Best in the business

BIT OF EVERYTHING: Ainslie Allen is set to bring her modern country sound to Gisborne tomorrow night. Picture supplied

Ever since her first paid gig performing for Sir Edmund Hillary, singer/songwriter/guitarist Ainslie Allen knew there was no turning back from a career on the stage.

She's bringing her country sounds, an album tour and a great new band to Smash Palace tomorrow night, her first ever headline show in Gisborne.

Ainslie is NZ Country Music Entertainer of the Year and a recent graduate of the 2019 CMAA Academy of Country Music. She's also a seven-time finalist for the NZ Gold Guitar Awards.

Originally from Carterton, Ainslie grew up in Tītahi Bay, but has Rongowhakaata roots and says it is always a treat to get back to her whenua.

“I've never played at Smash before. It looks great,” she said this week.

“I've got a fantastic band. I'm playing my own music and a mix of cool covers.

“I've got Sonny Miti in my band. When I heard him I knew I had to work with him on this tour, it was just one of those things. He has the best country guitar licks in New Zealand.

“And they're all such good musicians. They all play by ear, they're a real treat. These guys are the best in the business.”

Ainslie released her album Betty in November last year and was due to take it on the road earlier this year but Omicron hit and put a stop to that. This is her band's third shot at The Betty Tour, and she says it's third time lucky.

“I'm so thrilled to be able to take my music on the road.”

Betty is named after Ainslie's nan, who was a great supporter of her music.

“I wanted to honour her in some way after she passed in 2015. She was so supportive and when I was on television she used to wear a badge with my face on it.

“She would tell every man and their dog about me, but she didn't want to single me out in front of the other mokos.”

Ainslie says her music has a lot of influences and different genres shine through.

There's a bit of everything in Betty, and if you're looking for a label you could say “country”, but Ainslie says there's much more to it than that.

“It's modern country, it's storytelling to me. There's a little bit of everything in my album. There's bits of pop and folk, I'm sure there'll be a lot that people can relate to.”

Now based in Porirua, Ainslie got her leg up into the industry through Smokefreerockquest in 1996, where she came third nationally and won a scholarship for best female musician.

But music must have been in her blood before that because she wrote her first song at the age of eight.

Since then she's done some weird, wonderful and amazing gigs, but one that stands out — besides playing for Sir Ed when she was 16 — was a performance in East Timor.

“I went to East Timor with Mike King, Brendan Lovegrove, Te Radar, Cal Wilson and Ewen Gilmore . . . I was the only singer and I was the musical interlude. It was a war zone and it was just so surreal. I had my 20th birthday over there.

“I'm so family orientated, everything for me is about my family and everything I do is to make life better for my kids. It's about letting young people know they can reach their goals if they set their minds to it. It's hard work, but it is achievable. Lots of my songs are about that, they're about dreams and reaching your goals.

“I find inspiration all around me, including from my whānau, especially my two sons who inspire me to be a better human. I try to make my music representative of myself. I love the places that music can take you, like a good book, a movie, a journey. Music has to take me somewhere.”

For us in Gisborne, that's Smash Palace tomorrow night.

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