Macy Gray makes her way to the Mountains

Gray’s visit to the Mountains is part of a punishing 14-day tour which crisscrosses the entire country. By the time she gets to the Blue Mountains Music Festival for her solo show on Sunday, March 15 , she will have spent a week moving from Melbourne to Perth, Darwin, Adelaide, Lismore and Brisbane.

“It’s crazy,” she said of the trip “but I’m excited. It’s going to be an awesome show.”

Organisers are delighted she was able to add the Mountains to her world tour, with festival co-organiser Bob Charter saying “ticket sales had a considerable bump when Macy was announced”.

Singing has become more of a serious business for Gray as she’s gotten older and guests to the festival can expect an assured, polished set of songs — “a cool show” everything from the early popular hits such as I Try but also “getting in songs from all the records” especially the new songs from the 2014 album The Way, also the name for the latest tour.

“I used to get up and just wing it and then I went to some big shows and Justin Timberlake doesn’t do it and Madonna doesn’t do it, so I stopped doing it. Now we always have a set[list], everybody always knows what’s coming up, no-one’s confused,” she said. “It’s way better.”

Gray’s signature powerhouse sound has moved through many genres, everything from soul to alternative rock and retro-disco to hip hop. And she’s promised a performance with a real soulful connection, the sort of show she likes to experience herself.

“I like energy, I like when there’s a connection where you are watching and they are feeling every note and meaning every lyric. I’ve seen a lot of big productions, crazy lightning and people flying through the air ... You want the audience singing, but you want to still believe them [the artist] and that’s what’s most important to me.”

Many fans caught the Macy Gray train early on — thanks to the international 1999 hit I Try.

Asked about living with the phenomenal success of that first chart topper she says she “loves that people still remember it”.

“It’s a long time [ago] now. I still get all kinds of stories about what it means to people personally. It had a huge impact and I’m really proud of it.”

Macy Gray was born Natalie McIntyre. She grew up in a small town with her mother, a schoolteacher, and her stepfather, a steelworker to whom she was very close (her natural father left when she was a baby).

Gray never planned on her success. She was headed for life as a scriptwriter when she was asked to write a few songs for a musician friend. As luck would have it the singer failed to show up for the demo and Gray agreed to sing instead — she was discovered not long after.

But Gray has always been the mistress of reinvention. Teased as a child for her voice, she has said, “Every time I opened my mouth someone would ask why I was putting on such a stupid voice”, she always found her own escape hatch.

She tells the Review, when she fell off her bike aged eight and looked up and saw the name Macy Gray on an old man’s letterbox, she started making up stories about Macy and later took it as her stage name for her music career.

She admits her journey is kind of a Cinderella story. She was discovered while something of a “loser” living with her mum, as a single mother of two. She says she didn’t handle success well while being feted internationally for her music and even modeling for Calvin Klein. At one time in her life she went to jail for stealing petrol and nearly ended up there again after swearing in Barbados while on stage.

She recently opened up about her abuse of drugs to Oprah while promoting the current album tour.

“I’ve learnt anything is possible. You are capable of anything. As humans we’re capable of being a rock star or spending our life in jail, you have all the possibilities.”

Gray has parlayed her “wild” musical success into a parallel career in acting, working alongside big names in The Paperboy, like Nicole Kidman — it was a maid’s role that was originally tipped to go to Oprah Winfrey. She’s also appeared in Training Day with Denzel Washington.

But her greatest love has always been singing — “it’s just the thing I do best” and while she can rely on her smoky husky sound now, she says she didn’t actually start enjoying her voice “until probably the fourth album, maybe my third”.

“I was a little squeaky, I really worked on putting a little base in it, then I really liked it.

“Now when I’m belting, it doesn’t go squeak squeak. It’s good. My voice has come a long way. I’m much better technically, now I hit every note and because I got my technicals together I can just sing.”

Released last October, reviews of the latest album — which has everything from blues to rock and disco to soul, with a little ukelele and trumpets thrown in for good measure — have been positive.

Reputable musical website American Songwriter said the album was an assured one “making this set of originals, many of which she co-wrote, somewhat of a comeback for an artist who never really went away. It’s a strong, diverse album that plays to her idiosyncratic vocal strengths with production that’s nicely understated.”

And Andy Kellman from AllMusic.com raved about “the psychedelic thumping glam rocker “Bang Bang” that passes for a pretty good T Rex B-side and the gospel/jazz anthemic title track tailor made for concert closings”. Kellman even believes it might be the album that gets her back to the “mainstream audience that threatens to constantly elude her”.

Gray and her three children reportedly now live in a four-bedroom house with Gray’s sister, a biology teacher, which is a long way from the mansion with basketball court, bronze fountain of a nude Macy and leopard-print wallpaper when she was managed by large commercial record companies.

And money is obviously an issue for her because when I ask about regrets, she tells the Review that “everybody in high school should have to take business classes.

“If you are going out into the world, you need to learn about money, it’s so important.

“You can blow through it really easily. It’s the easiest thing in the world to do. You know I wish I’d handled my ... what do you call it, my treasures, my business affairs a little differently.

“You know I had a lot of fun but I think at a young age, they teach you science and English and a foreign language, but I don’t get why they don’t teach business courses.”

She recently launched a crowdfunding initiative through pledgeme.com where she corresponds with fans as Natalie Hinds (which was her married name) and offers fans walk-on roles in movie clips or as back-up singers.

“They can sing on the record, be in the next video, you can be one of the executive producers, I’m just trying new things to stay in the music business. We’re just trying new stuff to see what works and you know it’s really cool to get to know your fans that way.”

Gray’s fan base has grown since her last Australian tour in 2012 and she told the Review she loves to chat to them on Twitter. One loyal Sydney fan called Hasa would get backstage passes. 

“He tweets me every day,” she said.

Katoomba might be a little quiet for Gray who has famously admitted to a love of Australian gambling dens.

Coming from Ohio in the midwest she is a mad keen poker fan, was on an American reality gambling show and told the Review she’d love us to get a game for her.

“There’s not much to do there, everyone in the midwest knows how to play cards, it’s cold and there’s nothing to do. That’s one of the things I love about Australia, the gambling. I’d be your friend for life if you could manage it. I would love it.”

As a long-time fan of the smoky-voiced songstress this reporter has already started working the contact book for card buddies.

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