Eight-time Golden Guitar Award winner Fanny Lumsden first performed at the Tamworth Country Music Festival as an up-and-comer in 2010 and 2013, before establishing herself as festival mainstay in 2016.
“I did my first ticketed show in 2016 in this little, church hall,” she recalls. “We did it like how we now do our ‘Country Halls Tour’, essentially, where we put on shows, kind of all around the place and we didn’t go the normal route into Tamworth, if that makes sense. So we put on our own show in this hall which was boiling hot, but we sold some drinks through the bar, and it was really great.
“And it’s just grown from there. So now to be putting on shows in the Town Hall – which is where the Golden Guitar Awards started – it’s got so much history. It feels really amazing to be looking back and feeling like, ‘Wow, we did that ourselves,’ but also to be part of something so much bigger.
“I love it. It’s a bit of a pilgrimage every year for country music artists and fans and to have kind of moved up and now be putting on shows in that like that location, feels really special.”
Lumsden won her first Golden Guitar Award for Best New Artist in 2017 2017 and there was no looking back (at Tamworth or anywhere else). “That was a huge moment,” Lumsden says. “It’s just sort of something you look up to for your whole life, and never really think it’s going to be you. So that was definitely a big step.”
By 2020 with her third album, Fallow, Lumsden was quite literally unstoppable at Tamworth. Not even the bushfires were getting in the way of her appearance.
“I have incredible memories, because where I live, it all got burnt. I drove out while it was burning at side of the road still, to Tamworth. That was how dedicated we were to get down there. We won five Golden Guitars that year, including Album of the Year. So that year was really incredible.
“There was a huge dust storm I remember as well, and it just felt like the elements were so challenging and against us, but Tamworth still happens. That for me was such a sign of how important it is for me, the community and all of the fans, and what an institution it is as well.”
Lumsden released her fourth album, Hey Dawn, in 2023 and her career trajectory has only increased, winning Best Country Album at the 2023 ARIA Music Awards, taking out Alt Country Album of the Year at the 2024 Country Music Awards of Australia, plus three tours to the UK, including an appearance at Glastonbury. It has been, quite fittingly, a new dawn.
“So much has happened!” she says. “I was a little bit worried. I don’t know why. I think that even though Fallow was my third album and Hey Dawn is my fourth, they kind of felt like they had first and second album energy. So I was nervous going into my going into Hey Dawn. I didn’t really find my feet at first and then when it came out, I feel like it ran away from me. I feel like it’s been running and we’ve been chasing it ever since.
“It’s been such a weird feeling, because that’s never happened in that way before, but it’s done so well. It’s just the way that the fans interpreted it. I don’t think I realised how joyful it was until we released it, and then the fans reflected it back to me. I was like, ‘Oh, all right, we’ve made something so happy,’ and I think that was really evident in our shows.”
During her visits the UK music press have been more than enthusiastic about Lumsden’s music and her story – she runs her own label and production company Red Dirt Road with husband and Prawnstars band member Dan Freeman – and curious about the Australian country scene in general.
“Yeah, they’re really getting into it over there,” she says, “and I think that’s because we’ve been doing it our own way, and we’ve really developed something unique. I think in Australia, a lot of artists have, maybe not consciously, but really respected having our own sounds and not trying to emulate anybody else.
“I think that coming to that after having done so many shows and so much touring and so many country halls and so many hours on the road, then bringing that to a fresh audience in a developed form is really an interesting process. Usually you start from the ground up together, and you’re still finding your feet as an artist, but because we’ve already worked that out, that’s been really fun and interesting, and the crowds are just so into it.
“I mean, they come from a culture of celebrating music, it’s in their blood, and that’s so evident. The UK and Ireland just embraced it, which is really exciting. And hopefully we’ll build something quite sustainable in the long term.”
Lumsden will be performing dates on her ‘Story Club Tour’ until the end of the year, with the New Year bringing new music, more UK/Europe touring and, of course, Tamworth Country Music Festival.
All of the above will be powered by a short, festive break.
“December and January is my favourite time of the year to have off with my family, as with many people, I’m sure,” she says. “We live here in the Snowy Mountains, we go camping in the mountains and go down to the river and I absolutely love it. So we’ll definitely be doing that.”
The Tamworth Country Music Festival runs from January 17th-26th, 2025, with the Golden Guitar Awards held on Saturday, January 25th.
Full details at tcmf.com.au.
