Hi gang,
Just thought that I’d better explain some of the more obscure categories in yesterday’s Kazzies, and/or why I called them what I called them.
There were some new ones and some that I didn’t put in this year. One popular one in the past has been The Flying The Flag award, which goes to Aussies who are spreading the word overseas about our great country music. There are a set of fairly well known artists who have been doing this for years and then there are some who have been quietly making inroads and others who aren’t so well known doing some small but cool stuff in the U.S.A. and Europe. Congrats to all of them.
The Tom Fauvette/Phil Emmanuel Musos award is named after two wonderful guitarists who we lost way too young this last year. It will remain named that way (after several name changes in the past) to honour two great guys.
The Audrey Auld Courage in Recording award was slightly renamed this year. Audrey was an amazing singer/songwriter, whom we all miss very much. We were around the same age and she was a wonderful talent. She fought a long and tough battle without any fuss and with a lot of courage and positivity. The Pub at Tamworth honours her by naming the café after her. I don’t usually add the Recording bit, just courage, which has been displayed by many of our country musos, presenters etc over the years. This year, I changed it slightly, as Three artists had tough recording tasks. Cathy Dobson put together a stunning album which I keep stuffing up the title about, Tales From A Suburban Housewife, which is a very honest and thought provoking album. Melissa Robertson did the same with her very open book album, “A Little Country Life” which is heartbreakingly honest and must have taken a lot to write. Rick Hart’s tribute to Tom and the amazing courage that it took him to help put together the Country Rocks The Black Dog event, deserved a mention too.
Special mention here should go to Chalkie White (who also won one last year) and Kalesti Butler who have been through some pretty tough stuff lately and have been inspirational in the way that they have handled it all.
The Hot Shots one is about the up and coming artists who approach everything with enthusiasm, passion and work hard in various ways to achieve it. They also have a high energy rate! Benny and Rose were obvious choices this year. Last year, Phoebe Jay and Rory Phillips won the award.
For those who don’t know the John Flanagan Trio song, Last of The Cassette Men is about Paul Kelly.
The Mall of Fame is my Hall of Fame. I figured that I would extend the building because there are so many great musos, producers, media folks that belong in there. I might have to make it the palace of fame soon.
