While to many it's just a camper van, to Felicity Dowd it's been a catalyst.
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The cover art of the Bega musician's latest single includes her vintage, blue-striped 1974 Travelhome Caravan named "Van Morrison".
Sitting outside of her previous caravan underneath the awning, where people had begun to gather after hearing the strum of her guitar and her voice experimenting with lyrics, Felicity was writing "a random song" to practice "charting for a band".
"I was just practising those skills, and probably halfway through a verse that I realised, 'ohhh, this is actually not bad, I want to keep working on this and see where it goes'," Felicity recalled.
She said the chorus came first - "This world is just give and take, love and loss, hearts that break".
It was from there that Felicity composed the song, which she described as being about the life lessons she had gathered and grasped.
"Learning about how to stand up for myself, and stand up for what I believe in as a person, how I've learnt these life lessons but as people we're constantly learning, and even though this is what I've learnt so far," she said.
![Felicity Dowd and her previous caravan named 'Van Morrison.' Pictures supplied Felicity Dowd and her previous caravan named 'Van Morrison.' Pictures supplied](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/205490442/47df2614-0e85-40d1-aa3d-078971a2d8d6.JPG/r0_0_3072_1727_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
"There's going to be so many more lessons that kind of crop up in my life that I'm going to have to work off and take inspiration from and learn from."
The latest single 'Give and Take' maintains the storytelling and country aspects through which she has been developing her name.
However, it also includes small elements of gospel, R&B, with a vintage soul and 1970s feel.
While returning from the Tamworth Country Music Festival along the M1 motorway, a tyre fell off 'Van Morrison' in tow. Felicity said she was very fortunate it didn't flip, and said no harm occurred to her car or herself.
To replace the caravan that had travelled lengths of Australia in numerous tours, and had become the location inside which many songs had been penned, Felicity purchased a 1976 Millard with a burnt orange stripe, and a matching earthy-country interior.
![Felicity Dowd and her new caravan 'Joni Hitchell.' Picture supplied Felicity Dowd and her new caravan 'Joni Hitchell.' Picture supplied](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/205490442/e46a06fc-5e45-46b3-a52b-aad92f072a4d.jpg/r0_213_6000_3600_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
"I ended up buying 'Joni Hitchell' about two to three weeks after, and I think probably one of the nicest parts of the experience was that the person who bought 'Van Morrison' from the salvage yards is giving regular updates of where he is...and he's keeping his name," she said.
"'Van Morrison' taught me a lot, when I was releasing a song about life lessons, I felt this past year-and-a-half living on the road was the best area to focus on.
"Not only did I learn how to fix things when they broke, but I also learnt how to be myself.
"When people were telling me there's not a career in what you're doing, or it's going to be really hard or it's not going to work out, I had these goals and dreams that I wanted to do music full time and make a living off it.
"There were a lot of life lessons I had to learn to be able to assimilate myself into that lifestyle, and 'Van Morrison' was definitely one of the catalysts in learning those life lessons."