Born and raised in Tamworth, in a musical family that has always been involved in country music, the January school holidays, post-Christmas, have always held a certain magic for me.

I remember being very small, watching my dad play on stage and hoping that one day I might be able to do what he does.

Many years before CMC, growing up, I fell in love with Aussie songbirds like Anne Kirkpatrick, Norma O’Hara Murphy and Deniese Morrison from listening to Hoedown on the radio.

I listened to John Minson, Nick Erby, Bruce O’Hara and Brian Howard and learned so much about our Australian musical heritage.

I was introduced to amazing singer-songwriters, which made me wonder if one day I too might be able to put pen to paper and write a song that made people feel the way I felt listening to those people.

The festival always seemed to be a culmination of all these pipe dreams, rolled into a delicious 10-day experience.

One of my earliest childhood festival memories is of mum taking me to see Rex Dallas sing – I thought he was amazing (I still do) – and recall bragging to my cousins that my mum knew him personally. They were suitably impressed. Every year we listened to the awards and Star Maker on the radio and I always felt an incredible excitement and longing to be part of this amazing musical scene. 

Mum and I donned cowgirl hats and attended the cavalcade. I squealed with excitement when Johnny Chester or Jean Stafford waved at us.

What a joy, then, to reflect on these memories and realise that many of these people I idolised I have performed alongside, and some I can even count as friends.

The long-held pipe dreams of being selected as a Star Maker finalist, riding on a float in the cavalcade and attending the Golden Guitar Awards have become a reality. And I am now all grown up, singing my own songs with my own band of incredible musicians and making a living from the industry I have long held in such high regard.

For me, the festival always has and always will be a wonderful, exciting part of a dream come true. My most favourite time of the year. The only bad thing about it is the awful post-festival comedown – when the streets empty, and the barricades come down, the buskers file out –and all we are left with is a memory of another amazing Tamworth Country Music Festival –until next year.