Hi Folks
Firstly we would like to wish you all a Happy New Year and hope that you had a safe and enjoyable festive season. And now it’s back to reality. Welcome to 2015. It’s going to be another busy and exciting year and we hope you all can join us.
Our first gig of the year was our very first concert at the Wanganui War Memorial Centre on the 14th of January on our way to the Marton Country Music Festival. We made our way down to Wanganui via SH4 and the National Forest which was an interesting and scenic drive in itself. 
We had a great night entertaining a small but appreciative audience that didn’t want to leave once we had finished our last song, which was a very nice feeling. Thank you to everyone that supported us on the night. We would also like to thank Ken and Sue Carrick and their support staff who made us feel so welcome. We definitely look forward to a return visit sometime in the future.
The following day we had lunch with Lloyd and Nancy Muller and then had time to look around Wanganui. We made our way up to the War Memorial Tower via the 66 metre elevator ride up through the hill it stood on and on to the viewing platform above the elevator shaft to view the sights of Wanganui. We totally recommend it to anyone staying in or passing through Wanganui. From there we headed for Marton but were side tracked by an awesome antique shop at a little place called Turakina. This is a must stop for those interested in good old stuff. Annette picked up a
couple of items and I was almost tempted, maybe next time.
We arrived in Marton Thursday afternoon and settled into our accommodation before heading over to the park to catch with Len and Anne. An impromptu walk up was held in the evening before the main festival started on Friday afternoon with a good number of motor homes already arriving for the weekend. The Friday night concert headlined Dennis Marsh with support from ourselves, Reg McTaggart and the Yodelling Ladies all ably backed by the band Pheonix.
Walk ups started a 9:30am on Saturday and continued until 1:30pm when invited artists took to the stage to perform until approximately 5:30pm. The weather was awesome and a good crowd of over a thousand people was building up during the day enjoying the entertainment and hospitality provided by Anne and her team and the many singers that got up to sing. Main acts on the afternoon show included Allan Webster from Australia,thank you Allan and Maureen for the entertainment off stage as well, Roger Tibbs making a comeback following his success in the US, great to catch up with Roger and 
Denise again, we have not seen them since our trip to the States in 2013, Jason Bradley the festivals main draw card from South Africa who has a similar style to Brad Paisley and on talking to him said that Brad has been the biggest influence on his style of guitar playing, he was also saying that there are very few country artists in his country, nice to meet Brad and his wife Tina, and local entertainers Dennis Marsh, Joy Adams, Kylie and Trevor, Abby and Nancy Muller to name just a few. The entertainment was near continuous on Saturday with just a short break to allow people to grab a bite to eat and freshen up before the evening show started which
featured selected artists supporting the overseas acts. These included some of the acts previously mentioned along with Tori Tuau, a promising young singer from the Rangitikei area, Keith Herbert and Peter Jackson guitar and banjo players respectively and ourselves. It was a fantastic weekend and great the catch up with old friends and to meet new ones as well. Thank you for supporting us and the festival. Thank you also to the two bands, Shotgun and Pheonix, who played during the weekend and put in a lot of hours backing everyone that wanted to sing. Our thoughts go out to friends that could not be with us for the weekend Graeme and Linda McCardle and the Moratti and Pascoe families for their recent losses.
T
he weekend wound down with the Gospel walk ups on Sunday which included a touching tribute to those who could not be with us.
On Monday morning we said our farewells and headed home stopping along the way to view the Tangiwai memorial between Waiouru and Ohakune. It was the first time for me on SH 49 and the first time at the site of this devastating train crash. We also stopped at Horopito Motors just off SH4 not far out of Ohakune. This was one of the places used in the filming of the Bruno Lawrence movie Smash Palace, you know where he is in the car sitting across the railway tracks. I have never seen so many car wrecks. From there it was about eight hours of driving to get home and the end of an exhausting but exciting week.
Now we look forward to February and it doesn’t slow down we will be in Pukekohe on the 6th,7th and 8th for the inaugural festival there and the following weekend we are off to Australia for two weeks for the Barham festival and a couple of organised gigs we have arranged as we make our way to Dale and Barbs place in Adelaide where we will be going to the Clipsol 500 motor racing before flying home on the 2nd of March. But we will tell you all about that later.
Until then take care and keep it country.
Best Wishes
Annette and KIm
