Nashville-based singer Emma Swift to perform hit Bob Dylan tribute album Blonde on the Tracks in Perth

Nashville-based Australian singer Emma Swift will tour her Bob Dylan tribute Blonde on the Tracks in Perth as part of her debut national tour.

The independent album, which was held off streaming services when it was released last year, became a surprise ARIA Top 10 hit and received rave reviews.

The Sydney-born star and a five-piece band, led by Powderfinger guitarist Darren Middleton plus members of Jet and Kate Ceberano’s band, will perform songs from the Dylan songbook at the Astor Theatre on June 22 with tickets going on sale on Thursday, April 22.

The tour, which kicks off less than a month after the iconic songwriter turns 80, will be the first time Swift has performed her Dylan tribute live with a band.

“The album has had an enormous amount of love and I can’t wait to come home and sing these songs,” the Triple J newsreader turned singer-songwriter said.

“After living in lockdown in the US for most of the past year, it is going to be a real thrill to be taking the record on tour with a five-piece band.”

Chatting to The West Australian in August last year, Swift said she was “totally gobsmacked” that Blonde on the Tracks had made its debut at No. 9 on the ARIA album charts, and topped the national vinyl and country charts.

“I’m profoundly grateful that this record has connected with people. I’ve made music before and had absolutely nothing happen, ever,” she laughed.

“My music career in Australia is such that I don’t command big fees. I don’t have a manager. I don’t have any record label interest in Australia. And I don’t really get radio play outside of community stations.”

It is going to be a real thrill to be taking the record on tour.

The album title combines the names of two classic Dylan recordings, 1966 album Blonde on Blonde and 1975’s Blood on the Tracks.

“I want to make it clear, I’m not anti-streaming,” said the singer, who has lived in Nashville since 2015. “I am anti-workplace exploitation.

“The current rates on streaming services are appalling. In a pandemic year, where artists can no longer tour ... we’re suddenly unemployed.

“I can’t eat 1000 streams,” Swift added. “If you get a million streams, that pay is $4000. If you sell 200 records and you own your own label, like me, that is also $4000.

“It’s a lot easier in a pandemic to sell 200 records to 200 true fans than it is to try to get enough momentum to get a million streams.”

Swift relented late last year and digitally released Blonde on the Tracks, which she said was recorded during a bout of “horrific writer’s block”.

“I wasn’t sure what I wanted to say as an artist,” she said.

“I went through a particularly bad case of clinical depression after the election of Donald Trump in 2016. This period also collided with the #MeToo movement and I just really, really struggled with my place in the world as a woman.

“I went to my record collection and there were some wonderful Bob Dylan albums in there and I wasn’t writing any songs — I had horrific writer’s block — so I just thought, ‘I’m going to go record some Dylan songs’.”

Swift and her band play Melbourne on June 17, Wollongong on June 19, Sydney on June 20, Perth on June 22 and Brisbane on June 24.