"Shutting Down Our Town" is a song by Australian rock musician, Jimmy Barnes. It was released on 26 April 2019 as the second single from Barnes' studio album My Criminal Record.
| "Shutting Down Our Town" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Jimmy Barnes | ||||
| from the album My Criminal Record | ||||
| Released | 26 April 2019 (2019-04-26) | |||
| Recorded | 2018 | |||
| Length | 4:44 | |||
| Label | BloodLines | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Troy Cassar-Daley | |||
| Jimmy Barnes singles chronology | ||||
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In the week after its release, the song was the second most added song on radio, behind "Me!" by Taylor Swift.[1]
At the APRA Music Awards of 2020, "Shutting Down Our Town" won the Most Performed Rock Work of the Year.[2][3][4]
Troy Cassar-Daley wrote "Shutting Down Our Town" for Barnes after finding inspiration from the Barnes' 2016 memoir Working Class Boy. Barnes said "I changed a couple of words just because of local knowledge, but it was 99.999% Troy's song” adding "...he played it to me and I immediately felt the connection."[5] Barnes said "This song has a lot of personal meaning. It's about growing up in Elizabeth and the closing down of the Holden factory where I once worked as a young working class boy in North Adelaide" adding "I drove through there not long after I heard the song for the first time, and I felt a pain in my heart for the people there who are battling, trying to make a living when everything is stacked up against them."[6] Barnes admits the song moved him to tears.[7]
"It's sort of a heartland "Working Class Man" anthem... This was written by somebody who feels the pain, and who's writing about the darker side of Australia which I never wanted to face before."[8]
Barnes premiered the song in November 2018 during his One Electric Day concert [9] and was officially released on 26 April 2019.[10]
The music video for "Shutting Down Our Town" was released on 6 May 2019.[11][12]
| Chart (2019) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australia Digital Tracks (ARIA)[13] | 35 |