Fanny Lumsden will launch her fifth studio album, “Traditions”, in the Snowy Valleys village of Tooma on 31 October. Photo: Fanny Lumsden.
Fanny Lumsden will launch her fifth studio album in the tiny Snowy Valleys village of Tooma this October, bringing a record about family, belonging and inherited traditions back to the country where she lives and farms.
“Traditions” will be released on 30 October, with Lumsden launching the 11-track album at an outdoor event at Tooma the following night before taking it on an east coast tour in November.
For an artist whose career began a long way from major stages, the choice of launch venue is fitting.
Raised on a sheep farm at Tallimba, west of West Wyalong, Lumsden built her career from the ground up, travelling rural Australia and playing hundreds of country halls before eventually reaching some of the world’s biggest festival stages.
That journey took her to Glastonbury Festival in 2023 and has since included repeated tours of the UK and Ireland, major Australian festivals and arena shows with Paul Kelly.
But between tours, Lumsden remains closely tied to rural life.
She lives with her husband Dan Stanley Freeman and their two children on a family property in the Snowy Mountains, where she farms between touring commitments and is also a volunteer firefighter.
That tension between the life she inherited and the one she has built for herself sits at the heart of Traditions.
“As I’ve got older, I’ve begun to realise the value and meaning that can come from traditions,” Lumsden said.
“What I’m still learning is how to balance the ideas of who I am with those traditions, and that they are all allowed to change as we go.”
That idea runs through an album which looks at family, ageing and belonging from several directions.
New track Mother’s Eyes turns to the matriarchal line of her family and the experience of seeing your own appearance change with age.
“This song is a love letter to myself ultimately,” she said. “You’re going to question everything and your age but, in the end, when you look in the mirror it’s your mother’s eyes looking back and that can be enough.”
The album also includes By The River, featuring Paul Kelly, with whom Lumsden has toured extensively in recent years.
After singing harmonies on a deep-cut track named The Pretty Place while on tour with Kelly in Europe last year, Fanny says the song just kind of fell out while she was staying next to a river in the peaks district.
“(In the song The Pretty Place) Paul somehow described the place that I always go in my mind when I imagine a safe place,” she said.
“Going to the river is also a big tradition in my family; we are river rats through and through, and we always seek a river out, so a river song was always going to come at some point.”
Kelly later agreed to sing on the track.
“I am unbelievably grateful and awed by the fact Paul said yes and is singing my lyrics,” she said.
Traditions also includes previous single Difficult Woman.
The album was produced by Steven Schram, whose credits include Crowded House, The Cat Empire and Kelly, and recorded live across nine days with Lumsden’s band The Daddies, also known as the Prawn Stars.
Rather than recording instruments separately, the band played together, with each track captured in a single take.
It was a first for Lumsden.
“Tracking everything live was initially a daunting concept for me,” she said, “however, Steven was really great and helped me to trust the process and stop underestimating what we were doing.”
The album arrives after several years in which Lumsden’s career has expanded well beyond the country halls where she first built her following.
Since her Glastonbury debut she and her band have returned to the UK and Ireland five times, while at home she has performed at festivals including Bluesfest, Savannah in the Round, the Tamworth Country Music Festival and Big Red Bash.
She has also opened arena dates for Paul Kelly alongside Lucinda Williams and supported Matchbox Twenty frontman Rob Thomas at sold-out Sydney shows.
Along the way she has collected two ARIA Awards, 10 Golden Guitar awards and three AIR Awards.
Album tour dates for the East Coast has performances scheduled in regional Victoria, Queensland’s Sunshine Coast and regional NSW throughout November. For tickets and information visit fannylumsden.net
