Long Way Home

One of her early influences was West Wyalong music teacher Lucy Buttenshaw, who gave Fanny music lessons when she was in primary school. Lucy says Fanny was one of those students who was quick to understand and respond to what the music required. “I remember her as a very positive and natural little person with the talent and curiosity to explore her music further,” she says. “You can’t see what’s around the corner, so I didn’t know I was teaching a future Glastonbury performer and ARIA winner with a swag of Golden Guitar awards. But it’s not surprising that she’s evolved into the wonderful creative she is today.” Lucy remains one of Fanny and the Prawn Stars biggest fans and goes to gigs whenever they are out her way.

Fanny continued music at high school and then went to the University of New England in Armidale to study rural science. She quickly learnt that it wasn’t her bag, but she saw the 4 years through, then got a job as a stock and wool broker in Sydney. That led to meeting more music people and her first band. “I was introduced to Dan when I was looking for a bassist,” she says. “He wasn’t interested, or said he was too busy, but I persisted. Eventually I said to him ‘it’s just a few shows, no big commitment’.” They were married on Fanny’s parents’ current farm in the Tooma region on the western slopes of the Snowy Mountains in 2016.

Their country hall tour concept was hatched in 2012 when Fanny’s hometown of Tallimba was devastated by floods. Fanny convinced her band to go bush to put on a show for locals and the Blaze Aid volunteers who had come out to help them. It was such a success that people clamoured for a return event. Each year Fanny announces the upcoming tours on her socials and usually receives 70 to 80 applications for a total of about 40 shows. The halls are selected on the capacity they demonstrate for hosting. Fanny has lost count of how many halls they’ve performed in, probably close to 250.

“It’s an opportunity for us to encourage emerging artists as we always have locals as our support acts,” Fanny says. “They get to be heard and hear themselves on a big PA system with an experienced sound guy.” The tours are also a great opportunity for the local CWA, footy club, P&C or hall committee to cater and raise some money for a local cause. 

The leap to a professional music career came when Dan, a graphic designer with Dinosaur Designs, gave up his day job. “We’d been living in a big share house and had to move,” he says. “Fanny said ‘why don’t we just get a caravan and move to the country?’ I agreed without thinking she was serious.” They moved to Tooma in 2015 and parked the van on Fanny’s parents’ farm. 

That year they also released their first album, Small Town, Big Shot, which was crowd-funded. It reached number 4 on the ARIA country music charts, so they hit the road towing their 14-foot van Lil Millie, and did their first lap of Australia, promoting the album, playing and passing the hat around to pay for fuel and camp sites. 

With a few refinements, a better bottom line and an upgraded caravan, this is pretty much how Fanny and the Prawn Stars roll today. In the past decade, they’ve clocked up hundreds of thousands of kilometres and the map Fanny keeps on the living room wall is covered with a tangle of Texta outlining the highways and byways they’ve travelled taking shows to rural and regional parts. When the band goes on tour, Dan and Fanny’s kids go too; Tom sleeps in the top bunk and Wally and Rupert sleep below. “I know,” Fanny says. “Who does that to their brother?”

Fanny, Dan and the children live on a farm not far from Fanny’s parents’ place. It belongs to their friends and neighbours, Amy and Roger Paton. They recorded the Fallow album in a stone cattlemen’s hut the Patons moved to the farm from the high country. Most of the songs were written during the drought before the Black Summer bushfires of 2019/2020, which burnt the whole valley. “Everyone in our family has done RFS training so we stayed to help fight the fires,” Fanny says. “In the end, we evacuated 3 times, the fire just engulfed the valley and we had no power for 26 days.” 

In typical grassroots Fanny fashion, Fallow was launched in the rec grounds at Tooma, with proceeds split between the local fire brigade and affected families. Tom and his partner Andy Gott live on a farm nearby, so the Lumsden family has put down deep roots in the Snowy Valleys. “I breathe a sigh of relief as we drive up the hill to the house,” Fanny says. “I love living here and that the kids are growing up here. I like nothing better than helping Dad shift cows.” 

It’s by being hands-on at everything, from touring logistics to designing the merch and making videos (Dan’s domain), that Fanny and the band stay viable. Fanny now has a booking agent, publicist, label and publisher, but she very much keeps her finger on the pulse. “The creative side is more enjoyable, but 99% of my time is spent on admin,” she says. “Mostly it’s me on my laptop with the kids making a mess around me.”

In an age of streaming services and reduced CD sales, Fanny and the band rely on the retro appeal of vinyl and even cassettes to boost revenue. “Merch is critical these days,” she says. “Every sale counts. I’d call this whole career a loss leader. We’re forever investing forward.” 

“If success is when you’re doing what you love and managing to make a living, we’re very successful,” Dan adds. “There’ve been some incredibly high points along the way.” These include winning 9 CMAA (Country Music Association of Australia) Toyota Golden Guitars and ARIAs for best country album of the year for Fallow in 2021 and Hey Dawn in 2023. Being invited last year to perform at Glastonbury Festival (the world’s largest greenfield music festival held in the English county of Somerset) was another career milestone. “Glastonbury wasn’t even on our bucket list, it was so far beyond our imagination,” Fanny says. “We expected a smattering of people to turn up, but 3,000-plus people came for our set.” This success has encouraged the band to return twice this year. 

Country artist Raechel Whitchurch has watched Fanny’s career trajectory closely since her business, Sure Thing Agency, took over the band’s bookings. “People love Fanny because she’s authentic,” Raechel says. “She’s kind, humble and hardworking. She’s DIY, because she’s so capable and can – and does – turn her hand to anything. Fanny exceeds expectations every time. She’s serious about her craft and great fun to be with as well.”

Fanny had always aspired to work with Paul Kelly. In 2021, her dreams came true when she and the band were booked to support the acclaimed singer-songwriter on a regional tour of the east coast. “I was pregnant with Rupert and we had 56 shows booked between May and October,” Fanny recalls. “I said ‘give me 2 hours to engage my superpowers with maps and dates’ and we managed to squeeze in a lot more.” 

They were heading home from a concert in Darwin when the borders closed due to COVID. “Because we’d been in the NT for a stipulated length of time, we found out we could get to WA,” Fanny explains. “That’s how we came to take the long way home.”

The trip gave Fanny and Dan a break they’d never have taken for themselves. “I wrote the whole Hey Dawn album around the camp fires at camp sites on the road,” she says. “All the songs stored up in my brain just fell out of me.” The album won the 2023 ARIA for Best Country Album. Fanny describes having Dolly Parton announce her win as a career pinnacle. 

While Fanny makes it look easy both on and off-stage, she and Dan work relentlessly. After packing up after the Robertson show, it was a 5-hour drive back to Tooma. They finally carried the kids from the car to bed at 3am. Wally had been on 24 flights, including one to Nashville, before he was 6 months old. Fanny says they were lucky to have COVID keeping them home after Rupert’s birth.

“I’ve always had this blind belief in what we’re doing,” Fanny says. “I’ve never wavered in my faith in the music we make and the stories we tell. I write what I see and that resonates with people because I’m an ordinary person. Of course, it’s hard and there are down days, but that’s just the industry and also just life. I’ve never for a second doubted our choices.”