Canadian singer-songwriter Megan Hamilton’s art and lifestyle is going back to the basics.

Hamilton said she found herself drawn to art from a young age, since the different mediums offered her an outlet for self-expression.

While music was always a big influence on her life, she admits that she never seriously considered herself a singer.

That all changed when she picked up a guitar.

“I just started writing songs,” she said. “It was sort of a natural progression for all the things I was interested in … so it sort of happened naturally.”

Hamilton said she found herself influenced by folk and country music, a style distinctly apparent in her songwriting.

“I was going to the library and getting as much old folk music as I could and learning it … country music too,” she said, adding that much inspiration came from Johnny Cash and George Jones.

Hamilton’s songs, accompanied by Danielle Lennon on violin, have a timeless quality to them. Her acoustic style of music is well-suited to the Skeleton Park Arts Festival, a local Kingston festival where she performed in June.

The artist has become pretty familiar with Kingston at this point, having lived here in past years. She even filmed her music video for “I Paid My Way in Pennies” at the Grad Club.

Hamilton said that when she first moved here, she already felt a connection to the city.

“There’s also an awesome music scene here, so that helps to sort of feel included,” she said.

While Hamilton admits that touring can become overwhelming at times, she said working with fellow musicians along the way has made it an overall positive experience.

“It sort of makes the country smaller and gives you a lot of connections to far reaching places … everybody is helping everyone else out,” Hamilton said. “As much as you can, you try to support your friends’ bands and they do the same for you.”

Having had a bit of a break from writing and recording before her latest album, Snow Moon, Hamilton said she’s given herself a chance to breathe.

“I really spent time thinking … ‘How can I turn this around and go back to [playing and writing music] the way that I love to do it, and finding the joy instead of feeling this weird pressure that I put on myself about where I’m supposed to be at?’” she said.

Having taken the time to balance the various meaningful aspects of her life, Hamilton has been able to approach her music with a fresh pair of eyes.

Megan Hamilton is playing this Saturday at the Grad Club.