Urban, Cole win more Golden Guitars

01 February 2012

by Christie Eliezer

Keith Urban and Beccy Cole won two Golden Guitars each at the Tamworth country music awards. Urban got best male and best selling album (Get Closer). Cole’s were for female artist and vocal collaboration for Millionaires with Kasey Chambers.

Adam Harvey who had lead the nominations with eight, went home with just one — album of the year (Falling Into Place).

Other winners were Jetty Road (group), Catherine Britt (single for Sweet Emmylou), Shane Nicholson (song, for Bad Machines), O'Shea (new talent), Davidson Bros (instrumental, for OMFG), Mark Punch (musician), Ted Howard (engineer), Matt Fell (producer), The Bushwackers (heritage, for I Am Australian), and Sara Storer & Kev Carmody, and video maker Duncan Toombs (best video, for Children Of The Gurindji).

Anne Kirpatrick rounded off the night with an emotional performance of Looking Forward, Looking Back, written by Don Walker and made famous by her father Slim Dusty.

The awards were centerpiece for the 40th Tamworth country music festival, which drew 50,000 over ten days, and acclaimed as the best so far by Tamworth mayor Col Murray. More aggressive marketing saw many first-timers attend and increased trade for local businesses, he added.