Beccy Cole has toured across Australia more times than most folk have had hot dinners; and, if 2017 is anything to go by, that won't be changing anytime soon.
One of Beccy's major projects this year is the Aussie Road Crew Adventure, a camping holiday in which Beccy will perform under the stars in some of the best-kept secret parts of the country. “It's happening across three different tours, with the first one taking place in Queensland across a two-week period,” she explains.
“Every two nights, we stop at a different campground – some are privately owned, some are working properties – and we have a little, mini festival of sorts.
"I have other friends and musos that come along to perform around the campfire every night; and it's just such a wonderful opportunity to explore these different parts of the country. It also gives people a chance to camp around a bit and see what life's like on the road.”
Beccy is particularly excited by the prospect, given that her partner in both music and life, Libby O'Donovan, will be undertaking her first-ever camping trip. “It's one of those things: you either grew up with camping or you didn't,” Beccy says.
“I had a huge taste of it when I was a kid, and I wanted to create that for my son as well. I've always loved that, so I'm looking forward to introducing that to both Libby and a whole group of new people."
Away from that, Beccy will be teaming up with her old friend Adam Harvey for a covers album centred around famous duets, entitled 'The Great Country Songbook II'.
The release of the album also coincides with a full-scale national tour from late May all the way through to the end of September. “We've toured together probably seven or eight times all across the country,” Beccy says.
“We're really good mates: his wife actually calls us the male and female versions of one another. We'd always talked about recording together over the years, and this was just such a wonderful project to undertake.
“It's got all the greats that you'd expect: June and Johnny, Kenny and Dolly, Tammy and George, Loretta and Conway. We're bringing back all the classics for this one.”
Before any of that, however, Beccy has some business to attend to in her hometown of Adelaide. Performing as a part of Adelaide Fringe, Beccy will take to the stage at Adelaide Oval as a part of the huge Live On 5 concert series. “It's nice to have that home-ground advantage,” she says with a laugh.
“I'm going to have my full band, The Sisters Of Twang, playing with me; and I'm even bringing my mum up on stage.
“I like to drag her out of retirement every now and then, because she still rocks. The Fringe has put a lot of work into making the Live On 5 show possible, so I'm very excited to be a part of it.”
Live On 5 takes place at the Adelaide Oval. Beccy Cole performs 10 March.
