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
