Having spent three years travelling around Australia in a caravan, Catherine Britt is looking forward to launching her new album Home Truths in her home town.
The Golden Guitar-winning country singer and songwriter - who was famously "discovered" by Elton John as a teenager and moved to Nashville at age 17 - is happy to be home in Newcastle, writing and recording music while spending quality time with sons Hank, 3, and Morrison, 1.
"They've started wrestling and playing together which is nice. It's really cute to watch them get older and start to bond," she told LIVE.
Britt had planned to spend 2020 travelling to far-flung regional towns as part of her Bush Pubs Tour but the COVID-19 pandemic cut that short. Instead, she made the decision to take charge of her career and started her own independent record label, Beverley Hillbilly Records.
Home Truths is Britt's first independent album release.
Read more: Catherine Britt takes the reins and finds independence
"This new record, for me, is a little bit like going back to my early sound, songs like Dusty Smiles and Too Far Gone," she said.
"It's very inspired by '90s and early 2000s country, which is what I was listening to when I was starting out. That solid, catchy, semi-commercial country sound with good melodies and great lyrics, musicianship and harmonies.
"Music you can't help but sing along to."
Britt says she wrote Mother for her own mum because she couldn't see her on Mother's Day. The song was her gift.
"New Dawn was written about a friend of mine who had her first baby during COVID and she couldn't introduce her baby to anyone. She was on her own. So there's a lot of diverse inspirations on there but, as we all know, it was such a weird year."
Read more:Gig Review: Catherine Britt delivers home truths with hometown pride
Britt crowdfunded Home Truths on Pozible. She laughs when asked about the experience, saying it "took years off" her life.
"It's a very stressful and scary thing to do," she said.
"It's not like you're fundraising - you're actually just pre-selling the album - but it still feels very weird and uncomfortable.
"This whole past year has been a learning curve about how to be independent: what that meant and what I had to do. I pretty much run my career by myself now with a team I've employed. It's a really different dynamic to being with a label and having an agent but it feels very empowering."
Britt will officially launch Home Truths at 48 Watt Street on Friday, January 15. Capacity is limited to 100 people so the show will also be livestreamed. Britt will be joined on stage by a full band and fellow Novocastrians Natalie Henry and Melody Moko.
She will then join Amber Lawrence on the road for the Love & Lies Tour 2021 which kicks off in February, before resuming her Bush Pubs tour.
Full Throttle BBQ
Country music fans can also catch Catherine Britt at Full Throttle BBQ this Saturday, January 9. She will be performing an hour-long set from 7pm with her band.
Fellow Novocastrian singer and songwriter Max Jackson will take to the stage at 12.30pm, supported by Jeremy Minett (Viper Creek Band).
Jackson released her debut album Life Of The Partylast February on the back of single Saturday, which peaked at number four on the iTunes country chart.
Saturday's celebration of meat and country music is a licensed event, with alcohol available for purchase from noon. Admission is free.
Full Throttle BBQ is located at 3/10 Yangan Drive, Beresfield. The cafe on site will be open and serving low-and-slow-cooked goodies until 8pm.
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