To celebrate the release of her third album Dryland, Kiwi songstress Mel Parsons is on her way to Mount Maunganui for a one-off performance in May.

It has already been an extremely busy year for the West Coast born singer-songwriter, having spent six-weeks on the road touring North America earlier this year.

Singer songwriter Mel parsons is playing at the Mauao Performing Arts Centre on May 9. Photo: Supplied.

There's also been performances at Woodford Folk Festival in Australia plus WOMAD in New Plymouth, and most recently she performed with Fly My Pretties at the Byron Bay Bluesfest.

Now the two-time Tui Award finalist is almost half-way through a 22-show tour, which will see her rocking into town to play the Mauao Performing Arts Centre on May 9.

'I've come home and hit the ground running,” says Mel. 'I'm really thrilled with how the tour's started. We've had awesome turn outs and they've been really nice shows.

'It can always be nerve wracking going in with a brand new show, but it seems to have been very well received and the crowds really look like their enjoying the new stuff.”

For Mel it's been tour after tour following the release of her second album Red Grey Blues back in 2011.

She says a lot of the writing for Drylands was done while out on the road, followed by a couple of months of solid writing during the winter season last year.

With material prepared, it was off to Wellington studio The Surgery for three-weeks of recording, which involved an average of 12-hours in the studio each day.

Co-produced by Mel and Gerry Paul, it features Kiwi artists Anika Moa and Lisa Tomlins, plus Canadian songwriter Ron Sexsmith and Trevor Hutchinson, formerly of The Waterboys.

'This one, production wise, is a side-step from the last two albums in terms of instrumentation,” says Mel. 'There's a different vibe. There's a lot of lush soundscapes in there which adds to it as well.

'It really was an enjoyable process. Being in the studio can be a pretty stressful time and it's quite high pressure, but we managed to get a great team in there working on the album

'We got the vibe just right and we were working really hard, but we also had a lot of fun and I think when you have great people working on a project it makes the hours bearable.”

One song off Dylands to look out for when she plays next month is a track titled ‘Get Out Alive' - a song she says gives her butterflies whenever she performs it.

It was written about a car crash she was involved in last year where she lost control of the vehicle and wrote it off. Based on the damage to the car, it was a miracle she survived.

'The song is about that split-second moment where you have a near-death experience and then you realise how lucky you are to even be here,” she says.

'It's a bit of a journey song. Sometimes when I'm singing it I try to stay a little bit detached, but there's times I think of the crash and how close I came to dying and how lucky I am.”

If you're heading out to Mauao on May 9, Mel says you can expect to hear that track plus a bunch of new songs from Drylands, as well asold favourites from her first two albums.

Mel says she's very excited to be coming to town and has heard awesome things about the Mauao Performing Arts Centre.

'We're super looking forwad to coming to town and hopefully it'll be warm enough for me to go for a quick swim in the sea too,” she says. 'Fingers crossed eh!”

SunLive has a double pass to give away to one lucky reader who can tell us the name of Mel's song which gives her butterflies when she performs it?

Visit the SunLive Competitions page to enter. Entries must be received by Wednesday, May 6.

Mel Parsons' Drylands Release Tour, with support from Christof, plays at the Mauao Performing Arts Centre on Saturday, May 9. Tickets cost $30 and are available here.

Check out Mel's song ‘Far Away' from her latest album Dryland below: