The album Flight from the Inside by Into the East, a duo comprising Liv McBride and Graeme Woller, has been nominated for Best Folk Album at the awards, also known as the Tui Awards.
Originally of Invercargill, McBride and her husband Glenn moved to Lake Hawea in July 2012 with their two sons, Lachie (7) and Xander (4) but ill health forced a return to her hometown about three months ago.
Living in a separate town to long-time musical collaborator Woller meant the pair had to innovate when recording the 12 original songs for the album. It had been a ''labour of love'' that had taken two years to complete.
''Graeme would come up to Wanaka on weekends so we could do concerts together and we got to a point where we were about halfway through the recording process and as we were living in different towns had to be very smart about finishing the album off,'' McBride said. ''We had a portable recording device so in between my younger son sleeping and crop dusters flying overhead we laid down vocal tracks in the wardrobe.
''It was a very crucial time. It was pretty stressful hearing another plane go flying overhead - it seems funny now but it wasn't at the time. I think if anyone was to listen hard enough you would catch a bit of Cemetery Rd street noise and the planes in the background.''
News of the nomination broke about two weeks ago, McBride said.
''We have been buzzing for a couple of weeks but were sworn to secrecy until the official media announcement was released.''
Award winners will be named on January 27 at the Auckland Folk Festival.
''It will be amazing to be able to perform for the Auckland festival crowd. It will be massive exposure and hopefully open a whole bunch of doors.''
