FANNY Lumsden washes her hair in a river.
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It's not new-age but necessity, after a mega-fire almost wiped out her home in the village of Tooma, near the Snowy Mountains.
For the last three weeks Lumsden has lived without power, the expansive bushland that inspired her newest album Fallow is charred and black.
"I shut off the world for a few weeks there," Lumsden said.
"We have been so fortunate I can't even believe it, my house and around it didn't burn.
"Where our valley is was cut-off in all directions so they evacuated emergency personnel, there were no firefighters just local farmers there to protect their properties."
Lumsden's village made international news as the place where two fires on the NSW and Victorian borders united to form a 600,000-hectare mega-fire.
Residents of the village have been without electricity for nearly a month, and Lumsden had to cancel some of her Country Halls Tour shows to stay and defend her property.
The last few years have revealed incredible highs and lows for the singer, from the birth of her son to the loss of her partner Dan Stanley's mother to cancer.
Where our valley is was cut-off in all directions so they evacuated emergency personnel, there were no firefighters just local farmers there to protect their properties.
- Fanny Lumsden
It's a welcome about-face from her usual sense of humour and was cathartic to record, Lumsden said.
"A lot of stuff happened in a short amount of time but I wanted to acknowledge it and keep it honest rather than ignore that at the time," she said.
"We live in the Snowy Mountains which is a whole other part of this story now.
"There were a lot of ups and downs and I wanted to capture that in a place that was so beautiful and using my surroundings felt hopeful to me."
Recorded in a stone hut, overturned water tank and horse float, Lumsden brought producer Matt Fell to her home to experience the beauty himself.
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What resulted is an intimate yet expansive album that's lush in its sound.
Lumsden invites fans to experience the horse float, or Fanny Float, at different locations around the festival.
She will also perform at The Longyard Hotel, January 25 at 3pm.