Hi Folks,
October was a fairly quiet month for us performance wise most of our time was spent organizing the concert at the Kamo Club. We basically arranged every aspect of the show from organizing posters and tickets, arranging advertising, getting sponsorship ( for which we would like to say a big thank you to Dicksons Transport and Quarries, Wards Music Works, Magic Music and Big River fm for their support ), contacting guest artists and making sure everything was in place for the band and the sound men to making sure everything was in place for the audience.
Here’s how the show went.
Annette Hawkins “I’m Still Here” Hometown cd Release Concert 11th October 2009
Wow!!! What a turn out for Annette’s concert. Our aim was to fill the Kamo Club to its maximum allowable limit that was with fingers crossed. We are both so amazed and humbled by the support that we received from all our friends and fans.We are truly grateful to have so many people who enjoy our music.A great day was had by all. We feel very sorry for those of you who missed out but we just couldn’t let any more people in. Robin Lilley did an excellent job of MCing the afternoon. We would like to thank our band, Ian, Tiny, Richard and Andrew for backing us, Dennis and Craig for the great work on sound, you certainly know when you have talented peoplemixing sound, and our guest artists. We kicked the show off with the band and I doing some classic country. I started with “Folsom Prison Blues” which we have a great arrangement for Ian starts with a couple of instrumental verses and then we up the key for me to come in. We followed this up with “ El Paso City” a classic Marty Robbins tune and then for something different I donned a pink jacket and white tie to sing “Heartbreak Hotel”, thought I could do better than the utube version, not sure if I did though. Then our very talented lead guitarist finished the set with one of my favourite pieces of music, Fleetwood Mac’s “Albatross” he sure can play. Our first guest was Tutjana Wiremu who impressed the audience with a variety of modern and traditional songs. Everyone enjoyed “ Blue Smoke” and her renditions of “Travelin’ Soldier “,” Independence Day”and “Jesus Take The Wheel”. It was easy to see why she is the 2009 NZCMA Junior Entertainer of the Year. Her grandfather Wakina then took to the stage and with his own smooth style entertained us with “Life Turned Her That Way”, the Dwight Yoakem classic “I Sang Dixie” and the Dennis Marsh song “Too Many Memories”. Wakina is the 2009 NZCMA Veteran Entertainer of the Year. Wakina and Tutjana are the first grandfather and granddaughter to hold these awards in the same year.
Then we were on to the main event with Annette performing songs from her new cd “ I’m Still Here” to very appreciative audience. She began with an old favourite “Silver Threads and Golden Needles” and followed that up with a mixture of old and new which included Patsy Clines “ Movin’ Along” Jim Reeves’ “Guilty”the original songs “Shadow of My Heart” and the title track “I’m Still Here” and the Kathy Matea song “Every Little Thing”.
Our sales and marketing manager, Loie, did a sterling job on cd sales which we must thank her for. As well as everyone who assisted on the door with tickets and raffles. That’s Cynthia, Adam, Alex and Jo. The raffles raised over $500 for the Boccia Nationals so we must say a big thank you to everyone who bought raffles on the day.
The second half of the show was no less exciting our guest pedal steel player, Andrew Paterson, had the audience in stitches with his jokes and in awe with his steel playing. His set included “Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain”, “Your Cheatin’ Heart”, “San Antonio” and a vocal rendition ofNed Millers“From A Jack To A King”. I chipped in with a couple of original songs I have been working on “Mist on the Mountains” and “Tonight She’ll Go Back To Him” I really enjoy singing these songs with this band. Plus a couple of country standards “Is It Cold In Here” from my album and George Straits “The Fireman”.
The Show was finished off by Annette and myself performing a few numbers from our duo cd plus a couple of extras we have been learning such as “The Remember Song” and “Try A Little Kindness. Annette also included an audience sing along with “One Day At A Time” and we ended with one that always gets the audience going “Wake Up And Smell The Whiskey”. That was before we got an encore,can you believe that, well I couldn’t, from a fantastic audience so we finally ended the day with “Boot Scootin’ Boogie”. And everyone went home happy but tired and a bunch of flowers for mum.
We hope everyone enjoyed the day. I know the band did they are looking forward to the next one. Perhaps we will consider it.
Take Care
Annette and Kim
September 2009
