CORNELL & CARR
making music that MATTERS
When two voices, the songwriting talents and personalities of Matt Cornell and Mike Carr combine, it creates musical magic with these two award-winning artists.
Although only making music together as a duo for two years, the Cornell & Carr journey began years ago when they came together for a songwriting session. During that first meeting, Matt and Mike discovered a history that went 'way back'. Both Matt's musician parents (Wayne Cornell and Cheryl Assange) and Mike's musician father (Warren Carr) had all previously performed together. They formed an instant bond and a strong friendship.
Fast forward a few years and both Matt and Mike joined Adam Brand and The Outlaws with fellow country musicartists Travis Collins and Drew McAlister.
This group went on to win the CMC award for ARIA highest selling Australian artist in 2017. Cornell & Carr boast a musical calibre that’s rarely found in one duo.
Matt has worked as Adam Brand’s musical director for more than a decade, has opened for international artists including Richard Marx and was a member of iconic rock band The Baby Animals, and has toured and recorded with Richard Clapton, Shannon Noll, Jenny Morris, Damien Leith, Matt Finish and Angry Anderson. He was nominated for two Golden Guitar Awards in 2018, was a 2014 CMC Music Awards New Oz Artist of the Year finalist, and was a finalist again, this time for Male Artist Of The Year at the 2017 CMC Music Awards.
Mike is a two-time ARIA Award winner and a Golden Guitar winner. He has written many of Australian country music’s biggest hits including songs for Adam Brand, McAlister Kemp, Adam Harvey, Drew McAlister, Aleyce Simmonds, Kaylee Bell, Kaylens Rain, and Melinda Schneider.
In January 2018, Matt and Mike performed a one-off show together at the Tamworth Country Music Festival and the vibe on stage was such, that they knew they had something musically special between them.
Many people who attended said it was the highlight of their festival. It was obvious to not only the audience but also to Matt and Mike that this was something they wanted to pursue further and, before the year was out, they’d formed Cornell & Carr, and released their debut single, Be In The Band.
The single debuted at No. 2 on the iTunes Country Songs Chart and they followed it up with the album, We Go Way Back, that also debuted at No. 2 on the iTunes Country Albums Chart.
Since then, they’ve released four more singles, Town Like This, Things I Leave Behind from the album, both warmly embraced by the music community. In 2021 the single What Kind of World debuted at No. 1 on the iTunes Country Songs Chart with the latest single Beer Talk debuting at No. 2.
We Go Way Back garnered the duo two Golden Guitar finalist spots in January 2020.
matt CORNELL
