Fresh off seven years overseas, the singer-songwriter once heard at London’s Borderline and Hammersmith Apollo, with a creative partnership with Rolling Stones producer Chris Kimsey spanning more than three decades and still ongoing today, performs a rare, 35-seat show in Sandgate, Queensland, as part of Womenspace’s monthly Women Weaving Stories with Song series.

SANDGATE, Queensland, Australia — October 2026

Maryen Cairns

Just months after returning to Australia following seven years overseas, singer-songwriter Maryen Cairns takes the stage at Womenspace in Sandgate on Sunday, October 18th, for Women Weaving Stories with Song, an intimate, 35-seat afternoon of folk, story, and song, part of a monthly series spotlighting a different woman’s story and craft each month.

Cairns has released music independently since 1991, beginning with The Pictures Within in the UK the following year, work shaped from the very start by a creative partnership with producer Chris Kimsey, who was executive producer of that debut single in 1992. Between that first record and today sits a genuinely unusual discography: For Eternity in 1994, Stories from Beneath after her return to Australia in 2004, and 2012’s Stories from the Red Tent, written and recorded entirely alone while raising four young children, one of several records made in the gaps of a life that kept demanding her full attention elsewhere. The partnership with Kimsey resurfaced in full on 2016’s Femina Australis, an album telling the stories of twelve significant Australian women, and has continued ever since, Kimsey produced and mixed 2019’s Come to Me, coproduced and mixed 2022’s ANEW, and recorded and mixed her live album, One Woman Band, Live at Echotown Studios. More than three decades on from that first single, the two still work together today.

In between studio work, in 2017, Cairns toured roughly 18,000 kilometers through remote Australian communities with her family band, before eventually relocating to Guernsey, a UK territory, where she lived for seven years, releasing Come to Me in 2019 and ANEW in 2022, and touring the UK solo in 2023, 2024, and 2025. She returned to Australia only a few months ago, resettling at Springbrook Mountain with her four children now grown. In her own words, she is “starting to crack open the chrysalis along with her heart, and find a new path forward.”

“It’s wonderful to be waking to the familiar birdsong of home after seven years overseas, and to be invited to such a warm-hearted place as Womenspace to share my story through my songs… well, that’s a very special homecoming,” says Cairns.

Much of Cairns’ catalog centers on women’s stories, her own and those entrusted to her by others, performed solo as she pivots between cajon, guitar, piano, and percussion. Dancing About Architecture described her in 2024 as an artist “pushing more traditional folk styles into a whole new ambient realm.” At Womenspace, audiences can expect that same stripped back, primal sound built around the truth of her own life.

Doors open at 2:30pm for a 3pm start, with performances running to 4pm. Tickets are $15, with only 35 available, and part of proceeds go directly to the artist. Tickets and full details are available at events.humanitix.com/women-weaving-stories-with-song-maryen-cairns.

About Maryen Cairns

Maryen Cairns is a Scottish-born Australian singer-songwriter and performance artist who has released music independently since 1991. Her catalog includes The Pictures Within (1992) and For Eternity (1994) in the UK, followed by Stories from Beneath (2004), Stories from the Red Tent (2012), Femina Australis (2016), and Come to Me (2019) in Australia, ANEW (2022) in the UK, and two live albums, One Woman Band, Live at Echotown Studios, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 (2024, 2025). Producer Chris Kimsey, known for his work with the Rolling Stones, was executive producer of her debut single in 1992 and later collaborated with her on Femina Australis. Her career has also included performances at London’s Borderline and Hammersmith Apollo, where she opened for Fish, roughly 18,000 kilometers touring remote Australian communities with her family band, and solo UK tours in 2023, 2024, and 2025 while based in Guernsey. Now resettled in Australia after seven years overseas, she continues to write and perform, pivoting solo between guitar, piano, cajon, and percussion.

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