March 2022

Hi Folks
As you are all aware Entertainers of all descriptions have been doing it tough over the last couple of years. Lets hope that things will return to some kind of normal sometime in 2022. Like so many artists Annette and I have had to look at different avenues to get our music out to all of our fans and friends and hopefully you are enjoying what we are doing.

Before we look at the year so far we would like to look back on the second half of 2021 and the gigs that we managed to get to do and the ones that had to be canceled. Which we won’t dwell on for too long.
Following on from the 2021 BOI festival, which seems a lifetime ago, we were privileged to attend the 50^th Anniversary celebrations of the NZCMA held at the Mellinium Hotel in Rotorua at the beginning of June. We had an awesome weekend catching up with so many of the friends we have made in country music over the years during our time competing on the awards circuit. Which for Annette dates back to the late 1970’s. Thank you Michael and Ashley and your Committee for a wonderful weekend.

During July we took time out and traveled to the South Island. Both being able to catch up and spend time with friends and family and enjoy the beautiful scenery and just chill out for a few weeks.
Then along came August and another Lockdown, Traffic Lights and canceled Shows and gigs, a few being; our regular Whangarei Special Olympics Fundraiser concert in August scheduled to include Dave Ewart Jr and Te Whanau, hopefully we can get this up and running this year, Octobers Branded Festival in Te Aroha, Merrilands CMC Fundraiser concert in November in New Plymouth and the Kamo Club Dance Sections Christmas Break Up one of the regular gigs for us. Very disappointing to say the least.

December and Christmas also saw us sending out Christmas song videos to hopefully bring a little joy to everyone in the festive season with our special guest Alex Dickson sitting in on a few songs.
January saw a slight easing of restrictions but enough for us to attend the Egmont Country Music Festival in New Plymouth so fingers crossed for 2023. However we were able to attend the outdoor music days with the Northern Wairoa CMC held at Ken and Elain Foster’s home in Te Kopuru overlooking the Mighty Northern Wairoa River. So nice to be performing “live” again as it were with good friends and good music in a relaxing location.

We now also needed to start thinking outside the square regarding our music and how to move forward with it and build on the work we have been doing during the Lockdowns. We have been entering songs in International Songwriting competitions and at present have one titled “Smoke and Perfume” in the top 30 list for the Australian Songwriters Association competition so fingers crossed for this also. We are beginning to ramp up our YouTube account by releasing all our original songs over the coming weeks and months. Please “Like” and “Subscribe” to our YouTube account and keep up to date with our music. We will also be uploading these songs to Spotify and/or iTunes so that you can purchase them to listen to at your leisure. We are also recording new original songs the first being “We All Make Promises” recorded with Alex Wallace at Huanui Studio, Whangarei, New Zealand and Brett Cave at Mayhem Music, Kamo, New Zealand. There are 2 or 3 more in the pipeline so keep an eye out for those in the coming months finances willing. Being unable to earn an income through our music has been tough and we know many artists are in the same situation but we are grateful for what we are still able to do. So we look forward to bringing you new songs from us this year and we will try to put up some new videos as well. Not sure about going “Live” yet as my computer skills are not the greatest, however, we may give it a go. Annette will let me know. Well, that’s about it for now. Take care of yourselves everyone and remember to keep it country.