A Country Star is Born

Westport is a long way from Nashville, but that doesn’t stop west coasters from appreciating country music.  This weekend is the annual Buller Gorge Country Music Festival which is taking place just down the road from Westport in Rose’s favorite town, Carter’s Beach.  So, we had to go check it out.

One of the unexpected perks of our furnished rental is a big stack of old country CDs.  We are talking songs from the 1950s, 60s and, if we are lucky, the 1970s.  And because there’s not much radio and our car doesn’t accommodate an iPod, we’ve listened to a lot of these CDs.  As kids are wont to do, they’ve soaked up some of the songs such that they’ve mastered the words and, mostly, the pitch as well.  We’ve taken to singing a bunch of these at home including classics like King of the Road, Seven Spanish Angels, and Satin Sheets.  It’s pretty hilarious to hear Rose belting out the line, “I don’t pay no union dues….”

The Festival offered a chance to take the next step: performing on  stage.  We went to check things out yesterday and found that there was an enthusiastic, if aged, crowd.  We probably lowered the average age from 78 to 76 by our presence.  What’s more, the organizers welcomed the idea of having kids perform.

Initially the plan was for all three girls to perform a couple of songs together, but shyness got the better of two out of the three.  So, we signed up a solo act for the open session this morning:

This meant that our performer would not only be up on stage, but would have the house band backing her up.  Here they are sound checking before things got going:

Then our little star got up with the help of the band and a certain local guitar player and sung her heart out, doing a superb version of The Tennessee Waltz.  The crowd, including her two sisters, loved it.

Afterwards, backstage, an old performer both complimented Hazel on her performance and chastised her dad for allowing her to use a music stand and notes (which reduced her connection to the audience).  Old ladies were falling over themselves to come give her words of encouragement and the announcer told us that she got the loudest ovation of all of the performers so far.  Yet another old-timer passed her a small booklet on singing.

Hazel certainly basked in the kind attention and this taste of performing means it was her first country performance, but not her last.