Grant Luhrs Biography - A Furry Tail

Once upon a time, in the little town of Tabbita (40 km west of Griffith), Grant and two of his friends stayed up all night and wrote a song called Let’s Get A Cow. The next day Grant created the Tabbita Record Company. The year was 1981 and Let’s Get A Cow became the company’s first single release.

Since then, Let’s Get A Cow has appeared on One Foot In The Bidgee (Luhrs and Crawford, You Gotta Laugh! (Grant and the Chook Raffle Band), and has been recorded by Lester Coombs, Chad Morgan, the Victorian Police Band and the Queensland Symphony Orchestra!

Grant was living in Griffith (his home town) in 1981, performing solo in a Chinese Restaurant. In 1982 he moved to Wagga Wagga, established The Flying Fox Recording Studio and teamed up with Hugh Crawford.

Many songs were written: The Longyard Hotel written by Grant won the Longyard Hotel Song Competition in 1985. Grant has been to every Tamworth Country Music Festival since then.

Luhrs and Crawford released One Foot in the Bidgee in 1987. It featured Two Old Ladies Dancing, Stealing My Heart (also recorded by Jimmy Little) and Matilda. The title track became a theme song for Wagga Wagga.

Midnight In Paradise was released through BMG in 1990. It gained Luhrs and Crawford two final five Gold Guitar nominations in 1991 and an ARIA nomination the same year.

Since 1991 Grant has pursued his solo career –

Men without Shoes was released in 1992.
Festival Records released Campfire (1995). It enjoyed much success with Heart Of The Night making it to Number Six on the National Country Music Charts.
You Gotta Laugh! (1997) was released through EMI. It featured Nude Bootscootin’ which spent a number of weeks on the charts at Number One. It became Ian McNamara’s (Australia All Over) 1997 Song of the Year. It also took Grant and the Chook Raffle Band to the River Island Nature Retreat in February of 1998 to perform the song to 64 nude line dancers, creating the World’s First Nude Boot Scooting Record. The CD also features It’s Hard to Be a Cowboy with a Poodle by Your Side, Always Someone Bigger, and Off like a Dog Shot in the Arse.
Pick Of The Bunch (1999) featured the best songs off the first four albums.
Life Aint So Bad In The Doghouse (2000) is a comedy album with the Chook Raffle Band.
Another Story (2003) features a mixture of Grant’s songs and songs written by some of his songwriter mates.
Songs Of The Riverina (2005) features Don’t Call Wagga Wagga Wagga, The Road to Gundagai and many of Grant’s songs written about the Riverina.
The Best Part Of Love (2008) is a collection of love songs.
Jim and Grant: Australian Comic Rhymed Verse (2009) A collection of 32 poems from Jim’s book

Grant and the Chook Raffle Band is a featured act at many Country Music Festivals around Australia. They were also invited to represent Australia at The Nanning International Folk Festival in China in 2007. Artists from 23 countries performed at the festival, the highlight being a live TV broadcast to 6 million people. The Chooks were also invited to perform at the 2009 Zhangjiajie International Country Music Week also in China.

Chook Raffle Band