An elbow to the throat on a Sydney rugby league field nearly silenced James Keith for good – instead, it set him on the path to a blossoming career in country rock.

Now one of the region’s rising country rock stars, the Orange-raised singer-songwriter is having his first official hometown launch gig for his brand-new album, ‘I Call It Magic When I’m With You’, at The Greenhouse at Orange Ex-Services Club on Saturday, October 24.

Coming from a famous rugby league family, James grew up on Mortimer’s Vineyard outside Orange with four brothers, and footy was always the plan. Rugby league took him to Sydney’s Northern Beaches – until an elbow to the throat fractured his larynx. For eight days he had nothing but a whisper, and he wasn’t sure he’d ever talk again.

He picked up the guitar instead, playing in his brother Robbie Mortimer’s band. When the band split, James had an album’s worth of songs and three choices: find another singer, shelve the songs, or learn to sing himself. “An elbow to the throat on the footy field nearly took my voice for good, so I taught myself to sing,” he says. After three vocal surgeries, he did just that, and the result is a raspy, husky voice with no falsetto that is unmistakably his.

That voice has already taken him to some impressive highs. His debut album, ‘Life Is Good Today’, went to No. 1 on the ARIA Country Albums Chart and returned to No. 1 two weeks later, before reaching No. 2 on the AIR Independent Country Albums Chart. He was also a Top 10 Grand Finalist in the 2025 Toyota Star Maker competition, where his footy song ‘On Fire’ found a genuine following among rugby league fans, and he’s played it to a room full of them at the NSW Blues Ball.

The new album, out now, features 14 songs about love, distance, doubt, growth, and choosing to enjoy the ride. James writes every lyric, melody, and chord himself, and the sound is country rock with anthemic pop: big guitars, bigger choruses, and stories pulled straight from his own life, with family and country living at their heart.

On stage, he fronts a high-energy four-piece band built for singalongs. Footy and music are the two loves that make James Keith a performer with a voice like no other – forged on the rugby league field, and now playing to packed crowds throughout country NSW.