MOST musicians dream of being musicians from an early age. They might learn to sing or play an instrument as a child and then nurture a dream to perform or record and make it big.

Snowy Mountains country music star, Ernie Constance, however never entertained any such dreams. He had no reason to.

He grew up with non-musical parents, went to Monaro High School in Cooma and helped out on the family farm he still works today.

What he did do, however was write poetry. And it was that poetry that saw him not only gain renown as a songwriter - mostly for legend Slim Dusty - but also take up the guitar and start performing, locally and further afield.

With eight albums under his belt, he is hoping to reach the golden figure of 10 before he “retires”.

This weekend, Ernie will head to Tamworth once again to perform his own and cover works in the Tamworth Country Music Festival.

“I love going up to Tamworth,” Ernie said. “I am a balladeer, so I perform where the balladeers perform and it is a great scene,” he said.

“I have been going up for years now, only missing it during COVID.”

A modest, unassuming type of bloke, the Numeralla farmer was born in Cooma and grew up in Peak View on his parents’ sheep and cattle farm.

“We didn’t have any musicians in the family but Dad used to recite bush poetry as he was working the cattle to sale. I had no reason to become a musician.”

Ernie started writing poems when he was at school. He also enjoyed listening to country music and knew of Slim Dusty, Chad Morgan and Tex Morton, through the Hoedown program on the radio.

So he stuck his neck out and sent one of his poems to Slim.

“I found out Slim was recording other people’s poetry so I thought I might as well give it a crack,” he said.

“I heard on the radio that he lived in Metung in Victoria, so I sent off my poem addressed to Slim Dusty of Metung. I was in my early 20s at the time.

“I was pretty shy then; I still am, but I must have had a bit of belief in myself.”

Still, Ernie admits to being surprised when Slim’s people got in touch and said he wanted to record his song.

“I remember the day. We had had 16 inches of rain over four days in June 1975 and we lived seven kilometres from our mailbox.

“The creek was on the way up. I rode our old horse out there and in the letterbox was a letter with a Slim Dusty logo saying he was going to record the song. It was one of the greatest moments of my whole life.”

Ernie earned a royalty through EMI in 1976 from the song and it was the start of a long relationship, although Ernie says he wouldn’t describe it as a friendship.

“I met him, but never knew him,” he said.

“I remember when Slim did This Is Your Life with Roger Climpson. The camera crew went in to surprise him and Slim was recording an ad for the album, with my song playing. I didn’t know that was going to happen, I just happened to be watching the show on TV at the time.”

After that, Slim recorded 16 of Ernie’s ballads, which he is pretty proud of.

“I was only a small cog in the huge wheel that was Slim Dusty, but it was amazing,” he said.

Along the way, Ernie took Slim’s advice to write “about the things I see around me” rather than the usual subjects like the outback and lost love.

“I was trying to write about the outback but I wasn’t living in the outback. The penny dropped, so I wrote the song using the name Things I See Around Me and it became the title track of an award winning album in 1976.”

Around 20 of his songs were recorded by other singers as well.

He didn’t pick up a guitar until around 1979 when a young fellow who came to town taught him a few chords.

“I am a very basic player, I know just enough to accompany myself. I started putting music to my own songs.

“Then my whole career just evolved. I never set out to become a singer songwriter and musician, it just happened.”

A self-confessed workaholic, Ernie married and had four kids with his first wife and balanced family life with work on the farm and music.

“I started playing for lots of shows, like the old Numeralla concert which went for around 10 years, Cathcart and all the little places. I did some fundraisers for Yallambee Lodge and in 1993 recorded my first album at the Lindsay Butler Studio in Tamworth.”

Ernie went to the Tamworth Country Music Festival for the first time in 1988, starting out busking in the early years and building up followers until he started getting major gigs.

“I kept going every year and have been finalist in the Golden Guitar Awards twice and received a few other awards.”

He married second wife, Debbie, in 2002, and has nine grandchildren today.

Ernie will play at the Back to the Bush concert on the Toyota Stage, at the Legends tribute concert on Tuesday night at the Uniting Church, at the Balladeers Homestead on Wednesday, The Pub and the Balladeers Homestead on Thursday and will present a couple of trophies at the inaugural Country Music Excellence Awards at the Balladeers Homestead.

After it’s over, he will concentrate on recording his next two albums.

Ernie’s music can be found on Spotify.