"There's a lot of labels applied to my music. Some call it Alternative Country or Americana. But I've been listening to music all my life, all kinds of music, and I'm just trying to write good stuff. I'm just a songwriter. I want to have a huge body of work before I die. That's it."

The first chords of Dan Brodie's debut LP, Big Black Guitar, explode like 20 years of inspiration let loose, a road train thundering down a red dirt track to a soundtrack of slide guitar and pure, distilled passion. The 13 songs that follow are the ripe fruits of a lifelong obsession.

" I'm not saying country music is a higher art form, but there's a certain subtlety to quality songwriting, matching the right words to the right melody," says the 24-year-old singer, songwriter and guitarist.

" I like heart-on-sleeve songs. Saying what other people only think often makes a great song. It's often only three chords but it's hard work."

The pay off is all over Big Black Guitar, a work of striking passion and maturity from the gale force opening of "I Seen The Light " to the dirty hillbilly ramble of its first single, " Hurricane ", to the ravishing tenderness of " Our Favourite Song". It's the work of a true craftsman with a deep commitment to tradition.

" I learnt classical piano from the age of 8," recalls the Melbourne-born singer. " I never did grades, didn't have the patience, but I love the piano. You have a whole song there at your fingers: bass, melody and chords. I was really influenced by klezma music, cause my Dad played it, and Antonio Carlos Jobim's Brazilian bossanova stuff. There's such beautiful melodies in that music."

Brodie's father pursued an eclectic musical career from the age of 14, and was a major player in Melbourne's rock'n'roll scene of the early '60s. He was a crucial influence on Dan and his older brother, Chris Brodie, The Broken Arrows' lap slide and pedal steel player.

" Chris and I started playing together when we were about 12. Dad brought home an old guitar from an op shop, taught us a couple of chords and away we went. We formed a band immediately on getting that guitar. It seemed like the natural thing 'cause Dad always did it.

" The first show we played I got the biggest rush of adrenaline on stage. I couldn't believe it. It was at the Richmond Club Hotel. Chris had just turned 16, I was 15 and we got up on stage and I knew it was what I wanted to do.

" We were called Blue Velvet then (The Smokin' Judas and Luxedo would come later). We used to do Paul Kelly's " Darling It Hurts " and a lot of daggy cover songs but we always did originals too. I always felt that writing my own songs was important."

There were other musical diversions. Dan trained his rich, emotive baritone singing in school musicals. He turned his hand to jazz piano, drank in the teen energy of The Sex Pistols and Nirvana and even played the French horn for a couple of years in the school orchestra.

" The French horn was doomed to failure 'cause by that time I was focused on the three chords that you bash out on an old guitar. The pure emotion of rock'n'roll, with a bit of country thrown in, that's where it all came together for me.

" I'd always liked Johnny Cash, I liked his voice and his lyrics are pretty cool, but I really came to country music through the Beasts of Bourbon, particularly through the guitar playing of Spencer P Jones. He has a massive knowledge of country music.

" I also started listening to a lot of acoustic music, like Bob Dylan, and I loved the combination of slide instruments and acoustic guitar, the warmth that you can get out of those sounds."

With that in mind, the Broken Arrows gelled in 1998, with Craig Williamson fleshing out a lean trio of guitar, slide and drums. An indie EP followed. " I washed a lot of dishes for that EP," Brodie chuckles, but it soon led to a deal with Stuart Coupe's Laughing Outlaw Records. Big Black Guitar was completed in 2000, whereupon Brodie took off to New York (" I went out and hustled some shows like any good New Yorker would ") and also Nashville, at the recommendation of his friend Sherry Rich, where he was backed by Hank Williams Jr's band.

January 2001 have seen The Broken Arrows taking to the prestigious stages of the annual Tamworth Festival, though Brodie's long years of playing to his own rhythm have sidestepped any intimidation at the prospect.

Dan Brodie - the unassuming king of what they now call alternative country - is kind of a magician. He has the power to transform country and roots music into the coolest thing you could spend your time listening to. He has the power to lead an international carreer. Dan Brodie has signed a deal with Paris based label " Last Call Records " which will see his debut album " Big Black Guitar " released through out Europe in the coming months.

"I have been wanting to tour Europe for some time now, and signing a deal with French label, `Last Call Records', who are to release my record throughout Europe, may well provide me with such an opportunity" Dan said "Arising from the ashes of New Rose Records, which included Alex Chilton and The Saints, Last Call is a label where I will gladly lay my cowboy hat, and where I lay my cowboy hat, that's my home."