Jacaranda Queen releases CD

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Grafton Jacaranda Festival Queen 2009

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IN 1989 Fiona Stone was crowned Jacaranda Queen in Grafton - on Saturday she will release her debut album Indifference.

Fiona left the area for bigger and better things in Sydney soon after her Jacaranda reign but headed back to Grafton to raise her three children a few years later.

Alhough she began playing guitar as a child, Fiona said she had focussed on improving her skills to performance level in the past 10 years, despite having some confidence issues in the vocals department.

She said she never rated her own singing very highly until friends repeatedly encouraged her.

“I was hanging out at Minnie Water where I was encouraged to play my own stuff rather than covers,” she said.

“People would hear me and say I thought that was a CD ... they believed in me and I thought it was about time I started believing in myself.”

So 18 months ago Fiona approached well-known Grafton musician and sound recordist Phil Cousemacker with her material.

Soon into the project, Phil informed Fiona that the album was no longer about the money, but rather about the music and it's many and varied messages.

Fiona describes her genre as modern folk and says she draws on life experience - even her brushes with mental illness - for inspiration.

“Music is cathartic. It's good to have an outlet for emotions because anyone that knows me knows that I am a fairly highly emotive person,” she said.

“I'm not afraid to expose who I am in my songs.”

The album will arrive this week (Fiona hopes) and the stage is set for a warm and intimate launch at Georgie's in the Grafton Regional Gallery from 6pm Saturday. The public is welcome.

Fiona will be supported by a group known as The Justified comprising of Peter King, Chai Hurley and Jo Jo Stone.