Tamworth Country Music Festival 2022: Jayne Denham takes a journey to the wild side in new album WANTED

She'd fit the traditional country pop mould with albums like Calamity and Renegade, but it was time to do something for her.

And so, WANTED was born.

"I got to that point where I said, 'I just want to do something totally different creatively, and I don't even care if people don't like it'," she told the Leader during a shoot at the Kumbogie Woolshed nestled in Tintinhull.

"I wanted to make an album that made me happy and was creatively really fun - forget the rules, forget trends, let's just make a Jayne Denham record that's got a twist to it."

Denham's 5^th album is country rock meets a wild west movie, designed to take the audience on a musical journey back in time.

It's already come out of the gates firing, topping the Aria Australian Country Album charts and scoring her two Golden Guitar nominations this year for Best Female Artist and Contemporary Album of the Year.

"We based it off a wild west movie back in the days of spaghetti western which is quite orchestral, there's a lot of instruments in there," she said.

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"I feel like the record really is 70 per cent about the band track. It's like an epic musical."

But to fit the sassy, country rock queen persona, Denham needed the right outfit, and she wasn't going to hold back.

Custom made by the same costumer designer who dressed Katy Perry for her Vegas show, Denham has pulled out all the stops - fake gun, detailed leather gun holster, vintage vest, even a sheriff's badge with her name on it.

"I thought I can't get out on stage and present this record in jeans and a t-shirt," she said.

"So I've gone the whole next level and got a costume and I've got a fake gun.

"I was so nervous thinking 'are people just going to freak out in Australia seeing me in this crazy costume', but everyone is loving it.

"We're in the entertainment business and it's been really fun to push the boundaries in what I do in country music."

Taking WANTED out on the road has been as much about the visual experience as it as about the music, she said, which is why she's bringing her Tamworth show The Sisterhood to the Capitol Theatre instead of her usual choice at Town Hall.

"It really does need the big screen behind to show the visuals to match the music," she said.

You can catch Denham tonight from 7.30pm at Wests' Diggers for the Country Turns Pink concert, and 10am Thursday for her big show at the Capital Theatre alongside Cass Hopetoun, Natalie Henry and Vixens of the Fall.

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