Joy McKean became famous performing with her sister Heather in the 1950s, writing songs that have become Australian classics, and creating a lifelong partnership with Slim Dusty. She wrote many of Slim's most famous songs, was awarded six Golden Guitars and was a founder of the Tamworth Country Music Festival. She has received lifetime achievement awards from the Country Music Association of Australia and Australian Country Music Foundation, received the Songmaker Award from the Tamworth Songwriter's Association, an Australian Bush Laureate Award, and the McKean Sisters were inducted into the Country Music Broadcaster's Hall of Fame.

Joy McKean shows her talent as a writer in her bestselling books Another Day, Another Town, the biography of Slim Dusty, I've Been There...And Back Again, and, most recently, Riding this Road.