Look out Keith Urban, there’s a new guy in town, Taree NDIS participant, Nathan Moore, who has just released his first country music single on Spotify and iTunes, covering Ricky Van Shelton’s song, ‘I’ll Leave This World Loving You”.
A song close to his nan’s heart, a huge country music fan, and a promising up and coming singer/songwriter, the 21-year-old, who has autism and anxiety, said he remembers his family listening to Ricky regularly on his nan’s portable CD player while they all sat around her dinner table.
“The song is so special to us it was played at my pop’s funeral so it means a lot to me to be able to sing it and record it for my Nan and to share it with the world,” he said.
“When I played it to Nan she had tears in her eyes, so did mum. It was a really special moment for us. I never thought I’d actually get to record this song. We’re all just stoked.”
Nathan said the idea to record ‘I’ll Leave This World Loving You” came about after he performed it as part of a live streamed Dundaloo Support Services concert, celebrating International Day of People with Disability, last year.
“It was a virtual concert to support people as we all went through the pandemic,” he said.
“I sang the song and my Dundaloo support worker, Matt Zarb, played guitar. It was just incredible. We had such a great reaction. It was huge.
“People from everywhere were messaging us, saying how much they loved it, and they didn’t realise how talented I was – all really positive stuff.
“This is when Matt and I said to each other, “Right, let’s get in the studio and record this song, and Matt rang his friend Jake Davey.
“Jake’s a fantastic young producer here in Taree. He’s also a country music artist himself, having recently had two number one iTunes country music tracks,” Matt said.
“I’ve known him for years, and I asked him if he would help produce Nathan’s single and being the great guy he is, he said yes.
“What a fantastic thing it was to see Nathan experience his first time in a professional studio singing his heart out. It all went down like butter and we knew we had a good recording.
“We also asked Anthony Walmsely, a friend and session guitar player from Tamworth if he would play some electric guitar for us, and he said yes, so we were on our way,” Matt said.
“Anthony has played guitar for countless national and international artist’s so it’s quite an honour to have him on this track. It just put that finishing touch on the whole project.
“We’re all so proud of Nathan and the finished track. It’s awesome, and we can’t wait to see where it goes.”
Nathan added initially he was using his NDIS funding to learn life skills so one day, in the years ahead, he could move into his own home, but once he and Matt got talking, he soon realised he could use it for a whole lot more to support him further, particularly with his career goals.
Already employed one day a week at 104.7FM 2BOB Radio with his own program, Nathan said Matt is now supporting him to embark on his own Karaoke business where he will potentially get paid to entertain.
“It think it’s a great idea. I’d love to work with disability providers and in aged care facilities to entertain people so they could all have fun participating in Karaoke. I think a lot of people would get a real kick out of it,” Nathan said.
“With the NDIS, as your life progresses, all these little pieces/things you want to achieve, can all come together and, like Nathan, you can look to add them to your plan,” Matt said.
“You can express what you’d like to do, then these activities can form part of the goals in your plan, and that’s how you can get funding to achieve,” he said.
