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At the beginning of 2020, country singer Tracy McNeil had decided to finally stop dividing her life, giving up her day job as an educator and packing up her belongings to dedicate her life to touring her music. That new chapter began with the February 2020 release of her fifth album You Be The Lightning<\/a><\/em> via celebrated label Cooking Vinyl Australia; it features her Americana-style approach to country, influenced by both her Canadian roots and adopted hometown of Melbourne. While the universe had other plans, necessitating a temporary return to teaching, You Be The Lightning<\/em> has been critically acclaimed, securing high rotation across mainstream stations ABC Radio & Double J, and community radio airplay across Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tracy and her five-piece band The GoodLife finished off 2020 by achieving an ARIA Award nomination for Best Blues and Roots Album, an Australian Music Prize nomination, and an award for Best Country Album at the Music Victoria Awards. From April to July this year, McNeil and her band will tour around Australia. It\u2019s not the rollicking, barnstorming tour she may have envisioned when writing You Be The Lightning<\/em>, but it\u2019s live and loud and that\u2019s redemptive in itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou Be The Lightning<\/em> is a rejuvenation, a rebirth, sparked by a human place, wanting to feel alive and connected the world,\u201d says McNeil. \u201cIt\u2019s about really wanting to feel something. It\u2019s not biographical, but it\u2019s inspired by what I was seeing around me in terms of people sleepwalking through life and not recognising their full potential.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n