Early life and career Joy McKean was born in
Singleton in the
Hunter Region,
New South Wales, on 14 January 1930. As an infant, McKean lived on the dairy farm belonging to her mother's family. Her father was a country school teacher and the family moved around to several regional centres during her youth. Her mother and their father, who was a steel guitar player, encouraged an interest in different types of music, including country performers
Jimmie Rogers and the
Carter Family. Joy learned the accordion, piano and steel guitar, while younger sister
Heather McKean learned the ukulele and both took up
yodeling. McKean also contracted
polio as a child and was treated in
Sydney by the famous
Sister Kenny. McKean first performed on the radio around the age of 10 on Sydney's
2GB radio station. Later McKean and her sister,
Heather McKean (born 20 February 1932), sang for the
Sydney University Revue, while a student at the university. By the age of 18, in the 1940s, she was performing live with her sister Heather on their own half-hour Saturday radio show on
2KY as the
McKean Sisters, noted for their
yodelling harmonies.
The Melody Trail starring the two sisters ran from 1949 until 1956. The McKeans began recording, and from 1951 with Rodeo Label they cut such trademark hits as "Gymkhana Yodel" and "Yodel Down The Valley". During this time, McKean met
Slim Dusty, introduced by radio DJ Tim McNamara in Sydney. Dusty and McKean had two children:
Anne Kirkpatrick and
David Kirkpatrick who are also accomplished singer-songwriters. The family began annual round Australia tours in 1964 – encompassing a 30,000-mile, 10-month journey which was the subject of a feature film,
The Slim Dusty Movie in 1984. Dusty attained international success with his 1957 hit "
A Pub With No Beer", and remained at the forefront of
Australian country music from that time until his death in 2003. Together they produced more than 100 albums, sold eight million records in Australia alone, and earned 45
Golden Guitars. Other popular songs written by McKean for her husband include: "
Walk A Country Mile", "
Indian Pacific", "Kelly's Offsider", "The Angel of Goulburn Hill" and "
The Biggest Disappointment". In 1993 the McKean Sisters reunited to record a CD, "The McKeans on Stage" and continued to perform together on stage various times with the Slim Dusty Show over the subsequent decade leading up to Slim's death in 2003 and Tamworth's tribute "Concert for Slim" in 2004.
Later career McKean received her sixth
Golden Guitar award in 2007 with "Peppimenarti Cradle" winning the Award for Bush Ballad of the Year. McKean celebrated her 80th birthday in 2010 with the
Happy Birthday Joy concert at Capitol Theatre in Tamworth during the Country Music Festival in January 2010. McKean was one of the founders of the
Tamworth Country Music Festival and the
Country Music Association of Australia, and was also a biographer (
Slim Dusty: Another Day, Another Town).
Documentary film The 2020
Australian documentary film Slim and I, directed by
Kriv Stenders was released when McKean was aged 90, and told the story of her life with
Slim Dusty. The film features covers of McKean songs by acclaimed contemporary artists including
Missy Higgins,
Paul Kelly,
Troy Cassar-Daley and
Keith Urban. Film critic Paul Byrnes wrote: "Kriv Stenders (Red Dog) gives us a loving portrait of one of the most important songwriters this country has produced – and it's not
Slim Dusty. Aficionados already knew Joy McKean wrote many of her husband's best songs – in particular, Lights on the Hill and The Biggest Disappointment.
Slim and I makes clear that she also kept the Slim Dusty Show on the road, managed the band, raised the kids and kept her husband from straying too far from the path of righteousness...". ==Death==