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
