Singer and songwriter Georgie Winchester sets her sights on the US

It's her enthusiastic jump-right-in approach that earned the Gresford-raised singer-songwriter a place on Sounds Australia's "team" at the Folk Alliance International conference in Kansas City last week, alongside Catherine Britt's alt-country band The Pleasures, Tracy McNeil's duo Minor Gold and Golden Guitar winners The Weeping Willows.

During the five-day conference - which was Winchester's first trip to the US - she met with booking agents, radio DJs and other industry people from across North America and Europe and performed at a series of showcases.

The hope is her bubbly personality and authentic songwriting - that ranges from reflective acoustic folk to poppy alt-rock - opens doors for Winchester to return to the US for a full scale tour.

When Weekender catches up with Winchester she's sitting in a car outside a tapas restaurant in Nashville where she's dining with friends. It's dark on the Zoom call and difficult to see Winchester's face, but the excitement in her voice is crystal clear.

"You just realise how small [Newcastle] is," she says. "Here, there's so many people, so many musicians, so many bars.

"That's just one city in America. It's been so eye-opening to how big the world and the industry is."

Winchester applied for the Sounds Australia team at the Folk Alliance International after it was recommended by indie-folk star Kim Churchill.

"I asked Kim, 'what was instrumental in your career, what do you think was the breaking point?'," she says.

"He said, 'this conference', so I thought I've gotta do it then."

However, the Folk Alliance International wasn't the end of Winchester's US adventure.

In a classic case of Hunter folks backing each other on the global stage, Maitland's gun producer Jacob Grant, aka Just A Gent, put Winchester in touch with US electronic-pop duo Smle.

Grant and Winchester - who come from completely different music backgrounds - became friends after doing DJ sets at Maitland's Grand Junction Hotel on New Year's Eve.

Smle then invited Winchester to sing on a track in Los Angeles this week, but unfortunately the session was postponed due to a schedules clash.

Closer to home she recently recorded a track, Every Morning, with Central Coast folk artist Joel Leggett. Again, it was a case of jumping at an opportunity.

"He [Leggett] posted this thing on Instagram asking 'could anybody finish the second verse of this song?'," she says.

"I was like, 'OK, I'll give it a crack'. I ended up writing something and I didn't think anything of it, but he ended up loving it.

"He said, 'let's collaborate on this song' and we recorded and it got released."

On Saturday Winchester will perform a homecoming show on the Rogue Scholar Rooftop with Leggett.

It will also be an opportunity for Winchester to showcase tracks from her forthcoming five-track EP Pretty Things, which was recorded in Byron Bay by musician and producer Garrett Kato (Tones and I, Ziggy Alberts, Pierce Brothers and Jack Botts).

The first single What's The Matter is out on March 14 and seeks to bridge the gap between the indie-folk of Winchester's 2023 debut album Follow The Sound and the pop-rock of her disbanded four-piece Turpentine Babycino.

"That band doesn't exist anymore, but we've re-branded as the Georgie Winchester Special, which is kind of the direction I'm going now," she says.

"I have that folk vibe, but the songs on my EP are more rocky and I'm playing guitar now. I'm taking solos, so it's kind of a combination of Turpentine and Georgie into one, so I can really focus on the one project."

Winchester's show supporting The Smith Street Band on March 23 at the King Street Band Room will serve as her single launch.

Smith Street Band leader Wil Wagner recently named Turpentine Babycino and fellow Newcastle band Well?, as his favourite young Australian acts.

The message of What's The Matter is to encourage people to check in on the mental health of their friends and loved ones.

"For me, I can be very closed off and I don't speak about what's the matter, so I'm saying 'does it matter'?" she says. "It's about reminding us to check in on our friends.

"A lot of the time people are struggling and you've got to talk about stuff, because if you don't, it can become dangerous."

Georgie Winchester plays with Joel Leggett at Rogue Scholar on Saturday and is supporting The Smith Street Band at King Street Band Room on March 23. The single What's The Matter will be released on March 14.