This year's Tamworth Country Music Festival is done and dusted but newly crowned Toyota Star Maker Max Jackson hasn't come down to earth just yet.
"This whole week has been such a blur - I literally still feel like I'm floating," she tells Weekender.
"It has been the best week of my life.
"After all we've been through over the past couple of years, not being able to perform, it's been overwhelming and awesome and I've loved every minute."
Jackson, who lives in Carrington, released her debut album Life of the Party in 2020.
She is a graduate of The Academy of Country Music and the prestigious Talent Development Project, and won a country music competition on the Central Coast back in 2009.
It proved to be a life-changing event.
One of the prizes was a four-day event tour with Golden Guitar winner Gina Jeffreys. The other was a recording session with Jeffreys' producer husband Rod McCormack.
They became firm friends and remain so to this day, touring together often.
Jeffreys was sitting in the front row at last week's Star Maker final in Tamworth, cheering Jackson on.
"She was wearing one of my merch T-shirts, and she was singing along to every word," Jackson says, laughing
"Gina won Star Maker in 1991 and said it changed her life so much. I mean, a month after she won she was asked to open for Johnny Cash on his Australian tour.
"She also said to me 'If you win, we are going to get a matching star tattoo'. And she is dead set against tattoos.
"I'm going to book us in. I'm holding her to it."
Equally excited about her Jackson's win is her mum, Kim.
"She is the proudest mum in the world right now," Jackson says.
"She has been calling every single person she knows and on the way home from Tamworth - she drove because I was so tired I couldn't even keep my eyes open - she stopped in at friends' houses along the way because she wanted to show everyone the new Toyota Star Maker car I'd won.
"I have a lot of family in Tamworth and they were all there on the night and they all made signs which was just so sweet."
Read more: Carrington singer Max Jackson wins Star Maker grand final in Tamworth
When she does find her feet planted on the ground again, Jackson is going to have to hit the ground running. She has a lot of commitments - and people - to meet.
"We're in meetings at the moment to figure everything out because there will be a bunch of music festivals around Australia I'll be performing at, and I'm going to Nashville for the CMA Festival in June," she says.
"I've been to Nashville a few times before but never for this festival.
"Part of the Star Maker prize package is a four-track EP, and I'd love to have the song that I performed on the night on there - but I also feel super inspired right now so I'm keen to get back to writing.
"I've got some songwriting sessions lined up in Nashville and here, too, before I leave."
She has been to Nashville five times already and worked with songwriters like Jay Knowles (Alan Jackson, George Straight, Jack Ingram) and Georgia Middleman (Keith Urban, Faith Hill, Martina McBride, Sherrie Austin). She also worked with Nashville pop singer/songwriter Syrcina on her track Astronomical which has has had millions of views on YouTube, and wrote four songs on Gina Jeffreys' chart-topping album Beautiful Tangle.
As for her trademark sparkly, happy, colourful on-stage fashion choices, Jackson's icons are Dolly Parton and Kasey Musgraves.
"They are the queens of cool outfits," she says.
"I love colour. I feel like it just brightens up the stage.
"Some outfits I get made - I found some amazing girls in London who make patterned flares with a '90s vibe, and there's another girl in Byron Bay who makes things for me.
"It's funny, I was getting all my outfits for the festival ready and went kind of crazy when I packed. The weather is different in Tamworth in April compared to January, and then there was the Star Maker final to consider.
"I probably packed around 45 sequined outfits and wore 20 of them. The ones I didn't wear, I'll take with me to Nashville."
As for the rest of 2022, the always bubbly and engaging Jackson is even more enthusiastic than usual. You can hear the excitement in her voice.
"I believed in myself, and I had all my fingers and toes crossed that it would be my lucky year, but there were so many talented people in the grand final. I was going to be stoked for whoever won," she says.
"When they said my name, I was like 'Oh my gosh, this is going to be so exciting'. It's just an incredible prize, and all the support that comes with it.
"I just felt so grateful that the judges decided this was my year."
As for her musician (and music teacher) partner, Jeremy Minett, he's busy putting a band together.
"He just released a new album of original instrumental music [Things Of This Nature] and he's excited to put together a band of all of our friends, who are amazing musicians," Jackson says.
"I am really hoping to lock in some dates with the band and play as much as we can.
"We'll make sure to book in a Newcastle show for our warm-up."
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