One of TOM’s favourite homegrown bands is new outfit, The Casuarinas. They haven’t been around for long in this guise: but they have a lot of history under their collective belt.

“The Casuarinas was something that none of us saw coming,’’ says Andrew Palmer, the band’s guitar/dobro/banjo/anything-with-strings-on whiz. “No one said, ‘Let’s make a band that draws on the best of country and folk but comes out sounding just like ourselves’ but that’s what happened.’’

“Four of the five of us have played in bands, lots of them, experienced all those highs and lows. This was different. We would get together around a table on Thursday nights for no other reason than the sheer pleasure of  singing and playing and writing.’’

The band knew they were onto something special when they wrote a song called Stranger In My Own Town, a collaborative effort where every member pitched in ideas. When they heard how audiences responded to it, they realised others would love their songs just as much as they do.

The band features three songwriters with long pedigrees in Queensland’s music scene. Palmer played in ‘80s power-pop legends The Colours (their Blue Shirt is an Australian classic) and Eleven Eleven (ditto for Devastate Me).  Bassist Tim Kelly played with Palmer in The Nasties and more recently in the razor-sharp rock band Gift Horse. Guitarist Noel Mengel played in ‘80s pop classicists The Version and Curiosity Shop, whose 1984 single Judge and Jury/Scene of the Shame still finds fans on Youtube.

They are joined by vocalists Maureen Hansen, the acclaimed visual artist, a former member of Brisbane country-punk heroes COW, and Ric Trevaskis, who by day caters to vinyl junkies in his Brisbane store Egg Records.

“Ric had been listening to cool records all his life but for reasons only he could explain he had never sung in a band before,’’ Kelly says. “When he arrived at a rehearsal with a copy of the Louvin Brothers’ Satan Is Real for show and tell, we knew he would be great.’’

The regular Thursday night sessions keep producing great songs.

“Every time we get around that table, we tell jokes, drink endless cups of  tea, we hand acoustic instruments around, and almost without looking these songs pour out,’’ Mengel says. “That’s the deal, every time we get together we either start a song or finish one.’’

They write songs of heartbreak, of redemption, murder, betrayal, of hard times on the land, of  country church funerals, of happiness squandered in Junk Store Jesus, or returning home to find the world they knew gone forever in Stranger in My Own Town.

For an invitation to their table, hear them at www.soundcloud.com/the_casuarinas

The Casuarinas play the End [West End] around 8.30pm this Thursday [May 16]. You can also catch them later this year at the Gympie Muster.