Auckland singer wins album Tui

Aucklander Tami Neilson walked away with the 2009 Recording Industry Association of New Zealand Best Country Music Album award at the St James Theatre, Gore, last night.

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Heralding the business end of the week-long Gold Guitars Awards in Gore, which culminate tomorrow night, the New Zealand Country Music Awards ceremony also included the Australasian Performing Rights Association Best Country Song award, won by Wellington singer-songwriter Jess Chambers.

Neilson, a Canadian who has lived in Auckland for the past three years, claimed the Tui for her album, Red Dirt Angel, released in April 2008.

The other album finalists were Annette & Kim for Something Between Us and Kylie Austin for When It Rains.

Neilson, who will also be acknowledged at the New Zealand Music Awards (Tuis) in Auckland in October, is a prolific artist and performer, touring New Zealand three times last year and also completing a 10-day season in Tamworth with New Zealand fiddle player Marian Burns.

She has also appeared on TV1's Good Morning programme and impersonated controversial soul singer Amy Winehouse on TVNZ's Stars in Their Eyes.

New Zealand Music Awards spokesman Campbell Smith said Neilson's award was well deserved.

"Tami has toured tirelessly since a child," Mr Smith said.

"She is a real asset to New Zealand country music and thoroughly deserves the acknowledgement that a Tui brings."

Neilson's single Cry Myself To Sleep was also a finalist for the APRA Best Country Song Award, won by Chambers for her track, Stringing Me Along, from the 2008 album The Woolshed Sessions, a collaboration with some of New Zealand's most respected independent musicians, including Age Pryor and Lee Prebble.

The other finalists for the APRA award were Gore duo Kayla Mahon and Taylor Cairns (of The Heartleys), who co-wrote Facing The World with Queenstown-based musician Andrea Cruickshank.

Mahon and Cairns performed two songs from their self-titled debut album at the awards ceremony last night.

The musicians said earlier this week the selection of Facing the World in the final three had fuelled a desire to further hone their songwriting skills.