Rewind seven years. Kaylee Bell, an 18-year-old from Waimate, claims the 2007 New Zealand Gold Guitar Award late on a Sunday night at the Gore Town and Country Club.
Significantly, the title came on the back of her performance of an original song, Rose and Rodeo.
Bell has since written many tunes, some of which made it on to her 2010 debut album, Wayward and her sophomore effort, Heart First, which last week earned the singer-songwriter the 2014 New Zealand Best Country Music Album (Tui) Award.
The 25-year-old, who was at Gore's St James Theatre last Friday to collect her Tui, has since flown to Nashville, where she is performing at the prestigious CMA Music Festival, which features more than 400 country-oriented acts on 12 stages.
Speaking from Bathurst, Australia, earlier this week, a day before she left for the United States, Bell seemed fairly relaxed about her forthcoming CMA performance. Then again, she has been singing on stage since the age of 4.
''My older brother, Stewart, and sister Maryann dragged me in. We had been doing the awards circuit since I was 4. Mum and Dad [who still live in Waimate] drove everywhere.''
Bell made the decision to move to Australia three years ago. It wasn't easy, she says, adding she comes home two or three times a year.
''I'll be back again at Christmas. I do a lot of gigs around the rodeo circuit at that time. It's good to see my family, too.
''It was pretty tough leaving. I'd just turned 22 and only knew a handful of people over here. I thought I'd give it six months but things fell into place.
''I had moved to Penrith but it was a pretty rough spot. A flatmate, who I met while studying at the CMAA [Country Music Association of Australia] College of Country Music in 2009, had family in Bathurst, so it made sense to head there.''
It was that experience at the CMAA College which prompted Bell to head back to Waimate and set about making plans to pursue a career in music.
In 2011, on completion of a bachelor in performing arts degree (majoring in musical theatre), she headed to Australia.
''It was a pretty scary thing to do, especially since I was leaving my family and all my friends behind, and knew I couldn't just see them whenever I wanted to. But it was absolutely the right thing, and it's enabled me to take the steps I needed to start building my career.''
On the subject of jobs, Bell has worked more than a few (including in hotels and restaurants) to pay the bills. Music, however, remains her primary focus.
''I was doing my own management for the first two years I moved to Australia, although I have had a lot of help and mentorship from people in the industry.''
A turning point came last year when she won Toyota Star Maker, an event Bell describes as ''probably the most prestigious country music competition in Australia; it kick-started the career of Keith Urban in 1990''.
A finalist in 2011 and 2012, Bell's Star Maker win last year set her up with management, booking agents, video funding, the use of a car (including free fuel) for a year and a package that included a trip to Nashville to write and record an album.
The result: Heart First which, with its focus on polished production, features a string of radio-friendly songs.
''I wanted that big Nashville sound that would transfer to mainstream radio,'' Bell said.
''It was a bit of a step up from Wayward and has been well-received by radio. The first two singles, Heart First and Little Bit Small Town, made the top 3 in the country charts in Australia.''
A third single, Just A Little Crazy, released to radio this week, is not dissimilar to the others in its approach. Electric guitar, organ and drums are high in the mix.
''I was after those great wee guitar riffs that someone like Keith Urban does,'' Bell said.
Traditional instruments such as banjo and fiddle do appear in Heart First, in particular in the tracks Breathless and Song Of My Summer, yet the album, overall, is less rustic, more pop-rock.
''I've been singing country since I was 4, so my influences are quite broad,'' Bell explained.
''I love George Strait and Eva Cassidy then, at the other end of spectrum, I love the new stuff as well.
''When I performed Rose and Rodeo at the Gold Guitars in 2007, I was more a singer-songwriter, but as I've grown older I've turned more towards that commercial sound.
''I wanted to have people my own age relate to my songs, so I think they have become more melodic: it's that pop influence, even though I'm still very much country.
''I've been doing a lot of co-writing. The first time I went to Nashville, three years ago, I spent a month there working with people. Then I went for a couple of weeks last year.
''I got to see that side of the Nashville industry, where song-writing is a job. I would spend all day in an office writing with one or two other people. It was very tiring writing day in and day out. It was a real eye-opener, but it was such a good experience.''
Yet Bell acknowledges such a process can also endanger inspiration. A song's initial spark might be edited to the point it is completely lost.
''That was one of the biggest things I learnt. The songs I'm most proud of are the ones that have come in the middle of the night, when you wake up and turn on the tape recorder.
''Even though I spent all that time in Nashville writing, I look back and there are probably only a handful of songs that I love.
"That's probably due to the fact the songs were treated as a job, as opposed to something that comes from the spur of the moment.''
Be there
The New Zealand Gold Guitar Awards are held annually in Gore at Queen's Birthday weekend. The junior and intermediate finals will be held tonight and the senior final tomorrow.
