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This website brings you the latest Australian country music news. News releases can be sent to news@countrymusicbulletin.com.au |
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WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2021 And now… TSA finalists Following the recent release of semi-finalists, the Tamworth Songwriters Association (TSA) has now released finalists for its 2022 Songwriter Salute Awards. For Song of the Year in Alt Country, they are… Susan Dorahy with Redemption Is Real and Tell You, Damien Hosken with With Love And Surrender, Susan Muranty & Sven Tydeman with Stop Time With A Kiss and Billie-Jo Porter & Kylie Nebauer with Upside. In Bluegrass… Kylie Adams-Collier with Light As A Feather, Virginia Hermel with Coming Home, David Javier with Precious Gem, Shelly Jones & Lester Truer with If Uou Knew What You Know and Justin Landers with Always Kiss Her Goodnight.
In Comedy/Novelty… Lloyd Back with Are They Ever Leaving Home, Terry Bennetts with Welcome To Australia, Virginia Hermel & Jim Hermel with I’m Getting Off The World (At The Next Stop), Stan Lenz & Glenny Palmer with She’ll Be Right and Russell Neal & Stafford Watts with Christmas Cheer. In Country Ballad… Norman Crew & Greg Piggot with Sometimes The Juice Just Ain’t Worth The Squeeze, Emily Hatton with Make It Slow, Damien Hosken with There Is A Part Of Me, Ross Webb & Christine Eccleston with Cowgirl Angel and Wendy Wood with Fairytale. In Country Blues… Andy Penkow, Kathleen Stewart, Kalesti Butler & David Carter with How Many Times, Lucie Tiger O’Connor with Found My Home and Midnight Goodbye, Alex Varlow with Nigel and Geoff Williams with Ocean Fever. In Country Rock… Lily Grace & Bella Mackenzie with Sixteen Wishes, Emily Hatton with Mess Around, Aaron Jurd with Midnight Train, Ben Ransom with Come Back For More and Noeleen Smith. In Gospel/Spiritual… Jacques Gentil with Worst Of Sinners, Virginia Hermel with Thank You For Being My Friend, Steven Sherrah & Andrew Bertram with Flowers Still Blooming In Spring, Tony Smith with Lean On Me and Pat Thompson with Until I Reach My Goal. In Local Heroes… Blaise Beach with Fire And Flood, Bindi Blacher with Tooth In The Cog, Lily Grace with What A Mother Taught Me, Graeme Howie with Only One Came Home and Lindsay Waddington & Allan Caswell with Youngie. In Traditional… Virginia Hermal with Land Of Acacia, Justin Landers with The Corner Store, Tony Smith with The Ghost Of This Guitar, Kevin Sullivan with Pilgrimage and Lindsay Waddington & Allan Caswell with Just Get Better. In Youth… Felicity Dowd with Miss You, Grace Mae Gladwin with Skipped A Beat, Lily Grace & Bella Mackenzie with Sixteen Wishes, Mackenzie Lee Hall with Loves In Drought and Shyanne Irwin with Out Of This Town. In Lyrics Only… Christine Eccleston with Save A Saddle There For Me, Helen Harvey with The Wave Hill Spur, Susan Muranty with The Heart You Break The Hardest, Kevin Pye with The Private’s Mate, Julie Richards with Black Dog and Graham Scobie with Yarri Of Gundagai. For the TSA’s New Songwriter Award, finalists are Felicity Dowd with Miss You, Lily Grace & Bella Mackenzie with Sixteen Wishes, Emily Hatton with Make It Slow, Billie Jo Porter & Andrew Blyth with Feels Like Us and Steve Roberts with FiFo Man. In the Novice section, finalists are Gary Bewley with Mates, Daria Koutsoukos with Song for Beth, Sarah Nicholls with You Didn’t Have To Be, Sue Oppy with It’s A Long Way There and Andrew Ryan with Our Land. Winners of 2022 TSA Awards will be announced at The Longyard Hotel, Tuesday evening January. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2021 Academy postpones 2022 course Due to current NSW Government restrictions, the Australian Academy of Country Music has made the decision not to proceed with the 2022 senior course which was due to start in a matter of days.
“We feel this is the best decision for the health and safety of our students and staffmembers, and to ensure we comply with all NSW Government COVID-19 restrictions,” Director Lyn Bowtell said. “We did not make this decision lightly, and thank our students and staff members for their understanding in these ever-changing times.” The January course would have been the first senior course to run since January 2020. The Academy administration team has informed all students, mentors and staff members of the decision. Weblink – www.academycountrymusic.com.au. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2021 Finalists announced for 2022 People’s Choice Awards Finalists have been announced for the 2022 Australian Country Music People’s Choice Awards to be staged in Tamworth during the upcoming January country music festival. “Once again, we recorded thousands of votes from country music fans Australia wide, as well as a few from overseas,” said Awards organiser Bob Kirchner.
“So much so that in some key categories, we have had to announce 10 finalists rather than the usual five because of the support for a number of artists in particular.” Overall, there were nominations for hundreds of individual artists and broadcasters in the 10 Awards categories. Missing from the 2022 listing is Brothers3, one of the most prolific award-winning acts since the band won their first two PCAs in 2011 for Best Group and Most Promising Future Star. The group disbanded earlier this year when Makirum and Shardyn Fahey-Leigh established a duo act known as Mak & Shar with Tayzin deciding to “take a break”. “Which means, for the first time in a long time, we will have a different winner in the group category,” Bob said, “a category we were almost going to rename in honour of Brothers3 and not let them win!” Tickets for the gala Awards presentation, to be held at Wests Diggers in Kable Avenue, Tamworth, Thursday January 20, will be on sale soon via wtlc.com.au. The ticket price has been set at a nominal $10 in recognition of input fans have made to the People’s Choice Awards over the years. An additional feature of the Awards, from this January, will be the announcement of inductees to the Australian Country Music Broadcasters Hall of Fame. Weblink – www.peopleschoiceawards.com.au. The full listing of 2022 finalists follows. Australian Country Music People’s Choice Awards – 2022 Finalists
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2021 Kasey on a roll Kasey Chambers is bubbling with enthusiasm. She's "keen as", as she likes to say, according to a report in The Newcastle Herald by Josh Leeson. After what's been a fairly torrid and frustrating two years due to COVID-19, there are blue skies ahead for Australia's queen of alt-country. A massive 2022 is on the horizon. Firstly, there's a headline show at the Tamworth Country Music Festival in January, followed by a hectic April with appearances at Wildflower (April 2) and Sunset Sounds (April 23) music festivals at Roche Estate in Pokolbin and sandwiched in between is Bluesfest at Byron Bay (April 15-18). Then, Kasey hits the road with "two of her favourite people in the industry", Queensland folk-pop duo Busby Marou. "It's a really nice position to be in, certainly after the last two years of it generally being pretty tough for all of us, particularly in the gig world," Kasey said. "We had a few gigs go through earlier this year and then others got cancelled. So even if we had a few gigs come through at different times it was a pretty nerve-racking time to know if anything was actually gonna end up happening." Kasey has hardly lay idle in lockdown. She's spent much of this year building her Rabbit Hole Studio and Music Retreat on her bushland property on the Central Coast.
A competition was recently held to give young unsigned artists an opportunity to have an EP recorded at Rabbit Hole and produced by Kasey and collaborator Brandon Dodd. "Why I started that competition is it's a really tough time to be launching a career and to get music out there when you can't tour and you can't showcase new songs and have life experience so you can write songs," Kasey said. In November, the music retreat component of Rabbit Hole opened for the first songwriting day camp hosted by Kasey. Several camps were sold out before Christmas and more are planned for 2022. The day camps allow budding musicians to receive intimate knowledge from Kasey about navigating the music industry. They also get an insight into how the ARIA Hall of Fame and Country Music Rollof Renown inductee wrote songs like The Captain, Not Pretty Enoug, Ponyand Barricades And Brickwalls. "This way I get to create a whole special day that's based around general music and creative advice, but then we'll specifically spend time on songwriting," Kasey said. "We'll sit around the campfire and jam and everyone joins in. We'll do a walk-through of the studio to show people how to record a song, so there's a little bit of everything. "My other favourite hobby outside of music is cooking, so I get to do all the cooking and catering for the day, which I love." Kasey says opportunities like the day camps are needed now more than ever due to the pandemic. The 45-year-old mother-of-three has seen first-hand how difficult the past two years have been for teenagers and young adults through her son Talon, 19. "My eldest son finished year 12 last year and was all ready to go out and start discovering who he is outside of school and outside of his parents and a lot of it has been stuck at home for this last year," she says. "It's tough, in general, for that age group, but particularly in music. Another important lesson Kasey wants to teach through her camps is the importance of authenticity. It's something she has possessed in spades since the release of her iconic debut The Captain in 1999 which won an ARIA for Best Country Album in that year and two Golden Guitars in January 2000. At the time, the alternative-looking artist stood out in the conservative Australian country scene, traditionally dominated by male artists like Slim Dusty, John Williamson and Lee Kernaghan. Two years later, Kasey’s second album, Barricades And Brickwalls, led by the number one single Not Pretty Enough, crossed over into the mainstream and won three ARIAs and became the highest-selling Australian album of 2002. More number one albums followed with Wayward Angel (2004), Carnival (2006) and Rattlin’ Bones with then husband Shane Nicholson (2008). Throughout the success, Kasey refused to be molded by the male-dominated music industry into a typical country-pop artist. "I didn't set out to do that," she says. "I'd love to say I had this really clear plan of what I wanted to do and I smashed it, but it wasn't anything like that. I was just doing my thing. "It wasn't only that I was a woman, it was also I was a female playing country music, which was a kind of like a double whammy. "It was a little unexpected at the time, but I also didn't know a lot of that at the time, I just played music and did my thing and tried to be as true to myself as I could be. "I tried not to bend what I was doing or change what I was doing to please anyone. I just did my thing and I stayed strong to what meant something to me.” Weblink – www.kaseychambers.com. MONDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2021 People's Choice to announce Broadcasters Hall of Fame Inductees into the Australian Country Music Broadcasters Hall of Fame will be announced as part of the annual Australian Country Music People’s Choice Awards from January 2022. The Broadcasters Hall of Fame was inaugurated in 1997 by the Australian Country Music Foundation, operators of the Australian Country Music Hall of Fame in Tamworth.
Although the Broadcasters Hall of Fame is considered important, it was not deemed to be a core aspect of the overall Country Music Hall of Fame operation. The People’s Choice Awards were considered an ideal organisation to take over operation of the Broadcasters Hall of Fame as it had been recognising country music broadcasters, radio stations and programs for almost 20 years. Announcing the change, People’s Choice Awards organiser Bob Kirchner said he was delighted to be able to take the Broadcasters Hall of Fame on board. “Broadcasters, radio stations and other media outlets are, of course, an integral part of the country music industry so it has been important to be able to recognise their contribution,” he said. “With the Broadcasters Hall of Fame now part of our presentation, that will greatly expand the recognition and also provide a much stronger prominence and focus for the Hall of Fame itself.” Nominations for the Broadcasters Hall of Fame can be made simply by making written submission to Broadcasters Hall of Fame, PO Box 933 Tamworth 2340. The 2022 Australian Country Music People’s Choice Awards will be staged at Wests Diggers in Tamworth at 2pm on Thursday January 20. A full listing of inductees can be found at www.peopleschoiceawards.com.au. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2021 New release co-incides with re-opening of Reg Lindsay Memory Barn A special version of the Reg Lindsay classic Silence On The Line has been released to co-incide with the re-opening of the Reg Lindsay Memory Barn near Tamworth. The release comprises Reg's original recording with a new part of the rodeo cowboy's partner sung by Jodie Crosby of The Crosby Sisters. The recording is the first recording off a new album to be released in March titled From The Hand Of Reg Lindsay.
This year would have been celebrated as Reg’s 70th anniversary in the entertainment industry but due to hold ups caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the had to be delayed until 2022. Now back in full swing with fans booking in to visit, the Reg Lindsay Memory Barn gives visitors a walk down memory lane among the display of all Reg Lindsay memories, including his guitars , hats, boots, mouth organ collection of nearly 50 harps, many of which he played while recording some of his 70 albums. There are many photos in the museum with Reg and special guests who performed on his television shows, the "National Country & Western Hour" from Adelaide and "Reg Lindsay’s Country Homestead" which was aired from channel 9 Brisbane. The Barn was officially opened on January 21 this year by MP Barnaby Joyce MP with local media and special guests in attendance. Reg's wife Ros said The Barn took four years to get to the stage where she could now show fans the enormous collection of Reg Lindsay memorabilia along with special items from other country music entertainers. Located at 89 Howes Hill Road, Yannargee, off the Wandobah Road just up from the junction with the Purlewaugh Road between Spring Ridge and Premer, The Barn is described as a must see for any music fan and will be in full swing during the upcoming Tamworth Country Music Festival. More information, including available merchandise, can be found at www.reglindsay.com.au. Fans can also connect via the Remembering Reg Lindsay Group facebook page. Two special items of merchandise recently added at The Barn are The Reg Lindsay Pictorial Book with photos and stories from many of the artists who performed on both of Reg’s television shows and the first release of Reg Lindsay’s Country Homestead Show on DVD which includes a number of interviews from the likes of Adam Harvey, Jade Hurley and Bert Newton. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2021 Cavalcade 2022 cancelled The Country Music Cavalcade – the iconic street parade that has been a key feature of the annual Tamworth Country Music Festival for 41 years –will not run in 2022.
“A safety audit of the Cavalcade, which included discussions with local police, was conducted in 2020, which revealed a significant number of risks that can’t be adequately managed,” Festival Manager Barry Harley said. Although the media statement announcing the Cavalcade decision clearly seemed to indicate it was the end of the activity, in a subsequent news report, Barry referred to the Cavalcade “as we know it” and was quoted as saying: “…that’s not to say a cavalcade in a different form or location couldn’t be considered. “But for 2022 it’s impossible for us to manage a safe event.” The Cavalcade started in 1980 by the Tamworth Chamber of Commerce & Industry and ran every year until 2020 having been cancelled in 2021 along with “the official festival” due to the coronavirus pandemic. Council has put together what they term a “Community Celebration” in the city’s major Bicentennial Park to run in a similar timeframe as the Cavalcade would have on the main Saturday morning of the festival. It will comprise market stalls and entertainment. Photo: the lead float in an early 1980s Cavalcade. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2021 Troy in new TV doco Country star Troy Cassar-Daley heads a new television documentary – "Sing About This Country" – premiering on NITV (National Indigenous Television) on Saturday night. Troy joins friends The Black Image Band, brothers Cliff Harrigan, Pando Harrigan, Dylan Harrigan and Porky Harrigan, taking their music to Queensland’s Cape York Peninsula (all pictured).
"Sing About This Country" is described as a story of friendship, family and brotherhood, “set amidst the backdrop of stunning remote landscapes and showcasing musical performances like no other”. NITV says it is proud to give Australian audiences exclusive access to a unique tour from Troy. “Follow the group as they bring their music to isolated communities, culminating in a hometown performance in Cooktown in front of their family and friends, as well as a lively audience enjoying some good old-fashioned country music.” "Every now and then you get to do something that fills your heart and soul to the brim,” said Troy, “rekindling old friendships and reminiscing about the past on a very sacred part of our country. “We got to feel the old people’s spirts around is as we travelled, heal together, play music together and sing about this amazing country of ours. Director of Indigenous Content at SBS Tanya Denning-Orman said: “What a combination – country music and the beautiful Cape York Peninsula. It’s a joy to have Troy and The Black Image Band take us all on this adventure. “Music is at the heart and soul of First Nations culture, and we cannot wait to launch our new music documentary programming slate with the brilliant 'Sing About This Country'." Weblink here. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2022 Bush Ballad Awards finalists Finalists have been announced for the 2022 Stan Coster Memorial Bush Ballad Awards. The Awards, usually announced as part of the Bungendore Country Music Muster, will be announced on line again next year as it has been decided not to stage the actual Muster due to unknown variables resulting from the coronavirus pandemic. Winners will be announced via youtube on Saturday February 27 at 7:30pm. And the finalists are...
For Male Vocal... Terry Bennetts with Not Without You Old Mate, Graham Rodger (pictured) with Born To The Saddle and John Smith with For those Who Understand. For Duo or Group... the Coad Sisters with Land Of Acacia, Dianne Lindsay & Peter Simpson with Sounds Like Country To Me and the McKay Brothers with You're Still Just 22. For Songwriter... Lloyd Back with Old Boots, Terry Bennetts & Keith Lethbridge with Not Without You Old Mate and the Coad Sisters with Land Of Acacia. For Instrumental... Anthony Baxter with Wattle In Springtime, Lindsay Butler with Where The Roper Flows Tonight and Lindsay Hammond with Lawson’s Ghost. For Album... Tracy Coster with Southerly Change, Ken “Chainsaw” Lindsay with My Favourite Place and John Smith with For Those Who Understand. For New Talent... Lachie Cossor with Southern Cross, the McKay Brothers with Good Times Will Come Again and Ian Wilkinson with Women Of The Outback. For Comedy... Terry Bennetts with Welcome To Australia, Tracy Coster with Beer I Bought For Dave and Ken “Chainsaw” Lindsay with The Day I Rode Chainsaw. Weblink – bcmm.com.au. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2021
Details have been announced for an extensive program of free night-time entertainment during the 2022 Tamworth Country Music Festival. The program is for the city’s Bicentennial Park, known as Toyota Park for the 10 days of the festival in recognition of major sponsor Toyota. A major event is scheduled for every night in the park “Toyota stars under the stars” for the entire duration of the event. The park has a capacity for thousands of fans and is set up with major stage facilities and public amenities including food vendors. On the first night, the traditional Official Opening Concert will be staged with guest artists including Kirsty Lee Akers, Melanie Dyer, Abby Ferris, Blake O’Connor, Loren Ryan, Felicity Urquhart & Josh Cunningham, The Vixens Of Fall and Sammy White (pictured). The host will be Brisbane radio personality Laurel Edwards and graduates of the Country Music Association of Australia’s Academy of Country Music will also perform. Saturday night will see KIK Live In The Park with artists including Casey Barnes (pictured), The Buckleys, Darlinghust, Hurricane Fall, Hayley Jensen and Bella Mackenzie. Sunday night sees the 42nd staging of the Star Maker Quest also sponsored by Toyota. The launching pad for many of today’s stars, like James Blundell, Beccy Cole, Gina Jeffreys and Keith Urban, this year will feature the Top 10 Star Maker finalists battle it out for the 2022 crown. Sammy White, the most recent Star Maker winner, will be a special guest together with one of our best known Star Maker winners Lee Kernaghan (pictured) who will be celebrating 40 years since he won in 1982. Monday night will feature a number of artists who play in the “Americana” sub-genre of country music… Kelly Brouhaha, Lachlan Bryan & The Wildes, Henry Wagons & The Only Children, The Weeping Willows and Gretta Ziller (pictured). Tuesday night brings together a number of country rock exponents in an Aussie Country Rock Showcase… Stewart Barton, Brewn, Copperline, Paul Costa, Rachael Fahim, Charlie Fittler, Melody Moko, Ian Moss and Ben Ransom (pictured). Wednesday night will be the ever popular Back To The Bush Spectacular which always draws a huge crowd. The 2022 line-up will feature more than 40 bush balladeers headlined by country pioneer Chad Morgan. Included on the show will be the likes of Terry Bennetts, Owen Blundell, Charley Boyter, Jeff Brown, Lindsay Butler, Peter Coad, the Coad Sisters with Jim Hermel, Keith Jamieson, Anne Kirkpatrick (pictured), David Kirkpatrick, Shaza Leigh, Dianne Lindsay & Peter Simpson, Tom Maxwell, Alisha Smith and John Smith. Thursday evening will see Adam Brand’s (pictured) Big Country Jam with guest artists James Blundell, Cornell & Carr, Tori Darke and Cass Hopetoun. Friday evening will feature Travis Collins (pictured) & Friends… Taylor Moss, Emmagen Rain, Southbound, Andrew Swift and the newly crowned Toyota Star Maker 2022. Saturday night’s show will be a Blast Of Blues with acts including the Buddy Knox Blues Band, Fiona Boyes (pictured), The Rumour Mill (with Alwyn Aurisch, Guy Kachel and Sally-Anne Whitten) and one-man band Mitch King. The final night of the festival, Sunday January 23, will be The Best Of The Buskers where the top 10 buskers selected by the judges through the festival compete for the 2022 Tamworth Best of the Buskers Crown. More than 100 artists will feature at Toyota Park during the 2022 Tamworth Country Music Festival. The park entertainment is supported by the NSW State Government’s Regional Events Acceleration Fund to the tune of $150,000 “to enable a bigger Stars Under the Stars series”. “There is no other festival in Australia that can provide this quality line up of musicians for free,” said Toyota Country Music Festival Manager Barry Harley. Weblink – www.tcmf.com.au. MONDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2021 New People's Choice venue for 2022
It will also be a return to a previous home, Wests Diggers Club in Country Music Capital's Kable Avenue, previously the Tamworth RSL Club. The Awards will be held on their traditional day, Thursday of the Tamworth Country Music Festival but in the afternoon rather than the evening. Commencing at 2 o'clock, the 2022 Australian Country Music People's Choice Awards will feature a number of Awards finalists in addition to the gala Awards presentation. Ticket price for the coming year has been set at a nominal $10 as a special "pandemic recovery" incentive gesture to "the fans" who determine award winners. And tickets will be available shortly via www.wtlc.com.au. In line with previous years, more than 20,000 votes were cast for the upcoming Awards. Awards finalists will be announced later this week. Weblink – www.peopleschoiceawards.com.au. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2021 TSA Semi Finalists Almost 350 semi finalist placings have been announced for the 2022 Tamworth Songwriters Association (TSA) Songwriter Salute Awards to be staged in January. This is one of the longest lists of finalists in the TSA's history since it first started recognising excellence in Australian country music songwriting in 1984.
The strongest category is Country Ballad with 49 semi finalists announced followed by Alt Country and Country Rock with 36 and 35 semi finalist placings respectively. The Lyrics Only category is next strongest with 29 semi finalists announced, followed closely by Traditional with 28, Novice with 26, Local Heroes with 22, Country Blues with 21 and Bush Ballad with 22 and Comedy/Novelty with 20. Bluegrass, Gospel/Spiritual and Youth categories all feature 15 semi finalists. Seventeen semi finalists have been announced for the presigious New Songwriter Award... Benny Allen, Briana Dinsdale & Ken Dinsdale, Felicity Dowd, Kylie Gale, Kylie Gale & Billie-Jo Porter, Kerrie Gambley, Lily Grace, Emily Hatton, Dave Hughes & Cheree Martin, Shyanne Irwin, Callan Kennedy, Patrick Kenny, Billie Jo Porter & Andrew Blyth, Sally Pottinger, Steve Roberts, Anita Spring and Willow. A full listing of semi finalists, together with respective song titles, can be viewed on the TSA website www.tsaonline.com.au. Final judging is now in process with finalists expected to be announced just before Christmas. In addition to the annual Awards presentation, which will be held in 2022 on Tuesday evening January 18 at The Longyard Hotel, TSA showcases will be held at the Tamworth City Bowling Club, Oasis Hotel and the Post Office Hotel. A total of 55 performers will play multiple spots under the TSA banner throughout the festival from Saturday January 15 January until Sunday January 23. MONDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2021 Gidgee winners The 2020/2021 Gidgee Coal Bush Ballad Awards have been run and won at Pittsworth in Queensland. And the winners are...
Male Vocal – John Smith (pictured) with The Photograph. John won the award from fellow finalists Terry Bennetts with A Fortunate Life and Peter Simpson with The Things I Left Behind. Album – For Those Who Understand by John Smith (fellow finaists, A Fortunate Life by Terry Bennetts and Bush Country by Lindsay Hammond. Instrumental – Lawson's Ghost by Lindsay Hammond (fellow finalists Calling Of The Heart by Terry Bennetts and El Gringo by Peter Salata & Lindsay Waddington. The Songwriter award went to Peter Simpson for The Things I Left Behind (fellow finalists, Ashely Cook & Terry Bennetts for Ballad Of The Coal Pit Ponies and Ray Essery & Terry Bennetts for The Old Man At The Bar. And the Comedy/Novelty award was won by Terry Bennetts with Welcome To Australia (fellow finalists Lloyd Back with G String and John Smith with The Loaded Dog. Bush poets Ray Essery and Gary Fogarty were recognised with Gidgee Coal Legend awards together with long-time singer/songwriter Johnny Greenwood. Impacts of the coronavirus caused a lack of entries this year in new talent and group/duo award sections which will be reinstated next year, organisers said. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2021 Tamworth 50th recognised with official coinage The Royal Australian Mint has paid tribute to the famous Tamworth Country Music Festival by releasing a sommemorative coin to mark the festival's 50th year.
First in the series is a 2022 50 cent "Selectively Gold-Plated Silver Proof Coin" while the second is a 2022 50 cent "Uncirculated Coin". The gold plated version sells for $90; the uncirculated version for $10. Both are legal tender and available via the festival website tcmf.com.au/shop or through the Call Centre on 1300 652 020. Chief Executive of the Mint Leigh Gordon said the coin recognised the significant social and cultural impact the Tamworth Country Music Festival had had over the last 50 years. “The Mint is excited to have collaborated with the Tamworth Country Music Festival to release a coin that tells the story of a much loved part of Australian culture and history... country music fans and coin collectors will treasure this unique coin for years to come.” Backdrop of the coin design was inspired by the festival stage, illuminated with beaming light. A winding road leads to the stage, highlighting the distance festival goers and artists alike travel to get to the festival. Tamworth Country Music Festival Manager Barry Harley said: “For five decades this Festival has celebrated and supported Australia’s country music artists and the industry. Fifty years is a truly remarkable milestone to reach and it’s fitting that this moment is celebrated and now immortalised on a 50 cent coin. “With a limited stock of coins available, I urge all country music fans and coin collectors... to get in quick before these pieces of musical history are sold out.”
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In Bush Ballad… Terry Bennetts & Keith Lethbridge with Not Without You Old Mate, Peter Simpson with The Things I Left Behind, Graham Rodger with Born To The Saddle and Feral Muster, Pat Thompson with Two Old Friends and Lindsay Waddington & Allan Caswell with He Liked Horses More than People.
The course was to run from January 4 in Tamworth but with the health and safety of Academy staff and students at the forefront of all decisions by the organising team, the "difficult decision" to postpone to January 2023 has been made.
“Voting patterns have changed a little during the pandemic but we continue to see strong support for independent artists and new and emerging talent.
Earlier this year, assets of the Foundation were passed to Tamworth Regional Council as a means of guaranteeing the Foundation’s significant archival collection.
With 14 tracks written or co-written with wife Ros, the album has bonus tracks Silence On The Line, Armstrong (Reg’s biggest hit) and a track Reg recorded in Nashville back in 1985 titled Bonham’s Last Ride which has never been released in Australia.
In making the announcement, Tamworth Regional Council said ever-increasing safety mitigation requirements and significant security risks associated with vehicle movements were the catalyst for the decision.
For Female Vocal... Tracy Coster (pictured) with The Man In The Colourful Suit, Sharon Heaslip with It’s Always the Son That Gets The Farm and Dianne Lindsay with Just Let Him Be.
Tamworth's Toyota Park program announced
Many well known names join a host of new and emerging writers among the semi finaists, including Terry Bennetts, Billy Bridge, Jim Brown, Lachlan Bryan, Ian Burns, Michael Carpenter, David Carter, Allan Caswell (pictured), Bill Chambers, Roger Corbett, Tracy Coster, Peter Denahy, Sam Hawksley, Jim Hermel, Virginia Hermel (pictured), Graeme Howie, Gina Jeffreys, Shelly Jones, Justin Landers, Michael Lehnen, Shaza Leigh, Stan Lenz, Keith Lethbridge, Thomas and Tessa Libreri, Ken Lindsay, Rod McCormack, Steve Newton, Andy Penkow, Kevin Pye, Ben Ransom, Graham Rodger, Peter Simpson, Kevin Sullivan, Lucie Tiger, Lindsay Waddington and Wendy Wood. 
Female Vocal – Sharon Heaslip (pictured) with A Country School (fellow finalists Dianne Lindsay with Graveyard Hill and Kylie Adams Collier with Camel Up Earlston Said.
The collectible 50 cent coin – which comes in two versions – features a gold-plated version of the Festival’s signature Golden Guitar.
