Country music school The Academy has 28 students tuning in this January

"There's a little story they always told me," the 22-year-old Wiradjuri Yuwaalaraay woman said.

"When my sister was a baby and I was five years old, I used to sing her to sleep, and they used to turn the TV down."

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Noah and Charlotte Miller are the aspiring musicians from Tamworth selected to study show business in an intensive country music educational program.

They are among 28 students across the country that will gather at Liberty College on Goonoo Goonoo Road in January for The Academy.

The program returns for its first year since 2020, and promises to be worth the wait.

Students are immersed in music with industry insiders like Kasey Chambers, The Buckleys, Ashleigh Dallas and Amber Lawrence from January 3 to 12.

"I think I'm most excited to see all the different people," Noah said.

"It's a really big gateway for me, learning to write music."

Getting the John Minson scholarship this year was a surprise for Charlotte.

"I was very happy and ecstatic for it," the Gomeroi woman said.

"Very appreciative as well for the fact that I was going to be able to do something that I've been wanting to do since I was a child.

The 18-year-old has been singing Johnny Cash since the age of two, but her own music is more pop.

"The songs I have written aren't really based on country genre itself, but I would say that it has been a massive influence," she said.

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