Geyer, who started her music career 40 years ago as a sensual blues belter, will appear tonight at The Abbey at Nicholls for a one-off Canberra show.

She has been busy doing gigs at Sydney's Basement venue, while preparing for her next album, a big band compilation which is due out in March next year.

Geyer said she has a cold at the moment, which has made her voice even huskier than usual.

''I can sing through anything,'' she said yesterday from her hotel room in Sydney.

''I usually play at Tilley's in Canberra, this is my first time at The Abbey. I'm hoping for a warm hotel.

''I have been coming to Canberra since the early '70s and back then there was just this little heater and the band would crowd around it.''

Geyer started out in 1971 in Sydney, when a girlfriend took her along to the rehearsal of friends who were forming a band. Since then she has done jazz, blues and soul, pop and reggae, scoring hits in the '70s and '80s.

She has worked with Stevie Wonder, Sting, Joe Cocker and Chaka Khan and Paul Kelly.

Geyer noted this year would mark her 59th birthday.

''I don't feel like I will be 60 next year, it's just a strange concept to me, it's just odd,'' she said.

''I think singing keeps you young. I'm about to do my 25th album, a big band album.

''I know people like Harry Connick Jnr have done them but no women have done them. It's one genre I have never touched on but I love it and I have started with at least 100 songs and I have pared it down to 30 and I need to get it down to about 15. It's going to be called Swing.''

Tonight she will be singing her biggest hits and also some songs by other artists.

The doors at The Abbey will open at 6pm and show time is 9pm.