This year, for the first time in more than a decade, neither Taylor Cairns nor Kayla Mahon will contest the Gold Guitar Awards. It's a by-product of success.
You see, once you've won the Gold Guitar Awards - as did Taylor, Kayla and Lana Mackay last year under the moniker E-Liza - you are unable to defend your title.
Even if Taylor and Kayla hadn't claimed last year's supreme title, the recent release of their self-titled debut album, The Heartleys, likewise would have ruled them out of contention.
Still, the pair will be performing in Gore this weekend, at a showcase tomorrow afternoon followed by a guest appearance during the senior finals later that night.
Last night, they played two songs at the New Zealand Country Music Awards, their brief set including Facing the World, for which they reached the final three of the Australasian Performing Rights Association (APRA) Best Country Song Award.
Held as part of the Gold Guitars event, the national awards ceremony also included the Recording Institute of New Zealand (RIANZ) Best Country Music Album section (otherwise known as a Tui), won this year by Auckland-based Canadian artist Tami Neilson for Red Dirt Angel. The APRA prize was claimed by Wellington's Jess Chambers for Stringing Me Along.
Both Taylor and Kayla were unaware of the results earlier this week (they were only made public late last night). Regardless of the outcome, the elevation of Facing the World, a track co-written with Queenstown-based Andrea Cruickshank, has fuelled a desire to hone their songwriting chops.
"I was blown away when I got the phone call from APRA," Kayla recalls. "I was so excited and rang Taylor straight away. We didn't expect it and felt very honoured to be in the top three of New Zealand.
"It was a huge achievement for us, but also for Andrea. She is a fantastic and experienced songwriter; she guided us and wrote this song with us about our musical journey together."
And what a journey it has been. Taylor was 5 when she first met a 9-year-old Kayla, who had turned up at the Cairns' household for music tuition under the guidance of Taylor's dad, Peter.
Back then, in the mid-'90s, Steffi Graf beat Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in the longest women's final of the French Open tennis championship.
Why mention that sporting effort? Well, the music business, too, is often a feat of endurance, one occasionally punctuated by a burst of success.
As of last Saturday, The Heartleys' song No Man's Land, apparently about a shortage of available men in Southland, was sitting at No 24 (up four places from the previous week) on the Australian Country Tracks Top 30.
The position on the chart, which is compiled from radio airplay, reflects the song's high rotation on Australia country radio stations.
The pair learned of their chart entry while returning to Gore following a performance at the Country Rocks festival in the Bay of Islands, a visit that included a stop in Auckland, where they appeared on TV One's Good Morning programme.
"We are so excited," Taylor says. "It's so weird because we don't live over there ... Hopefully, we can go over there and do some stuff."
In fact, Taylor (18) and Kayla (23) have already done some stuff across the ditch. At the end of last year, following a decision to pair up as The Heartleys, they headed to the Blue Mountains, near Sydney, and recorded their 12-song debut album.
Produced by Roger Corbett, formerly of The Bushwackers, and featuring a host of talented session players, including a cameo by leading Australian country guitarist Bill Chambers, father of popular songwriters Kasey and Nash, the album is a mixture of originals, covers and collaborative efforts.
"We did a lot of writing and tried to get a bank of songs that would be appropriate," Taylor explains. "There are a couple of originals on there but we are quite new to songwriting. It is definitely something we are doing heaps of. We can only get better. We've been co-writing with heaps of experienced people."
Though the couple confirm a taste for the "pop-country stuff", there are other strains they enjoy, including rock and bluegrass, both of which can be heard seeping through the polished mix in an album that showcases their obvious vocal abilities.
"We've got some songs done by Nashville writers that haven't been cut elsewhere. We got sent quite a few songs. We also wanted to do some songs that people knew," Taylor says.
Hence the inclusion of The Warratahs' single Hands On My Heart and Crowded House's Better Be Home Soon, both of which sit within a collection that is aligned to Nashville's poppier "new country".
Though it's a style far removed from the dirt and grit of an Appalachian porch, there are flourishes of more traditional instruments such as fiddle, banjo and mandolin.
• Harmony is a key component to The Heartleys' sound. Yet to rise and fall in such tight unison sometimes requires a connection beyond the stage. Taylor and Kayla are good friends, as are their respective families.
Taylor: "Our families are pretty close. Kayla and I have also done solo singing but we decided to do this together. It makes things more exciting and it is less nerve-racking doing it together."
Kayla: "It really does help to know each other and each other's families so well. We have the same drive and dream to be professional musicians. It makes it an enjoyable journey when it's with someone who loves your style of music as much as you do."
Initially inspired by her musically inclined grandfather, Kayla has played acoustic guitar since the age of 6 (she also gets out the banjo "occasionally") and can recall entering her first Gold Guitars at the age of 7.
"When I was little I loved Grandad playing and singing country songs and I just wanted to do that as well. I looked up to a lot of people in the country music awards over my years of competing," Kayla says.
"I have a musical family. My grandparents sing and play, my aunty is a great singer and other members play instruments as well. I have always had a supportive family - three older sisters who help out and enjoy our music with us; my parents and partner are wonderful ... They all get excited for us and support us when needed."
Taylor also struggles to recall a time when she wasn't involved in music. Her father, Peter Cairns, a Gold Guitars winner in 1984, had a music studio in the house.
"There were always people coming in and out, learning singing and guitar. My whole family was into it ... I've just always done it, really.
"I was 5 or 6 when I first went along to the country music club," Taylor says. "My performances were probably shocking ... I think I first entered the Gold Guitars when I was 7. I've won the junior and intermediate sections and, last year with Kayla, the senior.
"It's weird not competing this year. It's the first time in 10 years. Now we are seeing the other side of it, just going along. We'll be promoting our CD, but we won't have anyone judging us."
What next? It seems to be a recurring theme in the song-cycle of the pair. The decision to record a debut album was prompted by their Gold Guitars success last year (Kayla also won the runner-up prize with Lana Mackay for their duet performance, as well as the female solo vocal title). Now that the album is out, it's time to do some more work.
"Recording an album is the easy part," Taylor says. "You then have to get out and promote yourselves. We have had so much support from the community and that's the good thing about living in a small town: everyone is aware of what we're doing and is helping us."
Taylor's mum, Shona Hewlett, is the duo's New Zealand manager, though they have a publicist and manager in Australia. Their album is an independent release, but they have a deal with New Zealand company Southbound to distribute it both here and in Australia.
"We've got a few opportunities coming up that are confidential at the moment. Every day we are thinking about what we can do next. In this industry you've got to be motivated ... but we are having heaps of fun in the process."
Plans include chasing funding for a video to accompany Facing the World. As Taylor says, "Now that our song is on the charts [in Australia], it is important for us to have a video over there. It is quite an expensive process, but we need a video."
In the meantime, life goes on. Having finished her studies at Gore High School last year, Taylor now works at her dad's music shop in Gore; Kayla is a registered nurse who, thanks to understanding colleagues, manages to juggle shift-work at Gore Hospital to fit in with her gigs.
However, both see a time when they'll have to pack their bags for an extended stay elsewhere.
"We'll always call Gore home, but we are going to have to move somewhere, even if it is temporary," Taylor says.
"We may end up having to go to Australia. We are just trying to do whatever we can. We've sent out stuff to New Zealand radio stations in the last week. If we can get on the charts in Australia, I guess it helps. It's another credential. It's all about trying."
Gore may be home to an annual week-long celebration of country music (this year's event has attracted more than 500 entries, a record), but Taylor is all too aware others view the genre in a different light.
"People do have this idea in their heads that country music is all 'old-school', with people wearing cowboy hats and tassels. We are not like that at all.
"When we went to Australia, we were amazed. There were so many young people involved. They have quite a young market over there. It is hard over here, but we hope we can change people's perspectives."
