Hard-working Aussie musician Helen Ryder has spent her career building a reputation as a "musician's musician", regularly contributing to the sum greatness of others' work, but she's now ready to make a statement all her own with the release of her debut single Lady Bird at next month's Leaps & Bounds Festival in Victoria.
A collaboration with renowned crooner Spencer P Jones, the single is Ryder's reimagining of the Hazlewood/Sinatra classic of the same name, taken from her forthcoming first full-length Someday Love.
Ryder will be launching the single for Leaps & Bounds at the Yarra Hotel, Abbotsford, on Thursday, 9 July, from 8pm. Support comes from Sime Nugent of Sweet Jean fame as well as the Acapelicans, while Ryder herself will be ably backed up by a band comprising Bruce Haymes (keyboards), Shane Reilly (guitar and pedal steel), Bill McDonald and Pete Luscombe.
The album itself had its genesis following Ryder's lauded job as opening support for Vika & Linda Bull recently, which led the singer and her keyboardist to turn their mind to laying down a record, she says.
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"Opening for Vika and Linda was a lot of fun, especially with Bruce Haymes on piano, whom I'd worked with in the past," Ryder said in a statement. "On the strength of those gigs, Bruce and I decided to make an album, reinterpreting some of our favourite songs."
Give Lady Bird a whirl below.
Leaps & Bounds Festival 2015 will be held from 3-19 July. See our dedicated event page under the Festivals tab for more information.
