Missy Higgins, Ben Lee and Friends to tour Australia

SYDNEY, AU. (EMI MUSIC AUSTRALIA) Its been an extraordinary 2005 for Missy Higgins. The JJJ Unearthed winner has won MTV and APRA Awards and Rolling Stone Magazine named her their "Artist Of The Year". However, Missy has actually spent most of this year touring overseas.

Today it was announced that she will return home in October for a very special series of outdoor concert events. Each will take place under the stars and will feature a handpicked line-up of likeminded musical talent.

"I wanted to be part of a night of music that I would really enjoy as a fan," the 21 year old explains. "Each of the artists on these shows is a friend of mine and I really respect their music so it's going to be great to sit outside and listen to all their songs at each of these gigs."

Local indie hero Ben Lee will be the special guest on all shows. His independent album "Awake Is The New Sleep" has been a platinum success story this year.

"Missy and I recorded our albums down the road from each other last year," Lee explains. "We went to barbeques together after work sometimes and we like each other's music. That's reason enough to tour together in my book."

In addition to Missy Higgins and Ben Lee, American singer/songwriter Howie Day will appear at all shows and his countryman, Ray LaMontagne, will also perform on the Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne concerts. Missy has done U.S. tours with both Ray and Howie during 2005 and both artists have highly acclaimed new albums that will be released in Australia in the leadup to these shows.
Sydney duo The McMenamins will open several of the gigs and Jen Cloher will appear in Sydney.
Tickets for all shows will go on sale at 9am on Thursday, August 18th.