19th Annual Top of the South Country Music Awards

JamesRAy attended the on August 30th and 31st in Motueka and came away with:

• '2003 Top of the South Entertainer of the Year'
• Senior Male Gospel
• Senior Male
• Senior Country Rock
• Senior Traditional (runner up)

Runner-up for the 'Entertainer of the Year' award was Angela Coles. It was a fantastic weekend with wonderful talent and an incredible group of organisers. Thanks have to go out to the Showband (Reckless) and audition band (Rimshot) - it's a tough and tiring job!Dawn Gubb who was the 2002 Overall Winner put on a great show with some all-time favorite singalong songs.

Norfolk Island Country Music Festival

Held 18th - 24th May 2003 at Norfolk Island. JamesRAy was awarded:

• '2003 Trans-Tasman Entertainer of the Year'

It took a while to get there ~ high winds and rain prevented leaving Auckland until Tuesday instead of Sunday but it was well worth the wait. Judges; Kathy LeCren (Norfolk), Susan Jarvis (Australia), and Mario Logan (New Zealand) really had their work cut out for them as the talent performing was of a very high calibre and all entrants impressed the enthusiastic and appreciative audience.

New Zealand took all the awards on the island with Louise Wilson (Gore) and Rawinia Puia (Gisborne) being the other prize-winners. It was a fantastic week with many performances from past winners as well as an impressive line-up of bands including The Silverados, Galley Slaves, The Flood and Wild Turkey. Visiting guest artists and bands from Australia were a huge hit and continued to entertain at the after-show functions while New Zealand entertainers; Dennis Marsh and Brendan Dugan left everyone wanting more.

Sun City Country Music Awards

JamesRAy attended the on Feb 28th-March 2nd 2003 in Nelson, New Zealand and won an armfull of awards:

• Senior overall
• Male oldtime
• Male vocal
• original song
• Senior country rock
• Runner-up - male gospel

Judges included some of New Zealand's most influential within the music industry including; Suzanne Prentice, Brendan Dugan, Gray Bartlett, Ray Columbus, Arthur Basting and Jodi Vaughan. Australia's most noted Country Music event organizers and promoters included; Max Ellis and John Arnold.

Due to the caliber of the judges, JamesRAy was honored to have won the awards and remarked that this awards show was "One of the most professional and multi-talented events that I've had the pleasure of being a part of."

It was a fantastic weekend with well over 466 performances and a crowd of around a thousand at the final concert on Sunday. Visiting guest artists from Australia were a huge hit and continued to entertain at the after-show function. Part of JamesRay's prize is a trip to Mildura, Australia this September for 8 full-on days of Country music where he plans to showcase some of his new original music.

2002 ACMA 22nd ANNUAL COUNTRY MUSIC AWARDS

Here are some of the judges' comments:

• "Plenty of energy in your performance. Good working of the audience"
• "Good entertainer - well done, enjoyed your enthusiasm"
• "Great entertainment. Well done!"
• "Excellent!"
• "Entertainment value 'bloody marvelous. Good to see you using everything you've got"

2002 NZCMA ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR

Here are some of the judges' comments:

• "Fun, funky, tight, enjoyable, professional, good stuff"
• "Very entertaining act"
• "Good voice, power and projection. Great with the audience. Entertainment"
• "Lively and very up. Got me toe-tapping"