MELINDA SCHNEIDER - BE YOURSELF

Be Yourself. Courageous. Safe. Awake Now. They're only song titles. But because they're Melinda Schneider songs, you can be pretty sure there's very little pretence or artifice going on between words and feelings, between the heart of the lyric and pure, unadulterated life experience.

The truth is, a singer can't possibly fake it when she's writing and performing with some of the most experienced hands in Nashville, when she's singing a duet with Paul Kelly, or when her reputation is up there with Patty Griffin and Lucinda Williams, according to the "Song of the Year" judges of the 2007 Americana Music Awards.

"To be honest," says the Sydney-based singer-songwriter, "this album feels like I'm taking control of my life for the first time. I've co-written all the songs, chosen them myself, funded it myself. It was my vision completely."

Be Yourself was conceived and recorded in Nashville with her own hand-picked team of co-writers, and co-produced by Melinda and her songwriting partner Gordon Kennedy with US country music veteran Michael Clute (Diamond Rio, Faith Hill, Alabama, Brooks & Dunn). It's also the first release on her own label, Be Music.

Most fans are aware that Melinda's previous album, Stronger, was born in the wake of some personal turbulence: "my divorce album," she explains, in typically forthright style. This year, with commitments to her old record label honoured and spent, she's in a new phase of self-reliance professionally as well as personally.

"I always felt Be Yourself would be the basis of the whole album," she says. "It's in keeping with my journey, the growth and change that's been happening in my life. It rang very true to me." Small wonder the album's title track and first single was among the first songs that sprang from her guitar in late 2006.

With that keynote ringing loud and clear, Melinda began a regular commute from Sydney to Nashville through 2007. "I'm pretty much a workaholic as far as writing goes," she says. "I tend to work well when I'm locked away in Nashville and I can immerse myself in my wonderful co-writers. I really get inspired there."

Top of her visiting list was Gordon Kennedy. Fresh from Grammy wins with Peter Frampton and Eric Clapton, he lent his writing and co-producing talents to more than half the album, including the self-assured title track; the upbeat country romp, Grassy; a dark gospel gem, People Don't Change; and the exhilarating statement of personal power and potency, Awake Now. "I feel so fortunate to have been able to write and produce a record with Gordon," says Melinda. "His playing comes from a heavenly place. He inspires me in so many ways."

Jay Knowles is another close collaborator who makes his return strongly felt, perhaps most notably on the album's delightfully intimate and open-hearted duet, Still Here. It's a more familiar voice that brings the dialogue to life in one of the album's most affecting moments.

"Paul Kelly doesn't usually sing songs he didn't write, so I took it as a huge compliment," Melinda says. "We were set up in his lounge room with the mics facing each other. There was a bit of shyness; like two teenagers. It was really sweet and I think that comes across on the song."

It's doubtless significant that both Gordon Kennedy and Jay Knowles are second-generation musicians like Melinda herself - whose mother (in case you came in late) is a bona fide living treasure of Australian country music, Mary Schneider.

Other co-writers include Keith Urban collaborator Bob Regan on Outside, gifted newcomer Ben Cooper on the anthemic Courageous, and Marcia Ramirez, another new face who bonded with Melinda over Bad Day. "It's nice to have some oestrogen in there," she laughs. "Bad Day is a real chick song."

The ringing clarity of the production and the album's impeccably uncluttered arrangements, beautifully reflect the new clarity in Melinda's outlook. "It's definitely the coolest record I've made, the most stripped back production wise and instrumentally. There's space in the music," she says.

It's worth repeating, too, that in spite of all this stellar talent, Be Yourself is utterly and unmistakably Melinda's album. "Yeah, I'm pretty bossy, I guess I know what I like." she says with a laugh.

She's also pretty experienced. Ask John Farnham, Jimmy Little, Olivia Newton John or Elizabeth Cook, all of whom have recorded her songs. Then factor in five Golden Guitars from Tamworth, including Top Selling Album for Stronger; Album Of The Year for Family Tree; her APRA Song Of The Year award for Real People, and Female Vocalist award for The Story Of My Life, the song that kick started one of the most remarkable journeys in Australian music barely six years ago.

With all of that behind her, it's all the more remarkable when Melinda describes Be Yourself as "definitely a new beginning for me."

"All of these songs are very honest and come from a true place," she says. "There's not a song on here that I don't feel strongly about. I've experienced all of them. It's been a scary process and it's been a liberating process. I feel very free. And I am awake now."

BE YOURSELF is released 5th July on Be Music through destraMusic www.destra.com