Latest news with #TussockCountryMusicFestival
The Spinoff
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Spinoff
Gold Guitar winner criticises awards, says ‘brown faces' were treated unfairly
Micro-aggressions and a difficult history with te reo Māori is why last year's Gold Guitar winner says she won't return to the ceremony or its homeland of Gore. Country singer and 2024 Gold Guitar main prize winner Amy Maynard has vowed publicly to never return to the ceremony and its host town of Gore, after facing what she believes were racially-charged micro-aggressions. She said the ceremony has a history of failing to recognise te reo Māori, and hopes her experience could push the Gold Guitar organisers to create a safer environment for Māori performers and punters. But the organisers say they'd rather sort out their differences in private. Aotearoa's premier country music awards, the Gold Guitar Awards, have been held every year since 1974 (excluding 2020) in Gore, as the last hurrah in the Tussock Country Music Festival schedule. Its honourees include the likes of Tami Neilson and Kaylee Bell, and in 2024, Maynard picked up the ceremony's senior award. Maynard told The Spinoff she had spent most of the festival last year – her first time at the ceremony – keeping to herself, and focusing on performing in several spots across the awards circuit. Returning this year as a one-off performer and attendee, Maynard says the environment at the awards was 'really disheartening'. She said that in her experience, the awards' security were more likely to reprimand 'brown faces' for actions such as singing, dancing or talking during performances. Her 16-year-old son, dressed in baggy clothing, was also stopped multiple times and questioned about why he was at the awards. It was not just staff, but attendees that Maynard said made the awards feel unwelcoming. While one singer performed a reo Māori waiata, Maynard said an older Pākehā couple made disparaging comments about the choice of song. When The Spinoff called the Gold Guitar office, convener Phillip Geary answered. 'I don't want to comment in a public forum,' Geary replied, when asked about Maynard's experience. In 2012, a Gore District Council employee left their job after criticising the Gold Guitar Awards. She had competed in the Gold Guitar Young Ambassador Awards, and wrote on Facebook that she 'kicked ass at everything and then didn't win, go figure … I think I was too brown for them bro'. At the time, Geary said he didn't believe Green needed to resign. 'With the way social media is these days, we've got to expect stuff like this. We're not overly concerned about it.' 'As a Māori woman in this industry, it's hard when you're constantly fighting this uphill battle,' Maynard told The Spinoff. 'These people have built this idea of what you're going to be in their minds'. Maynard also criticised the awards' policy that bars anyone other than the slated performer from appearing onstage. Maynard requested her mother and daughter sing with her, as 'you should be allowed to provide and perform the show that you would like to put on for people … for me, that includes highlighting and showcasing my family, because whakawhanaungatanga is always going to be something I'm huge about'. The response from the awards was that it would 'set a bad precedent'. The rule affected another act, Sharon Russell and Lesley Nia Nia, who had won the previous year's classic award. Russell had travelled to the ceremony without Nia Nia, who could not attend for personal reasons, but with her grandson as a replacement. Maynard claims Russell was told she couldn't perform and her act was replaced. Maynard shared these experiences in a long social media post, which The Spinoff understands the Gold Guitar organisers have seen. Television personality Mike Puru, who MC'd the event, left a message of support on Maynard's post promising to take her comments to the ceremony's board. 'I'm so sorry that happened – I had no idea … I'm saddened by all of that, especially being a Māori fella from Gore,' Puru wrote. 'I know what you mean.' In the last year, against the backdrop of the Treaty principles bill and Toitū Te Tiriti hīkoi, Maynard said she had noticed anti-Māori rhetoric had become more 'vocal'. The singer, who lives in Hamilton, said she doesn't feel comfortable returning to Gore or to the Gold Guitar Awards. 'I hope this opens a conversation for them.'
Otago Daily Times
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Country music festival offers a week of activities
On the lineup for the Tussock Country Music Festival includes the NZ Highwaymen. PHOTO: SUPPLIED Singing in the street and designing and eating "Southland sushi" — the Tussock Country Music Festival has it all. The festival will start tonight with late-night shopping in Gore, a children's disco and then a glitzy country music honours night at the St James Theatre. From then, it will be all systems go through to the Gold Guitar Awards next weekend, with record entries in what is its 50th year. The awards celebrate all that is good with country music — a genre which has been enjoying a renaissance. Gore Country Music Club president Julie Mitchell previously told the Otago Daily Times the awards had come a long way from the 33 entries when they first started. This year, there were 829 entries, up 100 on last year. She also acknowledged the boom in the genre worldwide as a catalyst for a rapidly increasing appetite for the festival. NZ Gold Guitar Awards committee convener Phillip Geary said gradually over the past 10 years, and particularly in the last three or four, country music had skyrocketed — to the competition's benefit. In particular, he had noticed a "big increase" in the intermediate section, which covers the 13-18 age range. The awards had changed their image over the years, he said. "Originally it was 'country and western', and we deliberately keep the word 'western' out of it now," he said. "Western just goes back to the cowboy image, I think." The top award at tonight's country music honours will be the Apra Best Country Music Song award. The finalists are: 5432 written and performed by Mel Parsons; Blue Dreams written and performed by Holly Arrowsmith; and Borrow My Boots written and performed by Tami Neilson, Ashley McBryde and Shelly Fairchild, featuring Grace Bowers. Parsons won the MLT Songwriting Award last year with Hardest Thing. Neilson will perform tonight. The big show tonight will start 10 days of entertainment. There will be a bit of everything on offer, including a cheese roll workshop, line dancing for beginners and busking for all ages.
Otago Daily Times
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Yodelling, line dancing back in fashion
With Gore's country music festival back next week and bigger than ever, some of its events such as yodelling and line dancing are feeling the ripple effect of a global boom in the genre. The Tussock Country Music Festival starts next Friday. Its boost in ticket sales has reflected the rapid rise of the music genre in popular culture internationally. In its 50th year, Gore country competition the New Zealand Gold Guitar Awards received a record number of 829 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 to selling out in anticipation of the festival. Music teacher Peter Cairns said tickets to his yodelling workshop had sold out for the first time since starting four years ago. The increase was due to the overall success of the festival as well as a tour group coming through this year. He learned to yodel in his 20s while hanging out with one of New Zealand's "top yodelers", Southlander Max McCauley. His workshops had not created any "yodelling monsters" yet, but he was coaching a few budding singers who were entering 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, Mr Cairns said. "I've taught something like 13 or 14 overall Gold Guitar winners." He taught punters the basics of "breaking" — 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, Diane Perkins will be teaching two line dance classes at the festival. The country-flavoured steps were having a comeback with a younger audience. 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, she said. 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 took her lessons to rest-homes in Gore. The dance style had been medically proven to reduce the risk of memory loss and dementia, she said. "It's a great way of exercising. "Because the music's fantastic and you have to remember the steps, it's very, very good for your mind." Another good thing about line dancing was you did not need a partner, which was good for people who were on their own but loved to dance, she said. Line dancing was also a great social activity, which she had come to expect from Gore, she said. "It's a fantastic community to live in. "It's just one way that we can give a little bit back to the community."
