Sarah Blasko's latest album opens in a moment of raw vulnerability, climbs to a soaring crescendo and closes with a sanguine contemplation of life's joys.
The singer-songwriter's seventh solo album I Just Need To Conquer This Mountain traverses extreme peaks and troughs, having been written as the COVID-19 pandemic hit, a childhood friendship fell apart and her second child was born.
"As it got more serious and intense in the world and things (happened), like the end of a long friendship, there was a lot of reflective time," Blasko told AAP.
"All of those things seeped onto the record."
Blasko is taking audiences with her on an odyssey with a 29-show tour that includes performances across country NSW, Queensland, Victoria and Tasmania.
It's been eight years since the three-time ARIA award winner toured the regions.
She and her band play the album in full during the first half of the show, followed by tracks from a back catalogue that spans two decades.
"It takes everybody into the world of the album and then it's quite a palpable kind of release," Blasko said.
"By the time we get to those end few songs the intention is really clear that the struggle is real, so to speak, and the release it brings when you can get through something.
"It's really important to sit with that."
The album, released in November, took on greater meaning after one of Blasko's close friends died by suicide around the same time.
Blasko was with her nine-year-old son when she heard the news, prompting frank conversations about both the weight and impermanence of emotions.
"The record for me has become about trying to remind people that these difficulties pass and they take you somewhere you didn't think you were capable of getting to," Blasko said.
"It's not always as clear cut as that ... more often than not if you can sit with things, you can shift your mind."
That sentiment has come to define her live performances and connection with audiences.
One of the tour's first shows, a sell-out at Sydney's Factory Theatre, will be released as a live album on February 21.
Critics have described I Just Need To Conquer This Mountain, which debuted at number six on the ARIA Australian album charts, as Blasko's defining work, 20 years after her first record.
"If I take a moment to think about it, it's really wonderful and amazing that I've been able to continue all this time," Blasko said.
"The thing that's really amazing is that I still really love doing it, in fact, I probably love it more than I did then and need it in a way I didn't then.
"I count myself very lucky."
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