They sing of skinny dipping and non-stop partying but country music duo McAlister Kemp are squarely focused on their career these days.

The rising pair have three country number one singles, including the Golden Guitar-winning 'Hell Yeah', which was written in tribute to their rabble-raising fans.

"We wrote 'Hell Yeah' in about an hour, it turned out to be our most successful yet, but no we don't live by it," says Drew McAlister.

"It's about letting your hair down and breaking all the rules which sums our crowd up and so we wanted to write a song for them."

McAlister and Troy Kemp were two struggling guitar hopefuls when they met performing on a Johnny Cash tribute tour in 2008.

Signed to independent labels and both harking from similar terrain in northern New South Wales, they clicked and began jamming as a duo.

"Not a lot of people in country music were doing the duet thing and it's tough being a solo artist on the independent scene," says McAlister.

"We just started playing together and when it worked we thought the power of two might open up more opportunities."

After releasing a top ten debut album, All Kinds Of Tough, they were invited to support American country music great Alan Jackson on his Australian tour.

By the time they played CMC Rocks The Hunter in 2011 thousands of festival fans were singing along to songs, putting the icing on years of hard graft.

"It's great having the two of us up there because we're both carrying the performance," says McAlister.

"Drew and I both love a laugh and I think that's part of the appeal of our show, because it's something infectious people can latch onto it."

A second album, Country Proud, will be launched at the 2012 CMC Rocks The Hunter, with the band bumped up the bill in recognition of their rising profile.

The album includes a couple of meaningful moments in songs, like 'Finish What You Started' and 'A Good Idea', but you can't take any band too seriously with titles like 'Cold Beer, Hot Women'.

"You can probably guess what that one's about," laughs McAlister.

"From the get-go we always wanted to write about things that are real and we've never strayed from that.

"The only thing that's evolved is our live show which is more energetic, so this album has even more up-tempo songs."

* Country Proud is released on March 16. McAlister Kemp are touring nationally until May 18.

AAP