When Lucy Beveridge was given the seemingly simple task of writing a song about who she is as a person and an artist, it set off a wave of soul-searching.
Despite being just 17, the western Lake Macquarie singer-songwriter had been writing songs for seven years, but this task asked a much deeper question.
After deliberating for some time, Beveridge realised it wasn't something she could simply answer for herself.
The result was A Million Different Things. A delicate slice of pop-tinged country folk that marks the debut single release by the Morisset artist.
"When I sat down to write it, I was like, 'I can do this. I should be able to do this'," Beveridge says this week.
"Then I was like, 'Actually, I'm not quite sure who I am' as I started to write the song. That's how it all came about.
"I realised that we're all constantly growing and changing, and I don't think I'd ever be able to put myself in a box to say I'm just one thing.
"Then a million different things came about, and that was that."
For someone only in the formative stages of her music career, Beveridge has ticked off a long list of accomplishments.
Since debuting as a busker at nine at the Tamworth Country Music Festival, Beveridge, along with her brother Josh, 20, has established herself in the Hunter music scene.
In the past year alone Beveridge has become the darling of Tamworth and Gympie.
She's won the Gympie Music Muster Mothertone Junior Talent Search, been the Folk Federation of NSW Young Folk Artist of the Year and the APRA AMCOS Australian Children's Music Foundation Young Songwriter of the Year, won the Tamworth Songwriters Association Salute Youth Songwriter Award; and been the Capital Country Music Association Junior Songwriter of the Year.
Beveridge has also supported country stars Melinda Schneider and Amber Lawrence and was chosen to collaborate on a cover of I Am Australian with country-folk stalwarts the Bushwackers.
"It's been really wonderful," she says of the last year.
"The part I love most about it, because a lot of them have a lot to do with festivals, is I've met most of my close friends through festivals.
"A lot of them being musicians like the Voll Sisters and Coral Renee, they're some of my close friends. It's just meeting these people and hearing all of their different stories and being part of the little community."
While Beveridge is part of a fresh country-folk movement, her tastes are influenced by the past.
Legendary folk and country artists Joni Mitchell and Emmylou Harris are among her favourites, alongside modern Americana star Sierra Ferrell.
Australian singer-songwriters Melinda Schneider, Elana Stone, and Sarah Grace Buckley are also influences.
"A lot of older music just has this timeless touch, and that can be hard to hear a lot these days," she says.
"Of course, there are many artists that have that, but I just have always really resonated with older music."
Beveridge's first release tapped into a timeless vibe when she recorded a cover of the 19th-century folk and gospel song Wayfaring Stranger, which has been popularised by Joan Baez, Tim Buckley, Johnny Cash and Jack White.
"It's just such a beautiful song about navigating life's journeys, and it has such a beautiful outlook on it," Beveridge says.
"It's not quite like anything I've ever heard before, and I've always just resonated with the song.
"It's one of those songs where I've sort of always known, and then just recently I've really started to look into it and really connected with it."
