A Nick and Aaron story
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Nick and Aaron in the aicmStudio where all the creative work is done. |
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Who's congratulating who? |
AICM member and local singer/musician Nick Aitken will soon be able to add songwriter to his title description if Aaron Partridge has anything to do with it. Their song Country Town was entered in the Redcliffe Country Music Club's recent songwriting competition where it was awarded first place. One of the judges commented that "it is a catchy, well thought out song with great commercial potential. You have great potential as songwriters."
The song's success is not only limited to Queensland. It was also entered in the open songwriting section of the Top of the State Talent Quest at the 2009 Mildura Country Music Festival where it was awarded a second prize.
Nick has been writing songs since his time at Gympie High's Country Music School of Excellence but it wasn't until Aaron started working with the AICM and began to mentor Nick and his songwriting that the potential came to the fore.
Aaron has had wide experience in the music industry prior to coming to Gympie and is excited to be able to mentor young people as talented as Nick. Together they have written and recorded four songs and Nick hopes to have an EP ready for release at Tamworth 2010.
"It is great to be able to work with young people as talented as Nick" said Aaron, "He has a knack of being able to come up with a catchy hook which is very important in the commercial music industry. We look forward to some success with the songs we are writing together."
A new piano
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Kinderbeat student Imogen Wilson with keyboard teacher Di Cross trying out the new piano. |
Thanks to a grant of $2000 from the Gympie Rotary Club, a new piano was recently purchased for the Auditorium. The includion of a piano in the the building will encourage community groups and organisations to use the venue. Already the Cooloola Community Orchestra and the Kinderbeat groups are using the venue on a weekly basis with a couple of other organisations making representations to to do the same.
Many thanks to the Rotary club for their vision with regards their donation.
String Festival
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Ellen Smith performing on cello at the String Festival. Ellen also plays bass guitar in the AICM group Country Kids Rock. |
The Cooloola Community Orchestra held a very successful String Festival in the Auditorium on Sunday October 11th. More than 40 young players ranging in age from 5 to 17 performed on the stage.
The Festival gives students the opportunity to perform in a non-competitive environment and receive a trophy as a momento of the experience. For many, it was their first expereince of a live performance.
Congratulations to all involved in the organisation of the Festival and we look forward to more such gatherings.
Click here for more photos from the String Festival
The Bandicoots do Craig
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The young-uns The Bandicoots with Jake Reid performing the Craig Morrison song Miss You at the RSL. |
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The not so young-uns It takes all ages to make an AICM night at the Gympie RSL |
AICM performed again at the Gympie RSL on the first Wednesday of October and featured members, young and not so young.
From the young perspective, a high point was the Bandicoots doing the Craig Morrison hit Miss You for the first time by themselves. They backed Craig at the Muster but for local consumption, 11 year old bass player Jake Reid did the vocal honours.
Close to twenty members of the Monday night adult learners group also took the opportunity of performing on stage in a commercial venue, and interestingly, a number of them did so for the first time. We are very thankful to the RSL for making these opportunities available.
Click here to view more photos from the RSL.
Trip of a lifetime to Twang Town USA
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Some of the things you will see on the 2010 AICM recording tour to Nashville TN - The Bell South Tower and the Hard Rock Cafe on Broadway. |
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The Ernest Tubb Record Shop on Broadway, Nashvile TN |
Interested in a trip of a lifetime to Twang Town USA to record some of your songs in a Nashville studio using Nashville session musicians.
The AICM is organising a trip in 2010 to Nashville for people who would like to record in the city. The tour will be two weeks long and include a weekend in Memphis on the way over and a day at Disneyland on the way back.
Given sufficient numbers, the tour will be led by AICM manager (and regular Nashville visitor) Dr Geoff Walden and AICM studio engineer Aaron Partridge. All arrangements for studio time and session musicians will be made prior to leaving and Nashville contact for all of this side of things will be resident and ex-pat Aussie, Mark Moffatt.
If you are interested in being part of this tour, contact either Geoff Walden or Aaron Partridge by email of phone us on 07 5481 2355.