The Tamworth Songwriters Association (TSA) Salute and Awards night will have a change of venue for 2024, taking place at Moonshiners Honky Tonk Bar in Tamworth. The annual event will be held on Tuesday the 23rd of January and will present a gala concert as well as the official ceremony for the TSA Awards.
TSA’s motto has always been “First the song!” and these awards are a true reflection of this long-term desire and aim to promote the craft of dedicated songwriting and composing in the Australian Country Music scene.
Event organiser and current president of TSA, Duncan Hill, says that the awards are now steeped in history, “Since 1984 the TSA Awards were originally held over 2 nights at the Tamworth Workers Club. One night was for the “Amateur” awards the other for the “Professional” Awards professional being released songs through labels.”
The competition has since grown and expanded, and now features 14 different categories for entry. Winners are not announced until the awards evening so it’s an excellent opportunity to be a part of the action.
“The TSA has been a fantastic platform for emerging artists,” says Mr Hill, “These Awards have been greatly valued by the winners in the past and continue to be so as they are very difficult to win.”
“The Judges come from a wide background within the Country Music world and are selected because of their relative genre experience as songwriters, performers, radio hosts, producers and teachers and have no commercial or other interest in the awards.”
The evening will feature live performances from some of the previous winners of last year’s awards, with the line up so far including Amy Ryan, Matt Scullion, Virginia Coad, Jason Freckleton, The Two-Tone Pony Band, Shelly Jones Band, Craig Lloyd, and Blake Dantier.
For those who have attended in previous years, the change of venue from the Gnoo Gnoo Room at the Longyard Hotel is expected to bring some positive changes to the overall atmosphere of the event.
“We changed venue as we are a fairly quiet event compared with the other events at the Longyard some of which occur at the same time as ours… in the interest of artists who we have requested to play on our awards show, and the audience we have located to a new venue thanks to the Pub Group,” says Mr Hill, “We also see an advantage with Moonshiners as the seating will be theatre type and not as spread out as the Gnoo Gnoo room is.”
When asked what attendees can expect from the evening, Mr Hill says, “We start at 7 pm with a short dedication to a Songwriter who has passed away during the last 12 months and then have alternating artists and presentations until the final award is presented at approximately 10 pm.”
Moonshiners is located within the Family Hotel so food and drink will be available for purchase. Seating is designed to be relatively informal theatre style seating and people are welcome to move around during the event.
For more information about the TSA Salute or to book tickets visit the official event Facebook page. For more information about TSA or to become a member, visit their website.
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