — and before her show at SuperRigs tomorrow at 11:30 a.m. — to talk about her latest record, “Calamity,” and so much more. Hear a little of an acoustic rendition of her rockin’ “Stacks” tracks she recorded with guitarist Jake Sinclair for some social efforts, to boot:
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At the top of the podcast talk, though, Overdrive‘s own Matt Cole set the scene this morning in Raphine, Va., where Shell Rotella SuperRigs is ongoing through end of the day tomorrow. Cole’s there covering the show, and you can find a round-up of some of the views from his camera and conversations with a variety of owner-operators via this link.
Among the rigs that had taken his attention as of this morning — he arrived on site yesterday afternoon — was this 2013 Peterbilt 389, re-engineering by the team at Denver Truck Painting (Denver, Pa.) from the ground up to look more like a 1980s 359, complete with old-school breather treatment.Anybody here showing at SuperRigs? Keep an eye out for Cole’s camera and audio recorder.
You can catch Denham’s performance tomorrow, as noted, and tonight, after a truck parade to downtown Lexington from White’s, Tony Justice and others are slated to perform.Australia’s truck show season isn’t quite as extensive as it is in the U.S., Denham says, but what they do have down under that seems well worth emulating is an event and memorial Denham’s been involved with for more than a decade — the “Lights on the Hill” memorial convoy converges on the site of the Lights on the Hill Truck & Coach Drivers Memorial in Gatton, Queensland, near Brisbane, annually. The memorial itself, a wall built to resemble a truck, pays tribute to “truck and coach drivers who have passed before their time,” in the words of the wall’s official website, “immortalising their sacrifices and triumphs in service to their country” through long-distance transport.
It seems frankly unlike anything that exists in the United States honoring highway haulers, and perhaps something well worth emulating. Plaques for inscription on the wall are available for immediate next of kin to honor truckers, after verification of applications by the organization that maintains the wall. A cost of the Australian equivalent of about $110 is involved, clearly worth it for the many who’ve honored their loved ones there over the years. The annual memorial convoy, rivals some of the largest such events in the U.S. — Denham reckons 300 or more trucks participate each year.
Read more about the site via the organization’s website. And stay safe out there this weekend…
