FOR Beccy Cole, releasing an album of country favourites with Melinda Schneider wasn’t enough to fill up 2014, so she also wrote a book and made a solo album.
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Great Women of Country has Cole and Schneider singing songs of legendary women who have shaped both of their careers.
“It was Mel’s idea. We thought there has to be a gender balance out there,” Cole said.
“I love all these old songs, I grew up with them. It’s something I wanted to do, but I also love being a songwriter.”
In between recording and touring Great Women of Country, Cole has been making a new solo album, which, she said, would be out by about Mother’s Day, along with her autobiography.
“It’s been nostalgic, because I’m writing the book about where I came from and moved back to Adelaide so I could soak myself in my history,” she said.
“This is where my heart is and my boy loves it.”
The book will be called Poster Girl and Cole has been writing it in blocks, when she takes herself away to her writing shack in Aldinga, with Stevie the kelpie beside her. “Writing the book has stirred up a lot of memories. And the bits I’ve loved the most, I’ve written songs about them,” she said.
“I’ve already written a song to sing with Gina and Sara about our journey together and how much I loved The Songbirds, travelling around the country with them.
“I loved it and appreciated it at the time, but, looking back, it’s even more so in hindsight.”
Cole has also written a follow-up to Poster Girl, called Broken Soldiers.
“My friend, who I just played this new song to, described it as the bookend to Poster Girl,” she said.
“I’m really hoping it will highlight the need we have as a country with our wounded soldiers, not necessarily just their physical injuries. I wrote it after Paul Mackay took his own life.
“The song’s been written from the mother’s point of view. It’s a really important statement that I really wanted to make.”
The Golden Guitar winner said she was getting more sentimental as she got older, but there were also songs that were tongue-in-cheek to balance the album. Cole also recorded a song with John Williamson last year that grabbed them a finalist spot in the Country Music Awards of Australia’s Vocal Collaboration of the Year category.
“I’m so proud of that. If you’d told me years ago that John Williamson would ask me to sing a song with him and to have it be about equal love, I just think it is so special,” she said.
“To get a finalist spot is indicative of how accepting country music fans and the industry alike are.
“The message is to ‘get out and get on with it’. This is just a lovely thing. And then to ask me, I’m really thrilled, so that’s a lovely one to be in there (the Golden Guitars) with.”
Before the awards come around, though, Cole will be hosting her own show at Wests at 8 o’clock tonight.
In the country music tradition of music being passed down from one generation to the next, Beccy and Mick Albeck’s son, Ricky, will be appearing at his mum’s Tamworth show.
“I’ll also showcase some of these new ones,” Cole said.
Partner Libby O’Donovan will open Cole’s show.
“My show is going to be a mix, and I always have guests. I’ll be talking about the book and some of the stories behind it. The rest of it will be what people have come to see,” she said.