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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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FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2015 APRA finalists announced Finalists in the 2015 APRA (Australasian Performing Right Association) Music Awards were announced today.
Freedom Rebels, written by Adam Brand (below left), Barry Dean & Troy Verges, recorded by Adam; Give Her The World, written by Adam Eckersley, Danelle Leverett & Jason Reeves, recorded by the Adam Eckersley Band; Going Under (Didn't Have To), written by Brooke, Mollie & Samantha McClymont & Lindsay Rimes, recorded by The McClymonts; Here's To You & I, written by Stuart Crichton, Brooke, Mollie & Samantha McClymont, recorded by The McClymonts; and One Eye For An I, written by Morgan Evans (pictured at right) & Mark Wells, recorded by Morgan. In addition to the country specific category, Kasey Chambers & Bernard Fanning are nominees for Song of the Year with Bittersweet. The 2015 APRA Music Awards will be held in Sydney on Tuesday March 24 at Carriageworks. Weblink – Apra Music Awards (click on this name). THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2015 Voting closes Sunday for CMC Awards Voting closes this Sunday (March 1) for the 2015 CMC (Country Music Channel) Music Awards. Winners in the Awards' eight categories will be announced on Thursday March 12 in conjunction with CMC Rocks Qld (which runs March 13, 14, 15 at Willowbank south of Ipswich). A number of artists and videos are determined as eligible for voting by CMC in each category.
For Female Oz Artist of the Year... Kirsty Lee Akers, Lyn Bowtell, Catherine Britt, Kasey Chambers, Courtney Conway, Harmony James, Christie Lamb, Amber Lawrence, Sara Storer and Jasmine Rae. For Male Oz Artist of the Year... Roo Arcus, Adam Brand, Doug Bruce, Troy Cassar-Daley, Travis Collins, Matt Cornell, Morgan Evans, Adam Harvey, Lee Kernaghan and John Williamson. For New Oz Artist of the Year... Roo Arcus, Lyn Bowtell, Courtney Conway, Matt Cornell, Ashleigh Dallas, Jody Direen, Adam Eckersley Band, Christie Lamb, Jared Porter and Victoria Avenue. For Group or Duo of the Year... Lachlan Bryan & The Wildes, Adam Eckersley Band, McAlister Kemp, The McClymonts, Mustered Courage, O'Shea, Melinda Schneider & Beccy Cole, Victoria Avenue, The Viper Creek Band and The Wolfe Brothers. All artists in the previous categories are also eligible for Oz Artist of the Year. For Australian Video of the Year... Bad Boys Get Me Good by Jasmine Rae, Bad Day Good by O'Shea, Burning Your Memory Down by Courtney Conway, Canoe by Sara Storer, Fight Me by McAlister Kemp, Heart Of Sorrow by Lyn Bowtell, Here's To You & I by The McClymonts, Like A Tornado by Morgan Evans, Manhunt by Christie Lamb, My Life Leads Me To Drink by Aleyce Simmonds, One Heartbreak Away by Kristy Cox, Outta This Town by Matt Cornell, Powerlines by Mustered Courage, She Don't Know She's Beautiful by Adam Harvey, Skinny Flat White by Harmony James, Superhero by Amber Lawrence, That Kinda Night by The Wolfe Brothers, What Your Love Looks Like by Adam Brand and Wheelbarrow by Kasey Chambers. A number of awards are also presented for acts not based in Australia including Video and Artist of the Year. The Awards, fifth to be staged, will be staged at Queensland's Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) in Brisbane. Weblink – www.countrymusicchannel.com.au. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015 Courtney tops in the West Courtney Conway has come up trumps in this year's West Australian Country Music Awards presented by Livelighter taking home three of the seven trophies up for grabs. Courtney was named West Australian Country Music Female Artist of the Year and also won Independent Single of the Year with Burning Your Memory Down and Independent Album of the Year with 21 Days. Male Artist of the Year went to Jonny Taylor while Davey Craddock & The Spectacles won Group of the Year. Songwriter of the Year was announced as Jasmine Atkins with Believe In Yourself and Video Clip of the Year was won by Bradley Hall with The Band Played (produced by Andrew Nowarjee). Weblink – www.countrymusicwa.com.au. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2015 Top 40 country tracks of 2014 Roo Arcus (pictured) had the number one hit single in Australia last year according to compilers of the national Country Tracks weekly Top 40 chart with his hit song Out On The Farm. Roo came in at number one ahead of Doug Bruce at two with Clock Out At Five, Christie Lamb's All She Wrote at three and Sara Storer's Come On Rai at four. The McClymonts came in at five with Going Under (Didn't Have To) while The Wolfe Brothers' That Kinda Night claimed sixth place and Doug Bruce's Broke Down Heart was at seven. Adam Harvey's She Don't Know She's Beautiful was number eight, The Dean Perrett/Troy Cassar-Daley duet My Country, My Land was in ninth place and Kaylee Bell's Little Bit Small Town rounded out the top 10.
The full listing can be viewed at www.countrytrackschart.com.au. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2015 West Australian Awards this weekend The main feature of this week's Boyup Brook Country Music Festival will be the 2015 West Australian Country Music Awards, presented by LiveLighter.
For Male Artist of the Year: Terry Bennetts, Billy Higginson and Jonny Taylor. For Female Artist of the Year: Kathy Carver, Courtney Conway and Emily Dewar. For Group of the Year: Davey Craddock & The Spectacles and Fitzroy Xpress. For Emerging Artist of the Year: Jasmine Atkins, Codee-Lee and Emily Dewar. For Songwriter of the Year: Jasmine Atkins with Believe In Yourself, Theona Councillor with Cover Me, Davey Craddock with Better Alone and Tori-Rae Davies with Family of Porcelain. For Album of the Year: 21 Days by Courtney Conway, A Better Place by Allan Spowart and Mateship by Terry Bennetts. For Single of the Year: Ain't Got Time for That by Codee-Lee, Burning Your Memory Down by Courtney Conway and Slave To The Road by Jonny Taylor. For Video Clip of the Year: The Band Played by Bradley Hall (produced by Andrew Nowarjee), Burning Your Memory Down by Courtney Conway (produced by ForeFront Films) and Slave To The Road by Jonny Taylor (produced by Ryan Ammon). For Junior Vocalist of the Year: Keely Brittain, Tori-Rae Davies and Xyanthe Lee. "It will be an amazing line up of WA Awards," a spokesman said. "Well-knowns and quite a few newcomers, which means the prospect of an exciting evening on Friday. "Sincere thanks go to the panels of judges, all industry professionals who hail from many states of Australia and from the USA, and congratulations to ALL finalists, with much respect going to all entrants in every category." The Boyup Brook Festival continues up to and including Sunday. Weblink – www.countrymusicwa.com.au. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2015 Chart Update – Travis hangs on to number one Travis Collins retains the number one position on the national Country Tracks Top 40 chart for the coming week with his hit song Curves. Lyn Bowtell's Happy bounds into the top 10 at number two, Former number ones The McClymonts Forever Begins Tonight is at five, Christie Lamb's Wish You Were A Cowboy is at six and The Wolfe Brothers' That Kinda Night is at seven. Another former number one, Kristy Cox's This, is at eight, Ben Ransom's One More Beer is at nine and O'Shea's Bad Day Good enters the top 10 at 10. Bullet performers for the week include Kasey Chambers & Bernard Fanning's Bittersweet (24 to 15), Luke O'Shea's Sing You Up (re-enters the chart at 16), Harmony James' 30,000 Feet (33 to 17), Victoria Avenue's Knock Knock (22 to 19), Lee Kernaghan & Various Artists with Spirit Of The Anzacs (new at 20), Amber Lawrence's Superhero (re-enters the chart at 23), Neilly Rich's Sure Feels Good To Me (32 to 24), Jade Hurley's I Don't Look Good Naked Anymore (re-enters the chart at 25), Melinda Schneider & Beccy Cole's cover of Love Hurts (new at 26), Amber Joy Poulton's I'll Fly Away (30 to 27), Tori Darke's Disposable (35 to 28), Susan Lily's Daisy Jane (36 to 29), Troy Cassar-Daley's Take A Walk In My Country (new at 31), Jodi Martin's Saltwater In My Hair (new at 34), Ruckus' Love This Country (re-enters the chart at 36) and Jared Porter & Kaylee Bell's Pieces (re-renters at 37). Other new entries to the chart this week include Kaylee Bell's Song Of My Summer (in at 40). The full chart can be viewed at www.countrytrackschart.com.au. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2015 Golden Guitars on television... but only regional
A coverage of this year's Country Music Awards of Australia (Golden Guitars) will go to air on television this Saturday, but only in regional Australia. The one-hour special will go to air on Southern Cross Ten's Eleven channel at 7:30pm. "Tamworth Country Gold" is billed as including "the glitz and glamour of the artists arrivals on the red carpet, the winners and most of all, the music... featuring performances from Kasey Chambers, Troy Cassar-Daley, Amber Lawrence, Luke O'Shea, The McClymonts, John Williamson and many more." Although industry pundits are pleased to see a coverage of Australia's single most popular music genre "back on television" there is widespread disappointment that metropolitan audiences are being deprived the opportunity to see the special. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2015 Peter and Norma, double winners at Bungendore
Peter won the prestigious Album of the Year award for Music Highway and the Comedy award for Cooper's Run while Norma won the Female Vocal and Songwriter awards with Gone Drovin'. Male Vocal went to Graham Rodger for Dust & Leather, the Instrumental award going to Alisha Smith for Rabbit Flat. Dianne Lindsay & Dale Duncan won the Duo award for The Dreamers and Rex Baldwin was named New Talent of the Year with Treasures That I See. The Barry Thornton Encouragement Award was won by 16-year-old Emma Jene, Ann Bell was named best walk-up artist, Kevin Morris won the busking competition with Evan Plaschinda taking out the people's choice. Weblink – www.bungendorecountrymuster.com.au. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2015 Tamworth helps boost national chart success Australian country music has had one of its best weeks on album sales charts on the back of a successful Country Music Awards and Festival in Tamworth.
Compiled by the Australian recording industry trade organisation ARIA (Australian Recording Industry Association), the chart is usually dominated more than half, and sometimes well more than half, by foreign recordings. Industry pundits say this is a "nice turnaround (if only probably for a brief time)". "The massive weight of the American recording and publishing industry (in particular) and promotional machinery sees local talent pushed well to the background on a regular basis so this is a shining beacon for Australian artists," one commentator said. And it's clearly as a result of the huge promotion and exposure for local artists provided by the just concluded Golden Guitar Awards and Tamworth Country Music Festival which were both established for just that purpose – to promote Australian artists and Australian recordings. "Despite some diminution of that over the past decade or so, the Awards and Festival obviously still do have an impact and are a positive element for local artists," the commentator said. The first three places on the broader "all acts" country chart this week are held by Australian artists... O'Shea at number one with their album The Famine And The Feast (pictured) which debuted at number three last week, the Country Music Association of Australia compilation Winners 2015 featuring finalists and winners in this year's Golden Guitar Awards in second place and Lee Kernaghan's greatest hits release The Big Ones which reached platinum status from its original release and re-entered this week's charts in third place following Lee's huge presence at Tamworth this year including his induction to the Country Music Roll of Renown. Other notable "new entries" to this week's successful Aussie dominated chart include Female Artist of the Year Golden Guitar winner Amber Lawrence's recently released Superheroes (at nine), Roo Arcus' new album Cowboys & Sunsets (debuting at 13) and John Williamson's Anthems album (re-entering at 15, obviously following another strongly supported Australia Day celebration). ABC Country's The Heart Of The Country compilation by ABC Country (which debuted last week) which features 38 Australian, mainly country acts, sits at 17. Weblink – AustralianAlbumsChart. |
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The listing from 11 to 40...
Awards will be presented in nine categories from the following finalists...
Doug Bruce's Somewhere Better To Be is up one to three and Connie Kis Andersen's On The Other Side Of Midnight is at four.
Peter Coad and Norma O'Hara Murphy were the most successful winners at the weekend's Stan Coster Memorial Bush Ballad Awards taking home two trophies each.
For the first time in a long time, more than half of the Australian Country Albums Top 40 are Australian albums (see listing