AFTER a 10-year hiatus, country music singer and songwriter Tanya Self is back and ready to take her new album across Queensland.
Her comeback single, The Jacaranda, has spent the past seven weeks at number one on the Country Tracks Top 30.
The Jacaranda paints the story of the challenges of fly-in, fly-out workers, and the effect it has on the workers and their loved ones back at home.
Much like the lyrics of The Jacaranda, Tanya has found her way back home to the country music scene.
Her new album, Random Truths, was officially launched at the Caboolture Urban Country Music Festival in early May.
"The album has come out and I have been a little overwhelmed by how quickly that's been picked up," she said.
"I had always worked hard before, but it has come quicker than I anticipated and has been a very beautiful welcome back."
Tanya said rather than having one or two songs for radio and a bunch of "album fillers", every song had to be radio worthy.
"If it deserved to be on radio, it deserved to be on the album - we felt it all needed to be strong enough to be on radio," she said.
"I really did want listeners to get their money's worth."
Her second single, Listening In, is about domestic violence and the need to tackle it head-on in rural towns.
Next Thursday, July 24, is White Ribbon Day, and Tanya will perform Listening In as part of a ceremony at Parliament House in Brisbane.
"The White Ribbon Day campaign is really about reaching out to all of our good men who are embarrassed by the shocking statistics," she said.
"It's a pretty powerful statement for a man to make - to stand up and say 'This is not on'.
"One-in-three women in Australia will experience violence from a male partner - it is shocking."
The Brisbane-based artist was born in Toowoomba and spent part of her childhood at Mt Morgan and Maryborough.
School holidays were spent travelling across Queensland to visit family - from Warwick and Killarney, to Longreach, Muttaburra and Clare.
Tanya said at the age of five she announced she wanted to be a singer.
"I was born knowing that I could sing - as soon as I could speak, I was singing."
She spent her teenage years performing gigs in pubs across Queensland, before winning the Toyota Star Maker contest in 1995.
The beauty of talent contests, she said, was learning how to sell who you are as an artist, songwriter and performer in the space of one song.
"That's when my career began - it's a wonderful stepping stone for any country music artist who wants a lifetime and career in music.
"My biggest hit then was a song called The Dumaresq, and it was about the river that divides Queensland and NSW in times of flood when the debris would be 30 foot high up in the gum trees.
"My grandfather told me stories about the river, and my grandfather said 'It won't happen again in my day' - when the song was released it was in a time of drought, but in 2011 that's exactly what happened."
The mother of three took a break from the music industry to raise her family, but is excited to hit the road with the Take Tanya Home tour.
It has been 10 years since she performed at the Gympie Music Muster, but she is looking forward to getting back on stage at the muster in August.
This time around she said she was determined to take the music to the people.
Tanya said she drew inspiration for her songs from life, and the sharing of her own story and the stories of others.
Songwriting was incredibly cathartic, she said, and music was a wonderful vehicle to make a difference and get a message across.
"I want to talk about things that I am passionate about and things we need to draw attention to.
"It's the knowledge that I have grown enough as a person to share my own story and understand that you are not alone.
"If you experience hardship you are never the only one - it is a very encouraging way to look at things."