Wally Sparrow - Capital News Magazine - June 2003

The blue lake city girl SANDRA HUMPHRIES is based in South Australia's Blue Lake City, Mount Gambier.

She first appeared on stage in a local talent quest when she was 11 years old and that moment started her on a career, which opened many doors. Sandra was one of four girls in her family, and although they all loved country music, she was the only one with vocal talents. Mount Gambier has a very strong country music club so there is always a lot of support for young people who want to sing country music.

Having great talent is only one of the facets that help on the road to stardom. An artist has to be successful in the competition circuit, have a great recording and have a good publicity machine. Sandra from age 11 travelled the competition circuit, winning numerous awards along the way.

At 18 she helped form and became the lead vocalist for the award-winning band CROSS WIND, which was frequently the backing band for the competitions in South Australia. Cross Wind was a very tight band and a logical choice for most of the major shows around South Australia and Western Victoria. They were also often selected as the backing band for major acts touring the area.

Sandra also has a great new album. This recording was slow coming together - Sandra had over the years struck up a good friendship with the Chambers family who lived not so far away at South End. Over the years they had shared many stages and shows until the DEAD RINGER BAND became famous and moved interstate. When NASH CHAMBERS started the now highly respected Beach House Recording Studio, Sandra was to go to Sydney and record with Nash but tragedy struck. Cross Wind member and one of Sandra's closest friends and supporters, John Kuijpers, died suddenly. Sandra was distraught and Cross Wind all but disbanded.

Sandra still loved her country music but the loss of John Kuijpers had left a huge gap in her life and it took several years and a lot of support from close friends for her to regain her original drive. Partner Henry Czerwonka, Brian DeGruchy and his family, close friend Fiona Holliday and BILL CHAMBERS were amongst many people who gave her the confidence to go into the studio and record.

Nash Chambers' career in the meantime had taken off and he was unavailable to record Sandra now, so earlier this year she went into the Boneyard Studio in Sydney with Bill Chambers. The end result was a collection of songs, which have the true essence of country and will certainly be dearly embraced by the traditional country music lovers. Sandra has a spectacular stand-alone voice. Combine this with the musical skills of Bill Chambers and the mixing talents of JEFF McCORMACK and the result has to be an attention grabber.
The new album is named Every Road after a song penned by Sandra and friend Fiona Holliday. The album also contains six wellselected cover songs and five unrecorded compositions, which were submitted by EMI in Nashville. This album, like its artist, is real country and will surely find a way down every road.