TAMWORTH shone in the harbour city yesterday with the announcement of the finalists in the nation’s premier country music awards.
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The 2016 Country Music Association of Australia (CMAA) Golden Guitar Awards announcment saw finalists named in 15 categories.
The top five in each category were chosen from more than 500 nominations with plenty of newcomers in the mix alongside household names.
Leading the finalist placings with the chance to add eight Golden Guitars to his collection is Lee Kernaghan with tracks off his album, Spirit of the Anzacs.
Kernaghan is nominated for Album of the Year, Male Artist of the Year, Vocal Collaboration of the Year, Toyota Heritage Song of the Year, Video Clip of the Year, Single of the Year and Sanity Top Selling Australian Album.
Up for seven Golden Guitars is Troy Cassar-Daley who will celebrate his 35th year performing in Tamworth in 2016.
Troy is a finalist for Album of the Year, Male Artist of the Year, Toyota Heritage Song of the Year and APRA AMCOS Song of the Year with his album Freedom Ride.
His song Two Weeks On, Two Weeks Off is up for Vocal Collaboration of the Year and Take a Walk in My Country is finalist in the Single of the Year and Video Clip of the Year categories.
“I love the whole thing of making a living out of music,” he said.
“It’s also about the history I can look back on. Tamworth is very special, and I love to get back and see my uncles and aunties.”
Also receiving seven finalist nods is Shane Nicholson.
His album, Hell Breaks Loose, is his sixth solo album and is a finalist in the categories Alternative Country Album of the Year, Male Artist of the Year and Sanity Top Selling Album of the Year.
His single, Secondhand Man, is up for APRA AMCOS Song of the Year, Single of the Year and Video Clip of the Year, and Hermannsburg has been nominated for Toyota Heritage Song of the Year.
In addition to Nicholson’s seven individual nods, the multi-talented artist is also the producer of Beccy Cole’s album Sweet Rebecca which has been nominated for Album of the Year.
Cole and Catherine Britt lead the female finalists with six finalist placings each and will be up against one another in a number of categories including Album of the Year, Female Artist of the Year, Vocal Collaboration of the Year and Toyota Heritage Song of the Year.
Tamworth singer-songwriter Aleyce Simmonds said she couldn’t believe her song Joshua, about her brother who was stillborn more than 20 years ago, had netted her a finalist placing in APRA AMCOS Song of the Year.
“It’s so personal to me and my family,” she said.
“Everyone has experienced loss and I’m very grateful it connects with other people.”
Fellow Tamworthian Ashleigh Dallas is a finalist in Female Artist of the Year.
“It’s just such a prestigious category,” she said.
“I feel very lucky to get the nomination and is a nice thing to my family because I made the album with my family band. It’s homegrown.”
Dallas’s parents, Lynette and Brett, who produced her album in Kootingal, flew to Sydney with her for the announcement.
Sometime Tamworth resident 8 Ball Aitken said it felt sensational to be a finalist for a track he recorded with Peter Denahy, called Broken Hill.
CMAA vice-president Roger Corbett said it was an incredible year for Australian country music.
“Finalists across all categories this year are of the highest calibre,” he said.
“Our Male Artist of the Year category was extremely strong, and we had nearly 70 nominations in QantasLink New Talent of the Year.”
The Golden Guitar Awards is the pinnacle event of the Toyota Country Music Festival in Tamworth each year and the winners will be announced on January 23.