A Country Star Revisited

Last weekend, crooners young and old from across the South Island converged on Westport for the 29th annual “Best of the West” country music competition.

While entrants competed for prizes and scholarships, it was mostly about seeing a slate of talented amateurs belt out their favorite tunes.  Hazel signed up to compete in 2 categories: Junior Vocals and Junior/Intermediate Old Time.  For these, she chose Satin Sheets (made famous by Jeanne Pruett) and that old classic, The Tennessee Waltz.

The competition was run by the local country music club, so all of the volunteers already knew Hazel and had her name tag ready for her.

She and dad went backstage to get ready for her first performance and found an eye-opening beehive of activity.  There were a bunch of serious performers in very country outfits, parent-managers making sure their little kids were ready and looked the part.  There were also runners, stage hands, the MC, someone to manage the chord sheets for each song and a “rhythm-setter” who worked with each performer to make sure the band played each song at the right tempo.  It was great for both Hazel and dad to see the level of talent and commitment we had stumbled into.  Although she claimed not to be nervous, Hazel’s mouth and mind were both running at a mile  minute.  Nevertheless, she gamely got ready and went out a performed Satin Sheets quite well, if a bit stiffly.

Her second slot wasn’t until the next day, so we had a bit of time to improve on her outfit, talk a bit about connecting with the audience and not being so stiff out on stage.

For the “Old-Time” category, she didn’t have the benefit of the professional back-up band, so she had to settle for a little-known American guitarist.

Despite putting together two good performances, Hazel didn’t advance to the finals in either category.  Truth be told, the other contestants performed on a different level–they combined both strong musical talent with an obvious set of dedication to practicing.  This was great for all of us to see, reminding us that effort and hard work are necessary ingredients to achieving excellence.

Hazel and Leah attended the finals concert Sunday night and got a chance to see the “Best of the West” after a full weekend of competing.  We are already plotting our next songs and dad is trying to figure out a way to get the other two girls up on stage.

As we sat at the breakfast table on Monday morning, our friend and neighbor (who happens to be the Secretary of the local country music club) stopped by to present Hazel with a special award and trophy for being the “Best Local Junior” at the contest.  Full disclosure: she was the only one in the category, but just the same, we are quite proud.