A family affair

The McClymonts have won 13 Golden Guitars, two ARIAs and achieved multi-platinum record sales. Yet the sisters and their mum Toni tell Jenny Brown, their greatest achievement has been juggling motherhood and career.

- Jenny Brown

It can be a long, dull drive down the dusty roads of rural Australia, grey gumtrees spooling off to either side of the family car, casting bars of sun and shade. As boredom threatens, soaring three-part harmonies start to float from the open windows, accompanying a Dolly Parton tape.

School’s out and the McClymont sisters – Brooke, Samantha and Mollie – are off to yet another weekend talent quest, their mother Toni behind the wheel, musical instruments and a suitcase of glitzy costumes stashed in the boot.

“That was the way we rolled,” grins Brooke, the eldest of the gifted siblings who grew up to become Golden Guitar award-winning country music favourites, The McClymonts. “Mum took us to different festivals or talent quests pretty much every weekend. Sometimes it took the whole weekend to get there and back! It was every weekend, wasn’t it, Sam?” Blissfully feeding her new baby, Elroy, she turns to her sister for confirmation.

While 38-year-old Brooke is the laid-back, creative songwriter of the outfit, part-time Getaway presenter Sam has a sharp commercial brain, and the youngest, Mollie, reckons she falls somewhere in the middle.

Nowadays, as happily married mothers-of-two, they juggle the diverse demands of husbands, small children, business, composing, touring and recording; their new studio album – aptly titled Mayhem to Madness – is coming out in June.