Casey Barnes “Light It Up” a winner

Tamworth Regional Council and the Country Music Association of Australia Inc have announced Casey Barnes as the recipient of the 2023 Golden Guitar Award for Top Selling Australian Album of the Year with his latest album, “Light It Up”.

The award is determined by data from the ARIA charts for the period January 1 to December 31, 2022, for albums of new material, first released in 2022.

“Light It Up” was released in February 2022, debuting at #1 on the ARIA Australia Country Album Chart and taking out the 2022 ARIA Award for Country Album of the Year.

It features five smash hit singles and has spent over ten months in the ARIA Country chart to date. Casey is up for a further five Golden Guitar awards, including Male Artist of the Year and Toyota Album of the Year.

When told of his win Casey said: “This is a huge honour and extra special being my first Golden Guitar win capping off a year I’ll never forget. This one’s as much for the fans too who have been amazing with their support of the album. It’s always your biggest goal to release a record that people connect with so I’m incredibly grateful”.

The top 5 top-selling Australian country albums of the year were:

1. Casey Barnes ‘Light It Up’
2. Adam Brand ‘All or Nothing’
3. Amber Lawrence ‘Living for the Highlights’
4. Kirsty Lee Akers ‘Wild’
5. Christie Lamb ‘Truth’

Tamworth Regional Council will present the Toyota 51st Golden Guitar Awards live on Saturday, 21 January 2023, from Tamworth Regional Entertainment and Conference Centre and livestreamed via the Festival website here.