Co-lead and backing vocalist Kyla Allan said her husband's family comes from the area, and she enjoyed the opportunity to see it for herself.
“My husband's dad grew up around this area; he always just said he is from around Deniliquin,” she said.
“Some of his siblings and nieces and nephews are in Moama and around here, and to be able to stay with them was fantastic.”
The whole band enjoyed staying in the Riverina with Kyla's family, complimenting the local community.
“Sheldon (Linday, who is co-lead and backing vocalist) and I were also able to stay with them at their really cool vineyard which was amazing,” guitar, piano and banjo player John Rorke said.
“And if what we have seen is any representation of Deniliquin, they are a group of people who are friendly, welcoming and lovely.
“So we do plan to come back and we want to do more in Melbourne, so we will be sailing through when that happens.
“And we definitely want to come back to the Ute Muster; it's been an incredible ride.”
This year has been the band's biggest yet. As well as including their first Muster appearance, 2019 has allowed the band to step out as headliners as opposed to a support act.
“We have been going since roughly 2015 and doing mainly supporting acts and a couple of different festivals here and there,” Sheldon Lindsay said.
“But this year is our first year stepping out on our own as a band and we just released our debut album Blastoff which we have had a great response from.
“So it was just incredible to be invited to the Deni Ute Muster. We applied for some different festivals and just hearing that we had gotten into this one was just amazing, we were over the moon to even just be considered and a part of it.
“We had heard a lot of stories and had a lot of people tell us the Muster crowd is quite the rowdy bunch of people, but we are loving it.
“It has been such a great experience and we couldn't wait to get up on that stage and be a part of this legendary festival.”
The bandmates say they enjoy being unique, dressing up in old styled country pin-up and rockabilly outfits to express their music style
“I know for me, personally, this bunch of people I am here with right now is like no other group I have played with before,” Lindsay said.
“We are all friends and get along really well, the chemistry on stage is unbeatable so that is something I probably enjoy the most,” he continued.
“Plus you can dress up and hang with your friends as well. You couldn't really dress like we do now in real life,” Rorke added with a laugh.
“Our style and appearance just comes back to when we first started out. We did a lot of country music inspired by the early Nashville writers so this is just a bit of a tribute to that and then a bit of love for our Rockabilly side as well. So for us, it's just an expression of the music we love,” John continued.
And it's not just the country crowds that enjoy their music.
“Funnily enough, we do play for a lot of non-country crowds as well and open for non country artists, but we always love to come back and play for country crowds; I think it is always a bit special,” Rorke said.
“It's always good when crowds respond and you can tell they are happy and that they are enjoying the music. I think we find crowds always do respond well to the things that are different and we are certainly different.
“There is a lot of country rock out there and we kind of bring in that old school rockabilly, bluegrass, country swing vibe, a big mixture of all the older country music styles which is unique,” Lindsay added.
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