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Otago Daily Times
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Gold Guitars final crowd drawcard
The 50th annual MLT Gold Guitar Awards Senior Finals began impressively last night with a sold-out stadium and a jam-packed lineup of country music's finest. The event is the big finale for the Bayleys Tussock Country music festival, and what a show it promised to be for the 1100 people in attendance. Musicians brought their very best to the Gore Town & Country Club, all vying for their place among New Zealand country music royalty. There were plenty of home-town heroes such as the Mitchell family, with twins Nicola and Maegan competing against their father Ron in the singer/songwriter section. Notably Ron's daughter and the twins' sister Jenny Mitchell won the overall award back in 2017, setting a high watermark for the country music family. Fan favourite Jeremy Hantler, of the Harmonic Resonators, wowed the audience during the Traditional section, with an impressive show of vocal range and control. Australia sent over a bit of strong competition too, in the form of Jon Collins. The grand prize for the Senior category is $3000, a Martin D-28 Satin Acoustic Guitar, a fully produced single and publicity package as well as other prizes to help the winner's career. The winner will also be flown out to the 2026 Tamworth Country Music Festival to show off the fine work of the Gold Guitars. Finalists and winners were yet to be announced at the time of writing, and convener Phillip Geary said this year it was a strongly contested competition. "It's going to be a very close call this year. "Some years we can see it from the first audition, but this is a lot tighter. The quality is high, very high," he said. Mr Geary had a lot to celebrate, with sold-out shows across the block like the 50th anniversary Golden Guitars show on Thursday, which featured 22 past Gold Guitar winners. Heavy hitters from past and present set a high bar for the competitors, showing exactly what it meant to take up the mantle of winning the award. Mr Geary knew what the Gold Guitars meant for a young musician — a chance to rise the ranks into country music royalty. "This is a steppingstone for anyone who is serious about their career, and their music," he said.
Otago Daily Times
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Awards organisers pull out stops for record numbers
As a record number of contestants swarm Gore for the Gold Guitar Awards, organisers say they have systems, and added venues and vehicles, in place to handle the churn of more than 800 musical entries this year. The auditioning process for the Gold Guitars began across five venues yesterday and convener Philip Geary said their systems for handling this year's 829 entries were reasonably good, but could be better. Given the growth of the awards, Mr Geary said the awards committee was engaging a software writer to create a new program to help organise the contestants, judges' scores and the winners in each of the 31 categories. "[Something] that should just spit everything out, and all we need to do is look at it and confirm it, and that's it," he said. Having worked the awards for 30 years, this was not Mr Geary's first rodeo and he and the other organisers made sure the stage and setup were the same across the auditioning spaces to keep the competition regulated. "We're just trying to create the same environment of what they would do at the finals anyway, so that everybody's on the same level playing field," he said. Gore Country Music Club music committee convener Laurel Turnbull said due to the record number of entries they had engaged all four venues for the auditions as well as added an extra van to act as a courtesy coach between venues. The 12 judges were distributed between the Gore RSA, Gore Town & Country Club, Gore Baptist Church and Calvin Community Church for auditions, but would come together at the club for the finals on Saturday and Sunday nights. Invercargill-raised and Dunedin-based musician Holly Muirhead, 21, who said she had first entered the contest when she was 13, said the competition was massive this year. "When I was back in [the] intermediate [section] there were a lot less contestants and now it's like every class is 50 people," she said. "I don't know how the judges do it." She said the competition had been growing gradually every year and it was nice to see so many new faces in the songwriter and senior (or classic) sections. Mr Geary said the competition's growth, particularly in the younger, intermediate section, happened about 10 to 15 years ago with the rise in popularity of country rock, such as Taylor Swift. "I think it was three years ago [the intermediate section] increased by 30%, which is great, which is big," he said. Ms Muirhead said she agreed with the Taylor Swift effect and said it was the American star's crossover between country and pop which attracted new audiences. She said another of her favourites, five-time Grammy Award nominee Kelsea Ballerini, succeeded in that crossover space. The Dunedin singer/songwriter auditioned with her original song 60 Years about her grandparents' anniversary.
1News
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- 1News
Country music resurges as Gold Guitars strikes golden milestone
The country's prestigious Gold Guitar Awards has reached its own triumphant milestone of the same colour — it's golden anniversary. Many of the past winners of the highly-acclaimed competition returned to Gore's golden stage in Southland to celebrate 50 years. The three-day event is part of 10-day Tussock Country Festival in the south that brings country lovers from New Zealand and the world. On Thursday night, the Gold Guitars held a special gala for more than 20 returning winners to perform — many for the first time in years. Peter Cairns took the coveted prize in 1984. ADVERTISEMENT "This is, literally, the best of the best [in New Zealand country music.]," he told 1News. Around 600 people packed Gore's Town & Country Club venue for the four-hour show this week. "There's been a lot of similar awards that haven't lasted the distance and it's really the tenacity and the hard work of all those involved in putting it together that's led to its success," said Cairns. But it was not just about classic country music. The event organisers have witnessed a resurgence of genre with a record number of entrants this year — 829 in total. That compared to just 38 in the first event back in 1974. Gold Guitar Award convener Phillip Geary has been involved with the competition for 30 years. "Country music is definitely becoming more popular," he said. ADVERTISEMENT Geary added, "we've noticed that over the last, probably five years a big, big increase... in the intermediates [level] which is your teenagers." "With the likes of Taylor Swift and some of the upbeat-type country music artists, [teenagers] are recognising that and enjoying it and I think that's helping," he said. Kylie Price claimed Gold Guitar champion in 2012 and jetted in from the United Kingdom for the show. She told 1News, interest from the younger generation has been felt across the world. "It's like a big family which, I think, is a massive thing when you're trying to bring the future generation in," she said. "We want to be as welcoming as possible." Price said the likes of New Zealander Kaylee Bell's success and others have also helped. ADVERTISEMENT "And you get the overseas artists like Chris Stapleton and Luke Combs and that sort of thing," added Price. She said the resurgence has allowed the genre to evolve. "For a long time, I remember when I was singing and it wasn't deemed as the cool genre to sing... and I think people are starting to realise that country isn't just this one specific sound that they might have always thought country was." With the awards stronger than ever — the next Gold Guitar star would be revealed on Sunday night.
Otago Daily Times
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Cinnamon oysters: a staple of music festival
Ensign reporter Ella Scott-Fleming gets a preview of the cinnamon oysters masterclass — an event next Tuesday, as part of the Bayleys Tussock Country music festival. I first caught wind of cinnamon oysters when I was in Gore, as a newly arrived and ever-hungry Aucklander. I was intrigued and a bit unsure, as it sounded to my untrained ears like raw Bluff oysters with an interesting choice of spice sprinkled on top. I was relieved to learn they are actually mollusc-shaped, cream filled little sponges which are easy to make and even easier to eat several of, fast. Eager to try this mysterious treat, I enlisted only the best, seasoned professional Coral McCauley, to show me how it's done. Mrs McCauley's masterclass on making the bite-sized delights is returning to Tussock Country this year, where you, too, can bake — and taste — a cinnamon oyster. Making them takes no time at all, I learned, as Mrs McCauley uses a simple yet effective recipe adapted from the Edmonds Cookery Book , but with a slight twist. Her secret is she bakes them for less time than the old recipe says, making for softer, fluffier cakes — to which I can attest. Mrs McCauley, said she has been working at Gore's Gold Guitar Awards since its beginning in 1974 and this year will be her 28th on its committee. Her cinnamon oysters have been fuelling the country competition's judges for about that long, with Mrs McCauley turning the preparation and delivery of the delicacies into a fine art. She freezes batches of them pre-filled with whipped cream, she said, so they can be defrosted, creating an efficient and steady flow of baked goods for the judges all festival long. She said entries for the Gold Guitars used to come in cassettes that she would organise alphabetically. Now that everything was digitised, she was a bit left behind, she said, with the awards no longer needing her organisational skills. Nevertheless, working for the Gold Guitars for so long taught her the basics such as email, which she said she would never have learned had it not been for the ever-growing country competition. She was nervous to do her class on the oysters the first time, but now she said it was a piece of cake. In her special Tussock Country apron she removed the cakes from their brief time in the oven. I sliced the sweets with her electric bread knife as Mrs McCauley's husband, Gore country legend Max McCauley reminded me not to hurt myself. As I left their comfortable Gore home, the couple warned me I would not be able to eat just one and they were right. "One of my nieces eats about five at once," Mrs McCauley said.
Otago Daily Times
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Yodelling, line dancing back in vogue
With Gore's country music fest back next week bigger than ever, some of its surrounding arts like yodelling and line-dancing are feeling the ripple effect of a global boom in the genre. The Tussock Country music festival kicks off on Friday and its boost in ticket sales has reflected the rapid rise of the music genre in popular culture, internationally. In its 50th year, famed Gore country competition the New Zealand Gold Guitar Awards received a record number of 829 musical entries last month, 100 more than 12 months previously. Now, just a week out from the 11-day extravaganza, several of its events have sold out or are near selling out in anticipation for the festival. Music teacher Peter Cairns said tickets to his yodelling workshop had sold out for the first time since starting four years ago. He said the increase in takers was due to the overall festival doing so well alongside a tour group coming through this year, helping to boost numbers. He learned to yodel in his 20s, he said, while hanging out with one of the NZ's "top dalliers" Southlander Max McCauley. He said his workshops had not created any "yodelling monsters" yet, but he was coaching a few budding singers who were entering in the Gold Guitars this year. His student Briar Sharp will be returning in the Intermediate section of the competition, having won the Junior category overall last time. "I've taught something like 13 or 14 overall Gold Guitar winners," he said. The workshop was a "bit of fun" he said, where he taught punters the basics of "breaking", meaning finding the break in a voice where it can flip between the higher and lower register that yodelling is known for. In another expression of the genre, Dianne Perkins will be teaching a beginners' line dance workshop at the festival, and said the country-flavoured steps are having a comeback with a younger audience. She said once given a "bad rap" and thought to be old fashioned, line dancing was having a resurgence because it was being applied to all kinds of popular music, not just country. Her students now moved to the music of fast-paced and contemporary hits from the likes of Ed Sheeran and successful new country singer, Luke Combs. She also takes her line dancing to the rest-homes of Gore and said the dance style has been medically proven to reduce the risk of memory loss and dementia. "It's a great way of exercising and ... because the music's fantastic and you have to remember the steps; it's very, very good for your mind," she said. She said both a 91-year-old and a 13-year-old dance with her in Gore. Another good thing about line dancing was that you did not need a partner, she said, which was good for the many people who were on their own but loved to dance. Line dancing was also a great social activity, she said, which she had come to expect from Gore. "It's a fantastic community to live in ... and it's just one way that we can give a little bit back to the community," she said.
