Music Is "Taking A Little Journey Together For A Couple Of Hours"

"I did a lot of tour dates with the symphony how last year, but also towards the end of the year I started doing this acoustic thing," she explains. "I really actually liked the feeling of going back and forth between the two, because I like that feeling of being minimal - just the idea of changing it up very quickly and being able to really do it at the drop of a hat - and I like that feeling that you're kind of exercising every muscle you have and drawing on everything that you've learned to do both of those very different things. It feels very energising actually."

For decades there's been debate about where Carpenter's music stands genre-wise - some say she's a country artist while others believe she's folk or plain adult rock - but her recent inclusion in the museum at Nashville's Country Music Hall Of Fame would seemingly hammer home her country credentials.

"Oh my God, I'd never been there until a few weeks ago, and I have a guitar in there and there's a tiny little write up about me - I can't tell you how moving it is," she gushes. "I was there very quickly and I didn't have a lot of time to spend - I need to go back and poke around for days, because there's so much history. And of course the history of our culture is embedded in other historical movements and sociological things and everything that has to do with our countries, so the history of country music in America mirrors so many other social shifts and movements. When I was there I was in tears - I was just really moved by a lot of it."

And for her Aussie trip she doesn't mind whether she's entertaining fans at the Gympie Muster or one of her headlining shows - as longs as he's entertaining them.

"I take my job very seriously, and every time you get the chance to play music for people I like to believe in the best possible way that it's about taking a little journey together for a couple of hours," she reflects. "You get to go a lot of different places together, and hopefully the things I sing about resonate with the listener - that's what we all seek, we're seeking to see ourselves and connect. And if that is the case, I don't care if it's on a festival stage or a little club or a performing arts centre - as long as we connect."