Awards roll in for young musicians

BIG FUTURE: Karly-Jewel Gordon won the junior gospel and junior country rock, and took out the best junior overall at the Aotearoa Country Music Awards last weekend. Picture by Paul Rickard

The accolades and awards have been coming in sweeter than Tupelo honey for members of the Gisborne Country Music Club, who performed in the Aotearoa Country Music Awards at Palmerston North's Globe Theatre last weekend.

Convener Flo Pahuru said 17 contestants and 14 supporters made the trip over on Friday, and a group and three duos performed in several line-ups, including gospel, western, old time, duos and songwriting.

“We play country music which covers a lot of different branches,” Ms Pahuru said.

“We went on Friday and most of us returned on Sunday afternoon after the finals. They had auditions on Saturday when they were judged, and then the finalists performed on the Sunday.”

Ms Pahuru said 14 of the performers went through to the finals — a phenomenal effort.

“Some of the participants entered two or three sections, such as solo, gospel and old time.”

“In the junior section Karly-Jewel Gordon took out junior gospel and junior country rock, and she also won the best junior overall,” Ms Pahuru said.

“That takes her to the New Zealand Country Music Entertainer of the Year 2023, which is in October next year.”

Singer Karly-Jewel is 11 and has a huge future ahead of her.

“We have a circuit and these were the first awards on the circuit,” Ms Pahuru said.

The awards kept coming for the local club, with 16-year-old Taylah Kingi, who entered her first award. Another singer, Taylah came runner up in the intermediate solo and took out intermediate runner-up overall.

And in the senior section, Destiny Pahuru came runner-up in senior solo and took out the overall runner-up.

Rae Carton in the veterans (55+) won the solo New Zealand song, came runner-up in the country rock and gospel, and won the overall veteran award, also qualifying for the New Zealand Country Music Entertainer of the Year 2023. Ms Carton is a Gisborne club member but she lives in Hastings.

“We did have others who performed for their first time and did really well,” Ms Pahuru said.

Another performer who got a feather in her cap was Hope Harrison-Brown, who won the highest points for any non-finalist.

“Congratulations to everyone who went along.”

The club was once one of the biggest in New Zealand with the most young people performing, and Ms Pahuru said she hoped these awards would encourage more youngsters to join.

The Gisborne Country Music Club meets twice a month, and their doors are always open for aspiring and more polished performers to let the good times roll.