West of Mount Kosciuszko, in the heart of The Man From Snowy River country, musician Fanny Lumsden is reframing the stories and folklore of this picturesque region's steeped history.
Banjo Patterson's poem is the stuff of Australian legend, but there are more stories from this part of the country that Fanny wanted to tell on her 2020 album 'Fallow', which went on to win an ARIA Award and five Golden Guitars among other accolades.This year, Lumsden releases the follow-up album 'Fallow & Variations'. "We did all of this straight out of the gate after ['Fallow'] came out," Fanny explains.
"We'd already had the ideas for it and then I recorded it all a year later, so a year ago. I didn't get the chance to go out and share the stories in-person onstage like we usually do – you usually get that feedback and all those moments to share different aspects of the stories of the songs.
"Those stories evolve and can be told in such a range of different ways. We didn't get to do that so I thought another way we could do that is record different versions of the songs and then bring out different stories to go with it.
"So, we do have stories that will be coming out with the record as well eventually."
Lumsden will be bringing a swag of these stories to the 2022 Tamworth Country Music Festival, returning after being postponed to April. "It's going to be fantastic, I'm so excited," Fanny says of returning to Tamworth.
"I love the country music festival in Tamworth because it is a unique festival in that pretty much all of the country music artists go to it.
"It's not like 'who's on the bill?'. It means you get to catch up with everybody every year.
"It's a really awesome, hectic week of seeing other musicians and a lot of plans are made for the next year.
"I love the community aspect of it, it really does bring everyone together for this one week. Fans and musicians alike, it's a fun melting pot."
Tamworth Country Music Festival celebrates its 50th anniversary this year with a special concert at Tamworth Regional Entertainment Conference Centre featuring Fanny on a huge line-up of artists.
Fanny is also celebrating ten years of her popular Country Halls Tour series, having played in over 200 regional halls since starting in 2012.
Getting back to Tamworth Country Music Festival will surely be a must-do in '22 not just for Fanny and her fellow musicians, but also the dedicated community of fans the festival attracts every year.
"It's really wholesome to be honest, everyone brings their families as well and it's this big catch-up," she says.
"I always leave feeling really motivated for the year to come and excited about what's going to happen, new things we can do and new things we can try.
"There's nothing like being face-to-face with people. The fans that come year after year are wonderful. For them it is indeed a pilgrimage and they've been going much longer than I have.
"It is a really special part of people's calendars. It builds the essence of what coming together and sharing live music experience is all about."
Tamworth Country Music Festival is on 18-24 April. Fanny Lumsden plays Capitol Theatre 23 April.
Fanny Lumsden's Country Halls Tour 2022 Dates
Fri 18 Mar - Trundle War Memorial Hall (Trundle)Sat 19 Mar - Grenfell Show Pavilion (Grenfell)
Fri 25 Mar - Ariah Park Hall (Ariah Park)
Sat 26 Mar - Montreal Community Theatre (Tumut)
Sun 27 Mar - Wombat Hall (Wombat)
Sat 23 Apr - Tamworth CMF @ Capitol Theatre (Tamworth)
Fri 6 May - Newry Hall (Newry)
Sat 7 May - Community Complex (Violet Town)
Sat 28 May - Boots & Beach Festival (Port Macquarie)
Sun 21 Aug - NQ Rockin Country Festival (Mackay)
Sat 26 Aug - Gympie Music Muster (Sunshine Coast)
