TORI Forsyth once credited her 2016 trip to the Tamworth Country Music Festival performing with The Wayward Henrys as the "crash course" she needed to get over stage fright.
So it only makes sense that the one-time Hunter Valley songstress has again chosen Tamworth as the location to re-introduce herself to full band shows after a near two-year absence.
"We were all at rehearsal thinking, 'can we do this?'" Forsyth said. "But it doesn't take long to realise this is good. We've got this."
Forsyth's last band show was at the 2021 Gum Ball festival at Dashville, a month before the release of her second album Provlépseis.
Due to the pandemic Forysth was unable to tour Provlépseis, which showcased her shift away from alt-country to a more '90s grunge-inspired sound.
The good news for Forsyth fans is that her show at The Tamworth Hotel next Thursday won't be a one off. Instead it'll be a launch pad for the Sunshine Coast-based artist's return, which will include a third album.
"There are definite plans in the works for recording and obviously after recording a record you hit the road," she said.
Provlépseis, which was produced by alt-country star Shane Nicholson, enjoyed strong reviews, but due to a lack of touring it failed to reach the heights of Forsyth's 2018 Golden Guitar-nominated debut album Dawn Of The Dark.
"It was pretty upsetting at the time, but given the way the world was it wasn't exactly a priority," she said.
"We obviously didn't get to give that record a life. When you're playing it live you give it life and we didn't give it the life I think it deserved.
"But things happen. We're kind of focusing on the future and it's looking good at this point.
"We're all pretty pumped about it."
Forsyth said the audience in Tamworth will be given a glimpse into the direction of the third album.
"When I was into Provlépseis I wanted to play it live, ironically, and it was the record I intended to play in pubs and at festivals," she said.
"The intention with this is very much back to writing about stories and telling stories and it's very lyrically inclined."
TAMWORTH BOUND
TORI Forsyth will be among plenty of familiar faces from the Hunter at the Tamworth Country Music Festival.
Kurri's Kirsty Lee Akers has a one-off gig at Wests Diggers on January 20 and Cessnock's Travis Collins plays the Family Hotel on Saturday.
At The Tamworth Hotel you can catch American songwriter Ben Leece (January 22), bluegrass boys Good Corn Liquor (January 21) and Catherine Britt's new band The Pleasures (January 18).
Australian Idol contestant Piper Butcher has shows at Toyota Fanzone (January 15) and The Welder's Dog (January 18), Amy Vee has daily shows at The Atrium between January 14 and 20 and last year's Starmaker winner, Max Jackson, is performing at the Toyota Fanzone and The Family Hotel on January 18.
Hunter Valley's Katie Jayne, who releases her acoustic Katie Jayne Unplugged EP on Thursday, will be performing at Toyota Fanzone (January 14), Longyard Hotel (January 17) and Wests Diggers (January 18).
