Catherine Britt boasts that soon she and her young family will have travelled the entire loop of Australia.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
They’ve seen the red dirt expanses of the Outback, the wind-beaten peninsulas of South Australia, the isolated coastline of Western Australia and the steamy tropics of the Northern Territory.
All in a caravan with their baby boy, Hank, aged seven months.
When Weekender catches up with Newcastle’s country music darling, Britt is in Brisbane.
“No baby loves travelling long distances, but he’s pretty good for a baby,” Britt says.
“He settles in and usually has a good sleep and has gotten used to it.
“It’s a good way to grow up. I couldn’t think of a better way to have grown up. It’s such a special thing and we’re going to America too this year, so he’ll have a sick little passport before he’s even five.”
When you’ve stared death in the face, your outlook on life inevitably changes. The goalposts shift.
It’s been three years since Britt was diagnosed with breast cancer when she released her last album, Boneshaker.
Since then the 33-year-old has gotten married, won a fourth Golden Guitar, bought and sold Rhythms music magazine, built a home studio and last December she became a mother.
“I’m in a really good place and when you do go through things like that it makes you cut out all the bullshit in your life and really go ‘Why did I worry about that stupid, insignificant stuff we waste our energy and day on’,” she says.
“When you realise these things can be taken away quickly, you get a bit of perspective and you reassess.”
The positive vibes are in abundance on Britt’s seventh album, Catherine Britt & The Cold Cold Hearts, released last week.
The album was recorded in her newly-built home studio in Mayfield East with close friends, Newcastle’s Michael Muchow and Brisbane’s Andy Toombs, known as the The Cold Cold Hearts.
When you realise these things can be taken away quickly, you get a bit of perspective and you reassess.
- Catherine Britt
Britt was heavily pregnant while recording the album and the relaxed, homely environment shines through on tracks like Bush TV and Young In All The Wrong Ways.
“It was such a great thing,” Britt says. “The band rocks up at your house, you make a coffee, head out back and lay down a couple of tracks and then come back in and make everyone some sangas for lunch.”
Cold Cold Hearts also marks a distinct musical shift back to Britt’s traditional country roots. The polished and heavily-produced country-rock sound of Boneshaker has been replaced by a live and rootsy vibe.
You can almost hear the red dirt in Muchow’s slide guitar.
“I was feeling this need to go back to what matters most to me and why I fell in love with music,” Britt says.
“It’s really all those early records I heard as a kid and I really just delved back into the world again, like rediscovering it all over again.”
The build-up to an album release usually involves months of preparation between an artist and their record label on promotion.
Something that became difficult with Britt travelling in sometimes isolated areas.
“I didn’t realise the entire Kimberleys has no phone service,” she says. “We were there for two weeks and we were completely off the grid several weeks before the album was released, which wasn’t so fun for my label.
“We made it work. It’s worked out pretty good because we’ve done little videos on the road and kept contact with the fans organically.”
Britt has no plans to end her nomadic lifestyle. Her Newcastle home is being rented out and they can use the backyard studio as they please.
“I don’t really have to think about it until Hank is due to go to school and then I’ll have to go, ‘What am I gonna do now’,” she says. “Until then I’m just going to enjoy this for as long as we can.”
Catherine Britt & The Cold Cold Hearts perform at Lizotte’s on September 1.