Today marks the release of Cowboy Up, the bold and heartfelt fourth studio album from Kaylee Bell and her first since welcoming baby James into the world earlier this year. 

Cowboy Up captures Bell in full flight, navigating life as a new mum while staying firmly in the saddle as one of the country’s most beloved voices. For the past five years Bell has held the title of the highest streamed female country artist in Australasia, and  even took home the fan voted award for Female Artist of the Year at the Countrytown Awards at the beginning of 2025 further cementing her impact on the genre.

This latest release is her most personal and dynamic body of work to date. Cowboy Up feels like a sort of coming-of-age album for Bell, one that’s as fearless, confident and resilient as it is deeply human.

Bell has given Countrytown a glimpse into her chaotic but beautiful life, discussing the balancing her life as a touring musician, being a new mum to James, the key to having an amazing support network, and how this all factors in for the creation of her art. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sophie Walker | Pregnancy and Birth Education (@australianbirthstories)

Kaylee Bell in her own words:

Being a mother in the music industry is something I am very proud to be. I intend to be vocal about it as much as I can, so it may inspire other females in the industry to know it CAN be done. We have the right to have careers and get to be working mothers. I was back on stage after 6 weeks of having my boy James, playing CMC Rocks, one of our biggest shows we have played. I can confirm I didn't feel ready, but in so many ways I felt so much happier and more content in myself knowing I was defying everything I had grown up being told about not being able to have both things: a career and a family of my own. 

I did a lot of prep work to get back on stage from the mental side of things; meeting with my movement coach Jane once a week to talk over things and get my head back into 'stage Kaylee' as I was 100 percent in "mum” head space and knew that was going to be the biggest challenge. Physically, I had to accept I wasn't in shape for where I would of expected to be, but a DVT blood clot in my thigh/abdomen prior to having my baby had put me in a situation where I had to stop exercise and just go very gentle on myself. This was challenging for me as someone that thrives on movement and physical movement, but that is why I worked hard on the mental part of being onstage instead as I definitely felt a lot more vulnerable.

I have an amazing partner, Nick, who runs my band and tours with me so we are both motivated people. We always saw having a baby as something we would just include in our tour party (that is now up to 10 people) and he would come with us to shows. My sister came with us for the first few shows to Australia, and that was so nice having family on the road with us and to have James side stage with headphones on being so close to us.

My parents are also amazing and have looked after him while I have had some US and UK tour runs and we are treating it case by case with what we take him to. At only 7 months now, he has been to the US and Australia, but if there are shows we are travelling more than we are in the country, we leave him with family. But our attitude is to include him where we can, and it makes sense for him and us and to show others what it looks like to have our family on the road with us and to normalise that for working Mums in the industry.

Since having James, I have felt a lot more need to write songs for him and about him as he is now such an important part of my life. I often think about his life and what it is to be a kid in the world today. I grew up very small town and although he will have a crazy life of travel through my career, I will make sure he gets a grounded upbringing with lots of trips back to my parents to where I grew up and the environment I had as a kid. I have a song on the new album called Heartbeat I wrote just after finding out we were having a baby, which was a shock as I have had a lifetime of health issues, and it wasn't meant to be on our path. I wrote that song a couple of days after finding out and walked into the writing room and burst into tears, opened up and we wrote the only song I could have written that day.

I have another song I wrote with my producer that might make it onto a deluxe if I do one, it’s a song called Mankind and all about “if you raise the boy right it makes the man kind”. I think there will be a lot more to come from the point of view of a mother in my work in the future.