January 2014

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.

Marton Festival 2014 019Our first engagement for the New Year was the Marton Country Music festival on the 17th, 18th and 19th 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.

Tami Neilson Family Renioun Tour with Annette & Kim 2014 Paddington Bar Parnell.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 24th 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 15th 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

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