Britt shakes up her sound
The Nashville country scene has been compared to the Mafia.
So it’s no surprise that after leaving major label RCA Nashville, Australian country singer-songwriter Catherine Britt found herself, Godfather-style, being pulled back in.
Last year, the 30-year-old became the first signing to Lost Highway Australia, the local offshoot of the legendary country music label.
And after living in the capital of Tennessee from 2004-09, Britt plans to split her time between the “sister cities” of Nashville and her native Newcastle.
Despite her inability to leave the gravitational pull of Music City, the songstress has shaken things up on her Lost Highway debut, Boneshaker.
“It’s a new start in a lot of different ways,” Britt says from her home in Newcastle. “I need that. I’ve been doing this for a long time, you know, I’ve been in the industry since I was 14.”
Bill Chambers, father of another Australian singer-songwriter Kasey, produced her independent debut EP In the Pines, which was released back in 1999, and worked with Britt on every album leading up to her sixth studio album. It was him who advised the three-time Golden Guitar-winner to work with a new producer on Boneshaker.
Lost Highway suggested Ryan Hadlock, a Seattle-based studio hound whose diverse CV includes Foo Fighters, Brandi Carlisle, the Lumineers and Vance Joy.
“Bill Chambers is pure hillbilly, whereas Ryan Hadlock is folk, rock, pop sort of stuff,” Britt says.
In September, Britt travelled to Seattle to record the 11-track outing, which includes songs written with Melanie Horsnell, Tony Buchen and Felicity Urquhart. Funnily enough, for the past two years Britt has filled in for Urquhart on ABC radio’s Saturday Night Country.
“It was really cool to go to the other side for a while and be a music geek and interview my friends,” Britt laughs. “It was like the easiest job in the world.”
Boneshaker closes with You and Me Against the World, a duet with her hero Steve Earle, who she met at a songwriting workshop. Unfortunately, Earle was too busy to fly to Seattle to record the duet in person, instead relying on technology.
“He was on tour and going through another divorce,” Britt jokes, before marvelling that “it was like he was in the room, the way he did his recording”.
The star, who is yet to win the ARIA for country album of the year despite five nominations, went back to basics during the writing of Boneshaker.
“I rented a yurt of all things just outside Woodstock in upstate New York, just for something different,” Britt laughs.
“I wanted to go somewhere really random and be inspired. I went there and had nothing else to do but write for two weeks. It was the perfect atmosphere.”
With Boneshaker out on May 1 and gigs until the end of June, Britt has one other big project on the go — her wedding on October 17.
“I’m trying to plan a wedding in-between releasing an album and going on tour, so it’s freaking me out.”
In an unusual complication, Britt will fly in from Noumea on her big day.
She is playing Cruisin Country 5, which sails from Sydney to Vanuatu, with Troy Cassar-Daley, Adam Harvey, Sara Storer, the McClymonts and more.
“I booked it before we booked the wedding and kind of screwed myself there,” Britt laughs.
Boneshaker is released on May 1.
