LYN Bowtell has a busy weekend booked.
The musician is nominated for three Golden Guitars and will be performing at the awards ceremony on Saturday. She will then play her festival show at the Longyard Hotel on Sunday.
While the ten-day festival is coming to a close, it's been a 20-day ride for Lyn.
She takes on a mentor role as director of The Academy, which begins the week prior to the festival.
She teaches her students that knowledge is power.
"A lot of country musos learn by ear, which is what makes them great," she said.
"But there's times when you need to have those skills to be able to bring a band in, to be able to write a chord chart.
"It's small things like that, that can be very empowering."
Lyn is also one of the judges of the Golden Gig, a competition for people younger than 17 looking for a break.
Mentoring has always come naturally to her, she said.
"I just always had a knack for being able to watch someone and go, 'jeez, I reckon if they did this, that'd really help'," she said.
As busy as she is, the artist wouldn't have it any other way.
"Country music's an incredible genre to be a part of," she said.
"You only hit your stride in your 40s."
At age 14, she travelled in a caravan with family and friends to the country music festival for the first time.
She remembers putting her hands inside Joy McKean's prints at the Hands of Fame. She wondered what it would be like to have her hands there one day.
And in 2022, she was inducted into the Hands of Fame.
"It was quite a pinnacle point in my career to be honest," she said.
The Aussie country industry is more connected, less ego-driven and more family-oriented than other genres, Lyn said.
"It's hand-in-hand, every festival, that I'm jumping in on someone's gig, and they're jumping in on mine," she said
Lyn Bowtell and Her Famous Friends will play midday at the Longyard on Sunday, January 22.
She has a tradition of enjoying a steak and an apple cider after the show.
"What I really love the most about it is the joy that people have, even the last day of the festival, I'm getting friends up who've been up til 2am at the awards, and they're a little bit dusty," she said.
"But they take a Nurofen, and they get on stage and sing with me, and I'm just so in awe of that joy that that brings."
