Gore celebrated the winners of the 2019 New Zealand Country Music Awards last night.
Jenny Mitchell received the Recorded Music NZ Best Country Music Artist | Te Kaipuoro Tuawhenua Toa Tui and Holly Arrowsmith was recognised with the APRA Best Country Song for ‘Slow Train Creek’, plus Kerryn Fields won the MLT Songwriting Award with ‘Mama’.
Gore’s own Jenny Mitchell began her career as a teenager and has since released two albums. Tonight she adds a Tui to her trophy cabinet, which already features MLT Songwriting and Gold Guitar Awards.
In the past 18 months, Jenny’s sophomore album Wildfire entered at #4 on the Official NZ Music Charts within weeks of release.
Holly Arrowsmith won a folk Tui for her first album For The Weary Traveller in 2016. Since then, she crowdfunded her second album A Dawn To Remember, which was recorded in New Zealand with renowned producer Ben Edwards. This year, she’s the recipient of the 2019 APRA Best Country Song award for her track ‘Slow Train Creek’.
Kerryn Fields won the MLT Songwriting Award after performing her song ‘Mama’ against a number of other writers including Tami Neilson, Jenny Mitchell and Kendall Elise Todd.
Finalists for Recorded Music NZ Best Country Music Album
WINNER: Jenny Mitchell – Wildfires
Jamie McDell – Extraordinary Girl
Tami Neilson – Sassafrass!
Finalists for APRA Best Country Music Song
WINNER: Holly Arrowsmith – ‘Slow Train Creek’
Jamie McDell – ‘Paint On A Sign’
Tami Neilson – ‘Manitoba Sunrise at Motel 6’