Tamworth-based singer-songwriter Allison Forbes is a fixture of her home town’s annual country music festival, whether she’s playing at her own gigs, appearing in the sets of others or coordinating showcases. Forbes is also a distinctive artist, with her fantastic voice and her gusty rock-influenced country sound.
Forbes has a debut album, Bonedigger, scheduled for release in November. It was produced by Shane Nicholson, and the first single to be released is ‘Hell Freezes Over’. It’s a song realising past mistakes and moving forwards, regardless of how painful it is. In Forbes’s voice there is both the pain of that past and a sense of strong resolve to overcome it. Says Forbes, ‘The song is about finding a place where you’re comfortable to accept things that have happened and the preparation of not lying down to die because of it.’
Forbes has spent much of the past twelve months in the Northern Territory, and anyone who spent time in that landscape will appreciate how its vast silences and its sometimes intimidating darkness has been captured in this song. It’s one that is hard to forget, and a signifier that Bonedigger will likely be an epic release.
Listen to ‘Hell Freezes Over’ on: