Hi Folks
February was notable for two reasons. One being the release of our second duo album and the other being our trip to Australia to once again perform at the Barham Country Music Stampede. We collected our new cd “Try a Little Kindness” on the Friday before we flew out to Aussie. We had our fingers crossed that all would be correct on the cd cover. We had approved the draft copy but you are still a little nervous. Stebbings had done a great job though thanks to the good management of Hazel Lamb throughout the project. The photos Jackie and Helen had taken for the cover were great and Joanna had done an awesome job on the graphic design. The whole thing looked and sounded absolutely fabulous if I can use that term. Thanks to Mike at Manuka Studios and the excellent work done by all the musicians on the album. We are really happy with the final result. On Saturday morning we flew out to Australia.

We were met at Melbourne airport by our friends Rod and Margaret McCarthy who had kindly offered to pick us up and take us back to their place for the night before heading up to Barham. We first met Rod and Margaret in 2011 when we first went to Barham. Rod and his friend Peter make wooden toys as a hobby to sell at the markets. They are known as “The Toy Boys”. Peter and his wife Robyn would also be in Barham for the festival. Rod and Margaret took us on a walking tour of, Kyneton, the town where they live and where Rod grew up. Kyneton is an old gold mining town about an hour north of Melbourne and has a population of approx. 2500 people. It has many old buildings some made of the original blue stone that many buildings were made of back in the day.

Rod and Margaret put us up for the night and on Sunday morning we all headed up to Barham with the caravan in tow.

We arrived in Barham at about 11:00am and as we were ahead of schedule we decided to go to the caravan park and help set up the caravan and annex. The whole gang had arrived and set up. Peter and Robyn and Helen and Graeme, Margaret’s sister and her husband, were all ready for a week of dancing and country music.

Sunday afternoon, after catching up with our Aussie mum and dad, Barb and Dale Goldsmith who had travelled over from Adelaide to join us for the week and to be our transport back to Melbourne, we met up with Ruth Morpeth the festival organizer and settled into our accommodation at Christina Cottage, the same beautiful house we stayed in during our 2012 visit, and organized ourselves for the week ahead. We performed over 25 forty minute shows from Monday through until the following Sunday in the auditorium and in the coffee shop. We met a lot of artists that had not been at previous festivals. These included; The Battlers, Michael and Shaun an Uncle and nephew duo, Terry Leonard and Rick Charles both Elvis impersonators, Jono Nicholson Terry’s protégé, Matt Burke a singer/songwriter from Bendigo,Graham Hugo, Rod Williams, Justin Standley a previous Norfolk Is contestant in the Trans-Tasman and X Factor finalist and Cindy Doherty. We also caught up with some familiar faces as well; George Farnham, Kim Ritchie and husband John, Sandi Dodds, Geoff Evans, Anthony Tenace also the sound man in the auditorium again this year and Kerran and Karan from the backing band Denva who with Peter on drums did a great job of backing the artists from Friday until Sunday’s finale which was a real hoot. There were some interesting impersonations Graham Hugo as Kenny Rogers only had to take his hat off, George Farnham as himself, he got that spot on, Joyce Yates as a heavy metaler from back in the day certainly a sight to see, Joyce never fails to surprise, Sandi Dodd and Justin Standley with an awesome rendition of a collection of songs from the movie “Grease” and Annette and Kim as the legendary June Carter and Johnny Cash.We also managed to catch two great concerts during the week. On Monday night Dwayne Elix performed his one man show with tributes to Buddy Holly and Hank Williams. Dwayne is also a multi-instrumentalist and performed a banjo set but also plays guitar, mandolin, dobro and accordion. On Tuesday night our good friend Wayne Horsburgh  performed his show singing a variety of songs from Frank Ifield, Slim Whitman and Marty Robbins. This was a very polished show and very enjoyable. Wayne has spent more than 20 years performing in America including his own shows at Branson. It was great to catch up with Wayne again both he and Dwayne stayed with us at Christina Cottage.Then, before we knew it the week was over and we had to think about heading home. It was a fantastic week of singing and watching everyone enjoy themselves on the dance floor. Thank you all for your support we had a great time and look forward to seeing you all again next year.

On Monday morning we tiki toured back to Melbourne with Dale and Barb down through Maldon where we stopped for lunch. Maldon is another gold mining town from back in the day which has retained the original shop frontages. Then it was down through Castlemaine and Daylesford stopping off at Geelong beach where Annette had her first ride on a ferris wheel, check out the photos of that ride. We also stopped in to see Dale’s brother Grant and his wife Sherril before heading back to the beach for dinner and then into Melbourne to find a motel and prepare for the flight home.

We were at the airport early on Tuesday to check in, said our goodbyes with not too many tears, and headed through the gate to find our plane arriving in Auckland at about 4:00 o’clock and that was that. We were home.

Keep it Country

Annette & Kim

Hi Folks

We hope you all had a happy and safe Christmas and New Year and that you are all looking forward to 2014 and the new adventures it will bring.

Our first engagement for the New Year was the Marton Country Music festival on the 17^th, 18^th and 19^th of January. We arrived in Marton on Friday afternoon after a good trip down from Auckland. There were already over 200 mobile homes at, Wilson Park, the venue for the festival. It was pretty cold to boot but quite a few brave souls were enjoying the Friday night walk ups which we also participated in. The threat of rain held off during the whole of the weekend and Sunday was an absolute pearler of a day.

It was great to catch up with old friends and to meet some new ones as well. The two main acts for the festival were Joni Harms from the U.S. a great singer/songwriter and a very nice lady. We both highly recommend listening to some of her work. Roger Tibbs was back fresh from his tour of the Mid West States of the United States where he is doing fantastically well and in great demand. Roger has secured his own show at Branson that will run for approximately a month in late 2014. Congratulations Roger, well done. This is a major major achievement for a Kiwi artist.

Annette and I did the walk ups on Saturday and Sunday and were part of the main show on Saturday night so it was a busy weekend. In between we met a lot of fabulous folks. Thank you to Anne and Len for inviting us down. We had a great time and look forward to the 2015 festival and to seeing both on Norfolk Island in May. Also a big thank you to both bands which supported all the artists during the festival Shotgun and Pheonix.

Monday morning we were up early ready for the long trip home after a very successful weekend. Thank you to everyone that supported us and bought cds it is very much appreciated. We hope it won’t be too long before we see you again somewhere at a country music show or festival.

The following Friday we were in Orewa  to help mix our new cd “Try a Little Kindness”. But before that we decided to head down to Auckland on the Thursday evening to see Tami Neilson and her Mom and Dad in the” Neilson Family Reunion Show” at The Paddington in Parnell. We weren’t disappointed. This was a fantastic show. The Neilson’s are a very talented family, very professional in a natural sought of way and very, very funny. Both Annette and I were in tears. Check out some of their YouTube footage and you will see what we mean. They have been performing together for a long time and they have some interesting stories to tell about it. Thank you to Tami, Ron and Betty for such great entertainment and for allowing us the privilege of having our photograph taken with you all.

Friday the 24^th of January was a marathon day. We started the mixing of the songs on the new CD at 9:00am and finished at approximately 10:30pm with a couple of breaks in between but that’s over thirteen hours. Thank you to Mike for being so patient and working with us to create the sound that we wanted for this CD. We are very happy with the end result and we hope all of you out there will enjoy this album also. We’re sorry to say but the Aussies will be the first to get it as it won’t be ready until just before we head off to Barham for the Country Stampede festival on the 15^th of February. There will still be plenty available though when we get back.

We arrived back in Whangarei at about mid night on Friday with two gigs booked for the Saturday afternoon and evening so there wasn’t much time to rest. The first was a birthday party for a very good friend of ours, Bunny, at her home on Kamo Rd. We did about an hour and a half of entertaining for her family and friends and then had to head up to the Kamo Club where we had been booked for another birthday celebration. Both gigs went without a hitch and were both very enjoyable with everyone at the Kamo Club dancing the night away. We will be back there for the Dance Section Birthday celebrations on the 5th of March.

That’s about all for now we will catch up with you all at the end of February to let you know how the Barham festival went. Look out for our new CD “TRY A LITTLE KINDNESS” it will be available mid February, until then.

Take care and keep it country

Annette and Kim

Hi Folks

Well here we are again at the end of another year. We have had a busy year and 2014 is panning out to be no different. It has been an awesome year for us. The highlight definitely was our trip to America and being inducted into America’s Traditional Country Music Hall of Fame. We had the pleasure of meeting many wonderful people. We must once again thank Marlene and Gary for looking after us and Bob and Sheila for inviting us to perform at the festival. We hope to see you all again in the not too distant future.

We had 3 gigs in December to finish off the year. The first was on the 4th for the Kamo Club Dance Section Christmas break up. As we keep saying these are wonderful people to perform to. We had a lot of Christmas fun and look forward to 2014 and more dance section gigs.

We were invited to perform at the A & P show this year with The Mountain Mist Band. We had two awesome sets on the Saturday and it was great to be performing with the band again. We must thank Richard, Ian, Andrew and our stand in bass player Derek Barnston for supporting us and also our regular bass player Tiny Heathcote and the band for supporting us during the year. Thank you guys.

Our final gig was for the Kamo Club on Saturday the 21st. A large number of members turned out for the evening and it was great to see all the familiar faces and some old friends also enjoying themselves on and off the dance floor. We hope you all had an awesome night. We certainly did. Thank you to everyone that has supported us during the year. We would like to wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and a safe and happy New Year.

Just to bring you up to date on our new album. We have completed all the vocals, Marian has finished her fiddle work and Paddy Long will be in the studio on the 23rd of December recording the Steel tracks. Alex has the massive job of doing all the guitar work and is working his way through that at present. We will be getting together with Mike at the end of January to do the final mixing and we are very much looking forward to that.

We only have 3 songs left that require sponsorship but time is running out as we will be completing the cover graphics and art work in mid January. If you would like to know about song sponsorship please contact either of us and we will be happy to explain how it works. You can also go to our sponsorship web page and sponsor one of the songs from there.

Well, that’s about all folks once again thank you all so very much for your continued support we do appreciate it. Take care and we will see you somewhere in 2014. Our first gig will be the Marton Country Music Festival 17th till the 19th of January.

Merry Christmas and keep it country.

Annette and Kim