Singer-songwriter Alec Beckett busks for 25th year running at Tamworth Country Music Festival

The Ipswich area performer reckons he “wasn’t much of a singer” but started seriously honing his craft after he decided in 1992 to have a go at the next year’s festival.

A year of solid practice later, he hit the crowded festival streets for the first time – and within a few years, Slim Dusty himself joined in for a song or two.

“I actually wasn’t chasing music and wasn't even a singer, but I heard a lot of music when I was younger: my uncle used to play Slim Dusty, Buddy Williams, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Tex Morton,” Beckett said.

“I’d never thought it was in me to play music, but in ’92 I decided to have a go at it, see what it could do for me.”

Beckett said he remembered Peel St being “absolutely packed” with buskers and listeners.

“A lot of people thought I could actually sing, and I saw there was a possibility for me to learn if I kept at it,” he said.

“It didn’t come easy, it took a lot of practice. It took me 10 years to even become a reasonable singer.

“My upbringing was very tough, but I found music … I never thought I would be singing half my life before I started.”

Beckett said he remembered singing outside Prouds in 1997, when Slim Dusty and Smoky Dawson popped up out of the blue to pitch in.

“They just turned up on the street. I had a full band that year, and Slim came in and sang When the Rain Tumbles Down in July with me, then after about 10 minutes he and Smoky came in and sang Lights on the Hill with me,” Beckett said.

“That was something huge, that just lifted the hat right off me head … I felt like I was walking on cloud nine.”

Beckett said he went on to write a song called Slim Dusty, You’re a Legend.

He released it in 2001, and gave the man himself a copy of it in 2002 before Slim died the next year.

The “nomadic” performer, who is working on his fifth album, said he spent most of winter travelling through dozens of outback towns in Northern Queensland, the Northern Territory and the top end of Western Australia with his partner Betty Metcalfe, singing for his supper.

But he said the Tamworth CBD was the ultimate venue.

“As long as there’s buskers in the street, I’ll keep coming,” he said.

“It’s the people on the street that makes the festival.

“I don’t even bother going to another show – why would I bother when I have all this?”

He said the festival was a yearly meeting place for friends and fans.

“I’d hate to have to go to every part of Australia to meet every person I’ve met here,” he said.

“They come back every year and I have a good little following.”

Beckett said that when he first started making his yearly trek to Tamworth, he “wasn’t looking for a Golden Guitar and wasn’t looking for stardom”.

“I came here as a hobby singer and I’m still the same person: I’ve never been picked up (by an agent or label) or anything, but that never mattered.”