Hi Folks

Most of June and July was spent getting ready for Barham although we did have a very good concert on the 30th of June to help raise money for Big River fm in Dargaville. A full house for the concert in spite of the bitterly cold southerly whistling through the town. The artists for the show were Double Trouble (Reba and Taylor Ryland) and Shaun Ryland from Auckland, Carleen Still and ourselves. We were all ably backed by Urban Country. A great night was had by all and everyone left the hall wanting more. Thanks Phil and the Big River committee for inviting us to perform on the show.

On the 27th of July we left for Barham. It was a 3 hour flight to Melbourne where we were met at the airport by my cousin Trish who looked after us for about 4 or 5 hours before we caught the bus up to Barham. Once at Barham we settled into our accommodation and prepared ourselves for the coming week. Ruth and Joyce had set us up in the awesome Murray River Apartments with Alan and Nancy Carroll, Amber King and her mum and Dennis Marsh who arrived on the Thursday. We did about 20 fourty minute sets during the week alternating between the Auditorium where the dancers were to the Coffee Shop where it was sit down seating at the café. It was an awesome week where we met some new friends such as David and Cynthia Pearce, David lent me his beautiful Martin guitar for a couple of our sets which was very much appreciated, Peter Horan a piano virtuoso, Peter sat in on a couple of our band gigs which was a absolute blast, Sandi Dodd who did an amazing take off of Dolly Parton on the Finale show, she definitely had all the attributes to pull this off, Leah Briggs and her partner Mick Wilson who played Steel guitar in the band, hopefully we may see Leah and Mick at the Bay of Islands Festival in 2013, Geoff Evans a real gentleman of country music who has been performing for about 50 years, Margaret Bates from NZ who is a regular performer at some of the Aussie festivals and of course the band ,Denva, who were just awesome. Thanks Kerran Keats (Guitar),Billy Arnold ( Drums), Karan Johns ( Bass) & Mick Wilson (Peddle Steal) for making us feel so special. We also caught up with some old friends as well. Ex-pat NZer Kim Ritchie who just loves hearing the kiwi accent and vocab we use, choice one bro, Laura Downing who is always good for a laugh, very nice to see Laura again, David and Heather Hoffman who will also be at BOI festival in 2013, Stephen Cheney, who performed his “Country Gentlemen Show” on the Wednesday evening, we missed Narrelle though who was looking after her sister, Cameron Mason, George Farnham, awesome to see you again George, and Anthony Tenace, the sound man in the auditorium for the week, all very good friends we met in 2011, it was nice to catch up with all these people again. We were prepared for the finale this year and if you are lucky we may post the video on our face book page. It is the only way to explain what we did. Alan Carroll, who mced the show, said we were Dave and Mable so that’s who we were, Dave and Mable. And then the week was over. Thank you, Joyce and Ruth for inviting us to perform at the festival it was a most enjoyable week and for looking after us so well. We look forward to perhaps seeing you all again in 2013.

We then headed off with our Aussie mum and dad, Dale and Barb, who tiki toured us back to Melbourne via Echuca, Bendigo and Ballarat for a few days of R’n’R. Along the way we paddle steamered the Murray River, visited a Holden museum, rode the trams through Bendigo and the stage coach at Soveriegn Hill gold mining township in Ballarat. Ballarat is where Dale grew up and where Barb says it never stops raining. It was raining the day we were there but Dale said that that was very uncommon. We had to take his word on that. Thank you, Dale and Barb, for looking after us again. All we had to do was jump in the car and be chauffeured around Australia. It was great. Then it was over and 14 days had gone just like that and we were home again. Check out the photos on our web and face book pages to see what we got up to.

Friday the 24th saw us back at the Dargaville RSA. As I have said before it is always nice to get back to my home town to entertain. We had a good audience who either sang and danced the night away or just sat and listened to us sing and tell of our adventures in Australia.

That’s about all for now. Hope to catch up with you all somewhere along the line.

Take care and keep it country

Annette and Kim

Hi Folks

The main highlight of the month has been the release of our Patsy Cline and Jim Reeves tribute album “Annette and Kim sing Patsy and Jim”. Mike McCarthy has done a great job of engineering the album and we are very happy with the final result. As I mentioned last month we were looking for a less expensive way of producing an album and doing six solos each meant we would spend less time in the recording studio thus saving us a good deal of money. Sandy from sandybgraphics also did an awesome job on the cover design with photos shot by Colin Probst at Making Faces Photography. We were hoping to get the album finished for the Bay of Islands Festival but ran short of time. However our tour group to Norfolk Island were the first to receive copies as part of their welcome packs at the Country Music Festival. Speaking of which, we had another great group of 25 people join us on Norfolk this year. They had an awesome week with fine weather prevailing. Some of the group managed a swim at Emily Bay while a couple ventured out on the horse trek during the week. We also enjoyed the Progressive Dinner, Half Day Tour, Mini Golf and Walk in the Wild, For Whom the Bell Tolls cemetery tour and the Island Fish Fry. Annette and I were also guests on the New Zealand Showcase along with Brendon Ham, Mellissa and Chet O’Connell, Phoebe Ball, Georgia Trebilco-Baker and the head line act Suzanne Prentice. This was an amazing show to be a part of with backing by The Huckleberries and Echo in Harmony. We would like to congratulate all the Kiwi contestants that competed in the Trans-Tasman competition. You guys did a fantastic job. Well done to Hayley Smith for taking away the major title. I know Sonya and Dennis were very proud of their girl. Daniel Cosgrove was a worthy runner-up to Hayley and Vicki Evans picked two prizes on the night one being the Dead Ringer Band Encouragement Award and the other the Allen ( Puds) Buffet Perpetual Trophy for Most Original Song for her song “Lipstick Stains”. It was a great show just a pity that there were not more competitors from Australia this time.

Annette and I also entertained Friday lunch time at the RSL to a very appreciative crowd. This is one of our regular spots on our tour and we must thank Tony and his team for allowing us to perform there. The week was finished off with a farewell dinner at Seaworld Restaurant on Saturday. We hope everyone had an enjoyable week with us and we look forward to seeing you all next year for the festivals 20th anniversary. Registration forms are now available for next year so grab one quick or contact us to put your name down for a tour package.

We must not forget the Bay of Islands Country Rock Festival held the on the 11th, 12th and 13th May. It was great to get back to the festival after a couple of years away and perform with The Mountain Mist Band. These guys are a pleasure to work with and are so talented as well. Big THANK YOU’S to Ian, Richard, Tiny and Andrew, for supporting us, not only for the festival but any shows which we need them for. Also to Susan, Loie and Debbie for making it possible for the guys to play with us. It was great to catch up with Royden Donohue and his dad Ken who had been invited over from Australia. We first met Royden when we performed at the Barham festival in February 2011 and were so impressed that we recommended him to Shirley for the Bay festival. He had a fantastic time and it looks like he will be back for the 2013 festival as well. He is off to America in August to do his Elvis show. Check out his web site if you haven’t seen his get up. We also managed to catch our very good friend Grant Reha-Timoti in Russell and provided some entertainment for the crowd while we were there. Have a look at some of the photos on our web page and face book page. I think that jacket does suit me. It was also nice to catch up with Renny and Jenny Hantler and their sons Matt and Jeremy. This family have some of the best harmonies in country music anywhere in the world in our opinion. They are just magic to listen to. Also caught up with my long lost rally Craig Robertson and his band and hopefully we may have organized some future gigs together down the island. We also made a point of sitting in on one of Inertia’s shows. This is the band that our drummer Richard regularly plays with. They are so entertaining to listen to and a great bunch of guys and girls to boot. The weekend was a great success the weather held out and it looks as though it will be a starter for next year. We certainly look forward to being there again. Thank you to everyone that came along to our shows and for buying our cds. It is much appreciated by Annette and I. We are busy at the moment practicing for the Barham Festival which is coming up at the end of July. We have a stack of new material to learn so have our heads down and bums up. We fly out on the 27th of July and the festival begins on the 29th running through until the 5th of August. We are then going to spend a few days unwinding with, Barb and Dale, our good friends from Adalaide who will eventually get us back to Melbourne on the 10th so we can fly home.

That’s about all for this month. We look forward to catching up with you all somewhere down the line.

Take care and keep it country

Annette and Kim

February/March 2012

Hi Folks,

Not much gigging to do in April. However we have been kept busy organizing our tour to Norfolk Island and we are really looking forward to this year’s tour. We have 25 people joining us who are going to have an awesome week enjoying the sights and sounds of Norfolk Island and the Country Music Festival. We are also excited that we will be appearing on the New Zealand Showcase along with this year’s Headline Act, Suzanne Prentice. We have also been finalising arrangements for our trip back to the Barham Country Music Festival at the beginning of August and have just about got that nailed down. Now it’s a matter of hard out practice ‘til then. We have also been getting ready for the BOI Festival and have managed a couple of rehearsals with The Mountain Mist Band. They are great guys to work with and we are really looking forward to the festival this year as it will be our first time back for a couple of years. AND, The other BIG project that we have been working on is our new cd titled “Annette and Kim sing Patsy and Jim”. We have been busy selecting songs, getting photos taken, arranging the graphics for the album cover and recording the vocals with Mike at Manuka Studios. It has been steady progress which we are hoping will see the album ready for the BOI festival and if not then it should be ready for Norfolk Island.

Just to give you a bit of an insight into the album, Annette grew up listening to Patsy Cline and I grew up listening to Jim Reeves. So we thought what better way to give tribute to these two legends of country music that have had such a big influence on our country music careers than to record their songs. Some of the songs may not be familiar to some of you but die hard Patsy Cline and Jim Reeves fans will know all the songs on the album. The songs have certainly brought back a lot of memories for Annette and I and we hope that will be the same for those that listen to the album. So keep an ear out in May.

Take care and keep it country

Annette and Kim

January 2012

Hi Folks

Just to bring you up to date on what we have been doing over the last couple of months. On the 4th of February I ventured down to Paparoa to Tiny and Loie Heathcotes country music day which was once again well supported and may need to be moved to a bigger venue in the future. Tiny plays bass for us in The Mountain Mist Band. Clear and warm weather made for an enjoyable day. We once again appeared at the Whangarei RSA on Friday the 24th and on Sunday the 26th we were Lucky enough to be invited to do a one hour spot at the Project Promise fundraiser held at Kensington park which featured local acts Kosher, Enertia, The Kiwi Rock Legends band plus ourselves and the main act from Auckland , The Mermaids, which featured local singer Tammy D’Ath. Awesome weather saw a good crowd turn out during the day to listen to and watch all the entertainment that had been organised. We were back at the Kamo club on the 29th to celebrate the Dance Sections 12th birthday always a good gig this one with everyone up and dancing and having a good time.

On the 10th of March we took a short trip up to Waitanga to play at the Accountants National Convention held at the Copthorne Hotel. They had been heavily crunching the numbers all weekend and were ready for the figures to blow out and have a good time. Thanks Alan for the invitation to perform for you all we had a great time. This was a busy weekend for us as well as on the Sunday we headed to Pukekohe to do a guest spot at the Franklin Country Music Club. Their fund raising concert was held at the Pukekohe town hall with a good crowd turning out to enjoy the entertainment. We must thank our good friend Lynette Porter and the Franklin club committee for inviting us to perform.

On Thursday the 22nd we were back at the Kamo club for the Affiliated Clubs Convention. Clubs from all around New Zealand had converged on Kamo and there was a massive crowd for the week. We made some great contacts that will hopefully see us getting work further afield in the future. On the 30th we were back with our very good friends at the Dargaville RSA to entertain and meeting up with some of those joining us on our Norfolk Island Tour. That was about it for February and March.

Take care and keep it country

Annette and Kim

April 2012