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News, Views and Do's |
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Select an edition: NEWSFLASH At the Annual General Meeting of the Country Music Association of Australia (CMAA), on October 16, I was elected to the Board along with Lee Kernaghan, Nick Erby and Marius Els (Treasurer). We thank you for your support in the last few months, and look forward to working hard with our fellow board members to ensure the successful and prosperous future of the Association, the Golden Guitar Awards and the Australian Country Music industry. BRISBANE STAGECOACH WORKSHOP Our first Brisbane STAGECOACH Workshop was held at the Redlands Country Music Clubrooms September 22-24. The weekend was an AMAZING success - we had such a great time together, worked extremely hard and achieved SO MUCH! The Brisbane ‘Class of 2006’ are:
We formed a special bond over the weekend and new friendships were forged which I hope will last a lifetime. One of the great joys of teaching is that as I teach I learn so much from my students and to be in the company of these special young Australians was indeed a privilege. They are working as a team already! Sinead and Lance are helping Kimber with her charts for her shows in Broken Hill this weekend. When Liam sent me a thankyou note last week he said he no longer feels alone in his music career. He now has all of us in his support team he can call on anytime he needs some advice or help, or even if he just wants to chat to a friend. Liam is a great guitarist and writer and he now knows what a terrific voice he has too. Jeanie is going to add some of her original songs to her repertoire, sitting on a stool playing guitar and singing with her beautiful ‘folk’ voice. We all wait with bated breath to hear how the audience reacts to them. I KNOW her audiences will LOVE them as they finally get to see the real Jeanie on stage. She’s also going to call Paul and Lance to see if she can do some shows with the “Wild Ride Band”. Melanie has returned to Clermont to organise some regular jam sessions. She had never been involved in a ‘jam’ until the workshop and she grabbed the opportunity with both hands, singing backup vocals and joining in anyway she could. The long trip to Brisbane also heralded Melanie’s first plane flight. It was a weekend of many ‘firsts’ for this talented 14 year old. I’m looking forward to sitting in on one of Melanie’s jam sessions when I go up to Clermont (hopefully) next year! As the bass player/vocalist with the “Bushfire Band”, it took a lot of courage for Tracey to put her instrument down and take centre stage just with a microphone in her hand. We discovered that behind that bass was a fabulous looking lady with a fabulous voice – and a great songwriter to boot! Lance not only brought to the workshop his incredible talent as a singer, guitarist and drummer but his wonderful personality and sense of humour (and unique perception on life) for which we are all eternally grateful. He and Sinead sang duets together for the first time and the combination of their voices is very special indeed! Thanks to Kimber’s encouragement Lance made great progress in his performance of love songs. We eagerly await our next journey to the ‘Planet Lance’… What an amazing girl is ‘our’ Kimber! The story of her journey across the world with her two babies from the American South to Australia is an inspiration to us all. She is one hell of a singer and one hell of a lady who deserves every success we can help her to achieve. I first saw Sinead perform at Queensland Champion of Champions last year. VERY occasionally a talent appears that is so special it sends a shiver down your spine. Sinead has a unique talent. She sings like an angel, plays guitar and piano and writes songs. She is also an extremely nice person who worked very hard all weekend not only on her performance skills but was there to help everyone else in anyway she could. My sincere thanks to Paul Wilson who worked so hard from the ‘Queensland end’ to make the workshop happen and was my ‘world class’ personal assistant for the weekend. Lucy and Walter Coassin did a wonderful job of catering and generally looking after us all. Thankyou both so VERY much and thankyou for welcoming me so warmly into your home. The ‘Coassin Motel’ is the best I’ve ever stayed in! Also, thanks to Walter for his fantastic bass playing in our jam sessions. What a terrific team we are! I’m so grateful to be able to welcome all these new members to the STAGECOACH Family. I know I’ll have many opportunities to be a very proud ‘Auntie Dee’ as I follow the progress of these gifted young performers in the future. Is it June already ? 2006 is thundering along at a ridiculous pace … it will be Christmas again in a minute ! The last few months have been filled with planning and fine tuning STAGECOACH in readiness for the first workshops. Thanks to all of you who have expressed interest in doing the workshops. I can’t wait to work with you. WINDSOR COUNTRY MUSIC SPECTACULAR & THE ‘WAGNER’ AWARDS … One of the projects I’ve been busy with was the staging of the first Windsor Country Music Spectacular & ‘Wagner’ Awards which were presented on June 3. The night was a wonderful success ! A capacity crowd packed the Windsor Function Centre to enjoy a night of fabulous entertainment and to see the Awards presented by our very special guest Joy McKean. The winners of the 2006 ‘Wagner’ Awards for Outstanding Contributions to Australian Country Music are : Group - The Feral Swing Katz Individual - Charley Boyter Family - The Chambers Family Stui French accepted the award for ‘The Ferals’ and he and Camille Te Nahu performed on the show. It’s the first time I’ve seen Camille and Stui on stage together and WOW ! I’m impressed, and those who know me know that I’m not easily impressed … they work so well as a team and Camille’s voice is to die for. Stui French is not only an amazing guitarist but a great singer too. I’m a fan ! Charley Boyter was thrilled to receive his award from his friend Joy McKean. Charley toured with Joy and Slim as the lead guitarist in ‘The Travellin’ Country Band’ for many years and played on many of Slim’s hit recordings including “Leave him in the Longyard”, “Duncan” and “Walk a Country Mile”. Charley was born in Windsor and it was a pleasure to see his valuable contribution to Australian Country Music recognised in his hometown. Bill Chambers not only accepted the Family Award on behalf of Diane, Kasey and Nash but he performed two spots AND played in the band backing all the other artists during the entire show ! Although I was officially the stage manager, I crept on stage to sing “Grandfather Johnson” for Joy and was thrilled when the beautiful sounds of Bill’s steel wrapped around my voice. Speaking of the band … WOW again. They were fantastic ! Duncan on lead, Malcolm on drums, Simon on bass and of course Bill on ALL his instruments, together with their great backing vocals – “The Country Allstars” which we named them were brilliant – thanks SO much gentlemen ! Tracey Lee and Nikki of Sweeneykilleen were as gorgeous and as brilliant as ever. What great entertainers these girls are becoming ! I first met Tracey Lee and Nikki at the College of Country Music and I’m SO proud of them, not only professionally but also personally. Keep doing what you’re doing girls ‘cause you’re doing it right … Amber Lawrence and Amos Morris completed the bill and wowed the audience with their exciting fresh talents. A late inclusion in the program proved to take us all by surprise … the boys from Tall Timbre. What amazing voices these boys have – we’ll be hearing a lot more from them … watch this space ! A HUGE thank you to all involved in making the night such a great success. We are already planning our next Country Music event in Windsor so I’ll keep you posted ! THE BIRTHDAY BASH A great night was had by all as you can see from these pics …. CATCHING UP WITH BEC On the night of my actual birthday I went to see Beccy perform with Adam Harvey at The Richmond Club. Bec was absolutely brilliant and I was VERY proud. Here’s the crew meeting the star … OLD MATES & NEW FRIENDS One of the best things about getting the website up and running is that I’ve renewed contact with some old mates – Stui Lees and Helen Stewart from The Dalton Gang have emailed and we’ve been chatting after far too long ! I’ve found some wonderful memories of our days touring together which are now in the gallery … I’ve also heard from Steve from the “On the Buses” fanclub in Manchester UK who emailed asking me of memories of my days working with Reg Varney. What fun this is ! Take care of each other, Deniese Howdy Folks! It’s taken me a little while to post my first entry in “News, Views & Do’s” as I’ve been a bit busy with unexpected stuff ! It’s ironic that I ended “MY STORY” with “who knows where the next 37 years will take me …” Little did I know how the following TWO WEEKS would pan out!!! I’ll spare you all the gory details but I’m home from hospital after emergency surgery to remove two very large tumors and all my “girlie bits” – MUCH PAIN!!! I now have to rest for 4-6 weeks. I’m not allowed to drive, do housework (such a shame…) and definitely not allowed to bounce around on stage for a while. My heartfelt thanks go to Dr Russell Hogg and his wonderful team at Westmead Hospital. They are not only incredibly talented surgeons, but REALLY nice people who helped me through this ordeal with compassion and understanding. Thankyou too to ALL my family, both blood relatives and ‘adopted’ who were with me every step of the way. It was a VERY scary time for us all and I promise not to frighten you like this EVER again! Thankyou Rob and Col for gathering Dan up to stay at your house so he could catch the train to Uni AND be extremely well fed. Thanks for washing my nighties too! Dan got his licence while I was in hospital so guess who’s driving Mum around during her convalescence??? When things like this happen it makes us realise how lucky we are to have people in the world who love and care about us. I’m a very lucky girl. On to much happier things …. I received my copy of the double DVD set – “SLIM DUSTY LIVE” this week. Dan and I feel VERY privileged to be a part of this wonderful collection of previously unreleased footage of Slim and all the team of the Slim Dusty Show. I say “Dan and I” because I was six months pregnant with Dan when I performed with Slim, Joy, Heather, Anne, Gordon Parsons and the Travelin’ Country Band at Mike Walsh’s Theatre in Richmond in 1987. This is an amazing DVD and such an important testament to Slim and Joy’s enormous contribution to the cultural heritage of Australia. ANOTHER must have for Country and Pop fans alike is Nick Erby’s “COME BACK AGAIN” CD – and not JUST because I’m on it! It’s a terrific collection of pop and rock songs which we ‘country kids’ have recorded and again it’s great to be in such talented company. Anne Kirkpatrick sings “Come Back Again”, which I love and then there’s Adam Harvey, Troy Cassar-Daley & Tommy Emmanuel, Willie Nelson & Waylon Jennings, Dolly Parton, Alan Jackson and Johnny Chester. It’s a really fun CD and a great listen ! GREAT NEWS !!! BOB WINS A ‘MO’ !!! My dear friend BOB HOWE won the ‘MO’ Award for Variety/Instrumental Performer earlier this month !!! It’s been a long time coming for Bob and VERY much deserved. Not only is Bob a fabulous entertainer in his own right but THE BEST backing muso in Oz. Bob has backed me SO many times over the years and it’s so comforting when he’s in the band because you know it will ALWAYS be right. Historical Note: Bob’s beautiful wife Karen has also been a LONG TIME friend. Karen managed my career in the eighties and worked with Nick Erby and me on lots of projects including the Lone Star Café. I take the credit for getting Karen and Bob together – well, I introduced them anyway… Congratulations to you both! Bob and Karen work so hard together and it’s wonderful to see their efforts recognised. Bob has a new CD too – ‘GO WEST’ which features Bob’s superb guitar playing – add this one to your collection. You can contact Bob and Karen at – www.bobhowe.com and www.shownet.com.au That’s about it for this month. Next month heralds a rather significant birthday for this little black duck. The celebrations commence the week before at Easter with a get together with Louise (who, I must point out, is 10 days older than me !). Louise and Karan are coming up from Melbourne and the gang is gathering for our combined Birthday Bash. I’ll be sure to get lots of pics to share with you after the event. On the 21st luck would have it that Beccy and Adam are performing locally so I’ll be entertained by the best for my birthday – I can’t wait ! Please take care of each other, D. |
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Copyright ©
Deniese Morrison 2006. All Rights Reserved. |
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