Two-time finalist, and winner of the Aotearoa Music Awards’ Tui for Country music with her ‘Wildfires’ album in 2019, Jenny Mitchell has been singing and loving country music her whole life, and writing it since she was 11. But, she insists, she truly hadn’t ever dreamed that an opportunity as transformational as touring with “The Kasey Chambers” would ever come her way. And she couldn’t have imagined it would come about thanks to two fans and a lucky guitar strap…

I’m writing this from my new apartment in Northcote, Melbourne. Tea in hand [see NZM’s Jenny Mitchell: A Concert and a Cup of Tea article for more on her tea drinking habits], I’m realising that I’ve now been living here for just over two months, but have actually spent very little time here on this couch. 

I’m currently in a three-day break from Kasey Chambers’ Backbone Tour that is travelling to 32 cities and towns around Australia in 2025 – with me playing support at all 32 them! Tomorrow I’ll head to Darwin, then catch a red eye flight to the last ever Bluesfest, where I’ll have the unbelievable opportunity to sing Not Pretty Enough on stage with Kasey. It all feels quite surreal!

The very first show of the tour was in the hallowed Tamworth Town Hall at the Tamworth Country Music Festival. I’ve been saving all my dollars and cents to fly to Tamworth annually for over a decade. I’ve busked on the street (including once literally fainting while busking due to the often 40°C+ heat), played anywhere and everywhere, and was eventually able to put on my own small headline show for the first time a few years ago. 

The second iteration of that headline gig came in January 2024, when I met two lovely folks called Shain and Jay. They were strangers, but while chatting to them after the gig they gifted me a handmade guitar strap that they had created themselves with NZ leather (imported especially for me they said), to say thanks for my album ‘Tug of War.’ I was blown away by the generosity of this gift and have worn the strap at every gig since. 

Later in 2024, I woke up to an Instagram message from Kasey Chambers. I immediately presumed it was a scam, but as it turns out, Shain and Jay happen to be good friends with the multi-platinum, award-winning songwriter, and told her that she ‘must’ take a listen to my album. Shortly after our first Instagram exchange, Kasey’s album ‘Backbone’ was released, along with the poster for the huge tour she had planned for 2025 – that just so happened to start two weeks after the one-way flights that my partner and I had just booked to Melbourne. 

You can’t make this shit up! 
I called my Australian agent, Raechel Whitchurch (Sure Thing Agency), to ask if it would be completely bonkers to pitch me for the support for the gigantic tour. The tour that I knew every Australian artist with even a sprinkling of country, folk or Americana influences would do anything to be part of. Raechel, my agent and also a fierce and loyal friend, said the best way to approach this was to swallow my pride and send Kasey a message myself. 

I couldn’t possibly. Could I? 
I sent the message and a few weeks later Kasey and I happened to be both playing a festival on the Gold Coast, where she came along to one of my sets. I had a truly out of body experience when I looked over to see her singing along to my song Troubadour! Not long after, I was officially added to the Backbone tour bill. 

We’ve now done almost half of the 32 dates, and I’m playing a 40-minute set to open up each show. A mixture of my earlier songs that feel important to introducing who I am, plus it’s super exciting to be sharing some new music that has been waiting in the wings for a long while now.

I’m fitting seven or eight songs in my set and one of my most recent releases, Sister, has proven one of the most rewarding to play. There are Kasey fans of all ages in the audience every night, and I’ve met sisters of all ages and generations after the show who are connecting to that song. That’s been really special! I’ve also been so blown away by how many people have taken the time to not only follow me online, but message me after show too – this is one of my favourites.

Any support opportunity is an incredible one, but there is something really special about warming up the stage for an artist I’ve listened to my whole life and who I couldn’t respect more as a songwriter. I’ve often struggled to find where I fit. I’m “the folk one” at country festivals and “the country one” at folk festivals. But Kasey Chambers’ fans are just music lovers. They’re true-blue fans of the craft of songwriting, twang or not, and I’m able to be 100% myself on stage every night. 

This is the most intensive touring experience I’ve ever had, and I am so grateful that it’s come to me now and not a few years earlier – even though I really would have liked it to happen back then. It’s also such a treat to be touring with a team who value health as much as I do. Sleep and vegetables are cool these days – even to ARIA Hall of Fame inductees. 

Off stage, I’m dedicating time to connecting with these new audiences online. I’ve had so many lovely messages from new listeners who are sharing my music with friends and in the backend of things, I can see in real time how these shows are contributing to growing my listeners and followers. 

I’ve also been on a steep learning curve about the logistics of merch! The capacities of these shows are sometimes 10 x my regular gigs in New Zealand, so having merch to support those numbers was quite scary on week one. Thanks to a mega spreadsheet I now feel like I’m on top of things, and have learnt a lot about t-shirt sizing/quantities that I will definitely be utilising going forward.

On May 16, I’m releasing an album called ‘Forest House’ that I recorded in a house in rural Wairarapa. ‘Forest House’ is a collection of songs that explore all the parts of life that happen inside four walls — leaving, growing up, heartbreak, healing, and new beginnings. You’ll also find a cover of a Kasey Chambers/Shane Nicholson song at track eight – which we recorded a year before I first connected with Kasey!

There have been so many moments in music that have felt really hard in the past few years and have left me unsure if I’m on the right path, but as I write all this wonderful craziness down for this On Foreign Soil feature, I am SO glad I kept on keepin’ on through those hard seasons. 

This career-changing tour will end weeks and what happens after that is all up to yours truly, but these shows are completely refreshing me, and reminding me why I bloody love making and sharing music. In South Australia this month, I’ll get to reconnect with my guitar strap friends Shain and Jay. Thinking about seeing them again makes me a little teary eyed – I couldn’t be happier that this has all come to be thanks to the simple fact that they liked my music.