Catherine Britt adds new baby boy to her busy workload

She emerged triumphant from a battle with breast cancer and gave it the middle finger on her F U Cancer tour in 2016 in support of the McGrath Foundation.

When Weekender calls, though, Britt is 39 weeks' pregnant and baby number two is yet to make an appearance. She sounds tired, short of breath and over it. And rightly so.

"He could come any minute now," she says, only half laughing.

Update: Baby number two arrived on Wednesday, September 18. From all accounts, mum and bub are happy and well. Congratulations to Catherine and James, and both their families.

First-born Hank is now 20 months old and his life is about to change. Not only is he now a big brother, he is living in a house with his own bedroom rather than travelling the countryside in a caravan with his parents - for the time being, anyway.

"I think he comprehends what's going on but it's tricky; he's still so little," the Novocastrian singer-songwriter says.

"He points at my stomach and says 'bubba' but I don't think he gets that another baby will take away some of his attention. I think it will be a bit of a shock for him, poor little thing.

"Also, James is looking for a job while we're back home in Newcastle and that means it will be the first time in Hank's life that he won't have both of us with him all day, every day. That's a lot of changes for the little fella but he will adjust."

The family plans to spend the summer in Newcastle and hit the road again in January.

While travelling Britt performed the odd gig in outback bush pubs and found that the community was so in need of music and entertainment that they came out in droves. It got her thinking - artists don't often visit the remote and regional towns. And they should.

Her 2020 "bush pub" tour will stop off at outback towns, remote pubs and regional towns. The closest to Newcastle Britt will get is Sandy Hollow Tourist Hotel on February 23, and Flow Bar at Old Bar on March 7.

"It has taken four or five months of work just to get these dates announced. It's taken a lot of strategic placing and Google Map is my new best friend," she says, laughing.

"We didn't want any of the venues too close together but we also didn't want them so far apart that we couldn't travel there the next day."

The tour will also give Britt the opportunity to perform brand new songs to an audience. In true Britt form, while in Newcastle "resting" these past few weeks she has also been writing a new album.

"Since I've been home I've been writing a lot, actually, because I've had these ideas in my phone for so long, and they were almost written in my mind and I just needed the space to sit down with a guitar," she explains.

"It's been wonderful to write again and I'm really excited about what I've been coming up with. Hopefully I can get into the studio by the end of the year, and then on the tour I can release some new songs as I go."

Becoming a mother, Britt says, changed her as an individual, a businesswoman and a songwriter. And for the better, too.

"I think a lot differently now that I'm a mum, and I see everything differently too. I feel like I'm a better businesswoman now that I'm a mum," she says.

"Maybe that makes sense, now that I say it out loud, because I've got a family now and I have to think a bit smarter. I have to be more strategic about things and plan ahead whereas before I just didn't care, it was me and my husband and we'd pay our bills and that was it.

"Now it's like 'No, I need to keep a roof over my kid's head and I need to be smart about every move I make'. It's been really good for me in that way because I always wanted to be good at running my own business (laughs) and I never was."

Pausing, she says she thinks it's a "mum thing".

"You become less selfish, and less 'it's all about me'. When I'm songwriting now I tend to think more generally. I used to be very selfish with my songwriting, looking inwards a lot, and if you weren't a fan of me as a person or of my music maybe you wouldn't come along to my show and love what I do because it's always been so personal.

"Now I'm writing more outside of myself, and that's very different for me. I don't have to have every song mean something to me."

Britt has five Golden Guitar Awards to her name, and six of her seven albums have been nominated for Best Country Album release at the ARIAs. In 2010, she was also presented with the CMA Global Artist of the Year award.

Her first acoustic EP, CMC Songs & Stories, is released on October 18. It is available for pre-order now however the songs and videos for Swinging Door and Hillbilly Pickin' Ramblin' Girl have already been released.

Britt is satisfied with the end product.

"Swinging Door is not an original but it's one of my most popular songs, for sure. I've actually released it twice, funnily enough. It came out originally on Too Far Gone, my second album, and then we re-released a more rocking version on Little Wildflower," she says.

"It's quite an early song for me but I can't really do a gig without singing that song. It's a fan favourite - I'd venture to say one of my most popular songs. It felt good to do an acoustic version and release it on this special little exclusive EP. It's tiding me over until I release my new album and it's good to have some music out that's reminding people I'm here after 20 years.

"I totally feel like a veteran in my 30s."

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