The start of a new year is always exciting as I find myself counting down the days until we are in Tamworth once again. This year was no exception. Arriving in Tamworth on the Thursday afternoon in time to attend the College Graduation night and what a night it was. This was the first year that the College had accepted under 18 year olds and it proved to be a great success.
We certainly missed our farm environment this year as Margaret & Jeff sold the farm, but we were able to find accommodation in a beautiful older style home not far from the main street which was really lovely.
Friday afternoon was my first talent quest for the festival, attending the "Jazzer Quest" held at The Pub, and winning my heat was great - the talent is getting stronger each year and it really makes you realise that country music will continue to grow through the younger generation.

This was only my second year of busking and it has certainly become the thing I love doing most. The quests are great but you don't get the same opportunity to stop and talk like you do when you are busking. I have met some wonderful people and have had so much fun being able to enjoy the day to day excitement in the main street. From my busking I also picked up a gig at the Sydney Royal Easter Show which I am very excited about. This year I had the pleasure of having Jeremy Turner come up and do some busking for a while with me which was fun. Jeremy is a fantastic guitarist and if you get the opportunity to watch one of his performances it is well worth it and I am looking forward to being able to work with him again soon.
My second talent quest was the "Entertainer Of The Year" - the Palmer Brothers were the band for this quest and they were awesome - I achieved "Runner Up" for this quest and I was in awe of the amazing voice of Olivia Hally who was the overall winner –

One of the highlights of the festival was being asked by Gina Timms to perform at her Album Launch and gig on the Saturday night which was also Gina's 40th birthday. Other performers were Beccy Cole, Briana Lee, Ryan Sampson and Fiddle Player Penelope Summerville, performing on stage with such amazing artists was awesome.

My major highlight was my CCMA achievement winning the "Best Young Talent" award and receiving the highest overall junior point score which gave me a second Camerata Scholarship. I am so looking forward to being at the Camerata College with some of the great friends I have met through country music.
To be able to work in an industry that gives me so much joy and allows me to have the flexibility to do what I really love and have people appreciate my music is a blessing and I thank you all very much for all your support.
Returning home from Tamworth was sad as it meant I had to say Goodbye to so many special friends but I look forward to seeing you all again in a few months time.

Cheers from Tori

Wow! What a time I have had over the past few months…..it is now time to settle down as I have Yr. 11 exams coming up and I want to achieve my Yr 11 certificate.

I am still continuing to do my regular monthly gigs at Menangle House which I absolutely love ..plus a few local gigs and quests in and around Sydney...

From being a finalist in the 2007 TRTT I have been performing in a couple of Winners Showcase’s with Kirsty Lee Ackers and Morgan Evans…the most recent being the 16’ Sailing Club at Belmont…this was a great night of entertainment and with a great crowd.

The rest of the month was spent studying and preparing for my exams.
Well I was certainly glad when they were over and I could get back to doing what I love most…My music.
My next big festival was The Parkes Country Music Festival and I had been practicing really hard to master my guitar skills. I had entered the “Australian Country Talent Seekers” quest which is strongly recognized in the country music industry and I really want to excel in this one.
When we were in Caloundra with the Brew family, Liam took me to the Billy Hyde Music shop where I ordered my beautiful new Mini Maton Guitar but there was no guarantee that it would arrive before I left for Parkes as it had to be custom made, especially being a “lefty”.

Well, I got the biggest surprise of my life, I had arrived home from work on the Thursday night before we left for Parkes and when I walked into the Kitchen there was my very special buddy Liam there to greet me…he had flown down from Queensland to surprise me and to present me with my new Mini Maton and then said he was also coming to Parkes to play for me.. I was shocked and surprised …it was wonderful…

Well Parkes was just the best…I won the Australian Talent Seekers Quest and now have my name on the Perpetual Trophy along side, Felicity Urquhart, Dianna Corcoran, Travis Collins, Victoria Bailey and many other well know artists. Liam and I also entered the Duo section and won with our rendition of “Like We Never Loved At All” … What a fabulous weekend…I came home on such a high…..I was just so excited

Keeping you up to date…until next time…..cheers from Tori

August 2007

After the “Hats Off” festival I did a couple of things around home, movie’s with my best friend Paige and mum and me had some fun girly days…shopping? And having a little R and R.

Then it was my 17th birthday, we all went out to dinner to celebrate and I had some of my very close friends over for pizza, movies and a big sleepover…Wow that was fun..

It was then nearly time to be back on the road again for our long journey to Gympie.
I had never been to the Gympie Muster before and we had planned to stay with our great friend “The Brews” who live in Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast and are about an hour away from Gympie. We arrived a few days before the Muster was to start so we had some time just to chill out, spend some time at the beach and do a little practicing. Well the weather was not good to us at all, we had only one day of sunshine and after that well it was all downhill from then. At least it gave Liam and I heaps of time to practice.
We traveled through heavy rain on the Thursday morning to the Amamour State Forest, arriving to see that the Muster was very very muddy, some campsites bordering being flooded with continual rain, rain and more rain and wondered what the rest of the muster would bring.
Rain or no rain we had a fabulous day, Liam won his Country Rock Section which put him into the semi final later in the weekend and I placed third in the Modern Country Section with my rendition of “Anyway” by Martina McBride and “Something More” by Sugarland.
We checked out lots of other talent throughout the day and caught up with all the gang. We were both pretty happy with our wins and we were both to be back the following day for more. Not to be!!! We drove all the way from Caloundra to Gympie to be told that the Mary River had flooded, all the roads were flooded and there were several 4WD’s caught between two rivers. All roads were closed and we were unable to enter the muster. This was so disappointing for all of us, as I was to perform in the Country Rock 2nd Heat but had no way of entry into the forest. We made many phone calls but without any luck.
Once we realized we were not going to get into the muster we drove back to the Brews place and had a day to relax and stay out of the rain.
Saturday morning we were up bright and early in the hope that we might get through, when we arrived at the exit road it was still blocked so we drove, another 1 ½ hours to go around the long way just so we could get into Amamour and try to get in from there.. Once we got there they were only letting large 4WD’s and bus’s in, so we had to think quick…
We parked our car and told the people in charge of the bus that we were performers and we were on stage at 9.30am so they would let us on the bus. It worked and we were on our way….sharing the bus with Diana Corcoran and some of her entourage.
Once into the Muster, we were free to do what we wanted, every corner or spare space had a performance of some sort going on. I took some time out to watch Donna Boyd on the Muster Club Stage and she was awesome, I really loved her concert , Beccy Cole, Adam Harvey, Dianna Corcoran they were all just fantastic. There was just so much to see and still fit in our spots we had. Due to the flooding some artists were not able to get into the muster and missed out on their gigs, therefore rather than having a void on the stage, we were all asked to put together a concert and performed on behalf of the Qld Chanpion of Champions. We had an absolute ball and the crowd were great…..
At the end of the day my good friend Liam Brew took out the 2007 Maton Talent Search…. He did an excellent job and was well deservant of the award. It was party time after that and we were joined by all.
A great finish to the Gumpie Muster

Till next time……Tori

The following week I had my regular monthly gig at Menangle House Horse and Jockey Inn which is a beautiful country style restaurant set on about 12 acres with old dairy sheds, and old sandstock buildings, it is really beautiful. We usually get a good crowd there but the last few months the weather has not been that good. I was excited as I sold a few cd’s, and I also got another private booking from it. These are always good ones to have.

The last week of June I spend getting ready for the “Hats Off” winter festival, making sure all my outfits were clean, my music charts all in order and then getting my bags packed and ready to go, so we were off to Tamworth again. Both Mum and Dad came with me, dad doing most of the driving as mum has a bit of a lead foot, I slept most of the way and mum read her Danielle Steele books which she loves.

We arrived in Tamworth on Thursday 5th July so we could see the Camerata Graduation Concert that night and support some of my good friends who would be in the Camerata concert which was amazing, there was so much young talent and they really did put on a great show.

It was great to be able to catch up with some of my closest friends, to see my buddy Liam again and Jeromy, Chris, Dana and Mitch. Penny came up from Bendigo as she was fiddling with the Palmer Brothers for the CCMA quests so it was also good to spend some time with Pen too. Cheryl, Penny’s mum is a real chatter box, so Mum and Cheryl got on really well.

We stayed out on the farm again with Margaret & Jeff, but unfortunately this was going to be the last time as Jeff has sold the farm and they are going to live in Yamba. This was really disappointing news as I loved being out on the farm with the animals and it has such great memories for me as that is where my Telstra Road To Tamworth Video clip was done for the Competition..

After all the buzz of Camerata the “Hats Off” CCMA talent quest took place, this is only a junior festival so there are no senior that can compete. This year I entered all the junior section apart from the instrumental as I am not quite really for that yet haha…

The sections were gospel, vocal, country rock, duet, group, songwrting, and Australian. I was very excited as it was announced that I was a finalist in the gospel, vocal, songwriting, duet, and group sections, then winning the Gospel Section with my rendition of “Streets Of Heaven”. It was such a surprise but it felt really good at the same time especially as I had my good friend Kris Wason playing for me, so it was pretty special to win this one. But it was my good friend Mitchell King who took out the Overall prize, which was really great as Mitch was turning 18, 2 days after the festival was over.

The weekend was overall a heap of fun and we got by with the cold weather, I had decided to do a little busking as I had so much fun busking in January, however it was pretty cold and some days I could not even feel my fingers. It was good that the “Inland Café” closed at 6pm in the winter months because it would be just to cold at night.

Again it was sad to say goodbye to all my friends, but at least I knew it would not be long before I saw some of them again as we were all heading up to Gympie for the Gympie Muster in August.
I suppose the highlight for me this time was being photographed on the front page of the Tamworth Leader, which was taken whilst I was busking outside “The Inland Café” .

It’s three months now since you have heard from me and what I have jammed into that time is short of amazing.

After returning home from the Urban Country Music festival it was back to school and all the mundane things that we teenagers do. My best friend Paige has left school and is studying childcare at TAFE, I miss her so much, we always had such fun at school and talked together for hours. Caitlin is my other best friend but we don’t live round the corner from each other either, so getting together on the weekends doesn’t happen that often, especially as I am away so much.

Well my birthday was a couple of months away and I knew that mum had a special surprise for me but I had no idea of what it might have been.

Mum rang me from work during the day and said we were going out for tea and she would have to leave early. We don’t normally eat early so I thought it was very unusual and wondered what my mum and dad were up to. We drove in towards the city still not knowing where I was going to end up. To my biggest surprise we ended up at the Entertainment Centre for me to see performing live one of my most favoured and influential artists – yes it was Keith Urban and what a concert – he had me dancing on my seat – mum says I had a grin from ear to ear. I was just so excited and unfortunately the night had to end. But what a concert!!!

At the end of the week I was heading off again, this time to Newcastle to perform in the Telstra Road to Tamworth Winners Performance Show where I was performing with Morgan Evans, Kirsty Lee Ackers, Amber Lawrence and Sharnee Fenwick. I actually got to spend some time with these very talented artists and got to know them on a more personal level. Kirsty Lee got talking about School Spectacular and what it did for her so it was good to get some inside information.

Over the next few weeks we had a pretty hectic time, with singing lessons, guitar lessons, local talent quests finals and grand finals and still trying to fit school in as well was pretty full on.. By this time I had come to realize that I really did not want to be at school anymore and I wanted to pursue my music career but not at school, mum was not too happy about this decision and wanted me to hang in till the end of the year to see what my thoughts were then. Needless to say I did not win (then).

James my Guitar teacher has been teaching me guitar now for just on 6 months and I am finally starting to feel comfortable with my guitar. James is young but he has been playing guitar for many years and teaching for about 5. I love sometimes to just sit and watch him play, he is so talented. He has a ‘pinky’ coloured Maton and the sound is just music to your ears. One day that is my dream to own a Mini Maton.

Here we go again, this time its back to Queensland for the Northern Suburbs Country Music Festival. Sometimes flying is the only way to go. Mum works full time and she always seems to be able to juggle a day here and there to support me in what I love to do most.

We flew this time into Brisbane and I stayed with my older sister, her hubby and my two beautiful nieces. The girls love to come to my performances and they have their own Karaoke machine and they love to sing and perform too. I would really love to see them enter the quests one day and give it a go. They both love country music so much. As we were staying for the whole weekend we spent Saturday night in the Brew household, that is Liam, his mum and dad, Michelle & Jason, and brother Cohen and younger sister Kalora. We jammed into the early hours of the morning out in the music room, ate Pizza and jammed some more. The hard part was we had to be up so early the following morning to get back into Northern Suburbs festival – that was hard as we were all tired. But we did it anyway.

Sunday night at the festival it was sad to say goodbye to the many friends that I had made in earlier months when I was in Queensland. But this time we all agreed that it would not be long before we all saw each other again as Tamworth mid festival was fatly approaching. Monday morning it was sad to say goodbye to my family and there were a few tears.

There’s lots more to tell, but time is short and I have to be on the road again. Will try to get the next diary entry in a little quicker than this one.

Till my next diary update…Tori

Well it has certainly been a little longer than I hoped since I updated you with all my recent travels. I no sooner arrived home from Tamworth, back in January and it was straight back to school, singing lessons and yes the guitar lessons. A couple of excursions with school proved very interesting as off course they were associated to what I love most - MUSIC!! We were off to the Seymour Centre for a stage performance and then a dance excursion. After that I was back on the road again traveling near and far.

Firstly I co-wrote a song with Alan Craig, a great songwriter from the Northern Suburbs, we had a great day and the song turned out pretty good. A few local Talent Quest with great results and then it was off to Queensland for the ‘Cane Country Music Festival’ which was held at Logan City. Not knowing what to expect as this was my very first Country Music Festival outside of NSW, I registered and within minutes of the festival starting I was in awe of the talent Queensland had. From 5yr olds and upwards I realized this was going to be a tough one. I was amazed by the voices of Keyonie Bolton, Breanna Gerritsen, Brook Yarnold and Liam Brew. Queensland certainly had talent. Kris Wason was the Overall Champion of last year’s festival and performed as a guest artist. The friendships I made that weekend are friend I will have for ever. Thank you guys, you all know who you are!!!

Ali Hinchcliffe and Leisa Bye made me feel very welcome and they were just great, Leisa was the photographer on the day and what a job she did, and she did not miss a performer, she had everyone. It was a very long two days and it was also very hot in Queensland at that time of the year, but it was all worth it. Coming from interstate, I did not think I had a chance and cried with excitement when I was announced as the “Overall Champion”. I did not have a suitcase big enough to bring my trophies home.

The following weekend I traveled to the Central Coast for the Music Festival Showcase

Performing on stage with Kayla Ann, Makaylie Foody, Peter McWhirter and many other young performing all trying to make their mark in this industry. It was an open park showcase festival which was held at the Bi Centenial Park Main Stage, it was a magnificent day but we all came home a little burnt.

The following day it was off to the Wauchope Country Music Festival and it gave me great pleasure to be able to perform in a town where my godfather John Bradley lives, my uncle had never seen me sing before and it was a really wonderful weekend.

A short trip home for a few local grand final quests and a couple of gigs around Sydney and off course a little school work in between then we were off again.

My highlight during this time was representing TRTT at the Royal Easter Show that was an absolute buzz, performing there with the likes of Kirsty Lee Akers and Morgan Evans, it was just fabulous.

I then returned to Queensland for the “Urban Country Music Festival”, this was magic, the festival was being held in a beautiful park like surrounding, a great stage and the atmosphere here was awesome, the weather was great and the best band ever with lead guitarist Stuey French. I was impressed!! The talent again was very strong and it just kept coming, Emma Barlow, wow! she plays a mean fiddle and what a talented girl, there were also many new faces that I did not know with just as much talent.

The very talented Sinead Burgess a beautiful performer entertained us in the later part of the afternoon as the 2006 Overall Champion and what a performance she put on.

The festival was also held over two days with the grand finals for the Professionals, Senior Amateurs and Juniors all on the Sunday evening and off course competing against each other for the final announcement “Who would take out overall”. And the winner is “Liam Brew” and what a performance he gave. Liam and I then took out 2 nd place with our duo of “Whisky Lullaby” - overall a fabulous weekend.

It was again very sad to say goodbye to so many wonderful friends who have made us feel so very welcome in the beautiful sunshine state of Queensland.

During this time I also changed singing teachers. Well that was a challenge, as after being trained for so long by one person with totally different ideas and then moving on to someone entirely different was very hard. But I hung in there and gosh what a difference. Sometimes we get in our comfort zone and don’t want to make changes, but sometimes changes are very good and they help you grow as well, well they certainly have with me.

My mum has been my biggest support, she is always there for me and makes sure I get to wherever I have to be on time and refreshed, she has driven many long hours from Sydney to Tamworth, Parkes, Toowoomba, Wauchope, Illabo, Central Coast, Northern Suburbs Qld, Gipplands in Victoria, Caloundra in Qld and many other places where I have performed at. Thanks heaps Mum, I don’t know what I would have done without you.

There’s lots more to tell, but time is short and I have to be on the road again. Will try to get the next diary entry in a little quicker than this one.

We left home on 18 th January for Tamworth. We started off around 9.30am hoping to drive in the cooler part of the day. Dad drove as mum tends to be a little heavy on the accelerator pedal. We had a reasonably good trip; the weather was good and not too hot at the start of the day, though it certainly got hotter along the way. Dad likes to travel up the old Putty Road as he says it is a better run with a lot less traffic. He was right we did not see many cars at all, and only two police cars. We arrived into Tamworth around 3pm and drove out to the property where we were staying which is about 12 minutes out of Tamworth past the Airport; we dropped off the trailer and headed straight back into town to have a look around.

We stay with a lovely family Jeff & Margaret Solomon, who live on a 200 acre farm. Mum met them through clients in Sydney and they have been really fantastic as this is the third time we have stayed there now and they make us feel so welcome and it’s just like being at home. We have the full use of the house, grounds and swimming pool. Jeff works on a neighboring farm and Margaret works in town. Though the festival had not officially started the township was a buzz with people and buskers had already hit the streets and posters were being displayed in all the shop fronts.

Strolling down Peel Street we ran into Tiffney Stroh and her gang. Tiff off course had already started busking and her mum Julia and Klaus were sitting relaxing and enjoying the music. This was to be my very first year of busking and we had organized a space outside the “Inland” café. We went and introduced ourselves to the owner Melissa and she was just lovely. She was excited too about having us outside her café.

My duo partner Taryn Trautsch was arriving on the Friday afternoon and we were going to do some busking later that evening. But I was so excited and a little nervous about busking that I decided to go it alone earlier in the day to see what it was like. Well! I had a ball; OMG didn’t realize it was going to be so much fun, THERE WAS NO STOPPING ME. I even got my first tip, a whole $6.50. This was great.

Tamworth in January is definitely a lot busier than the mid winter festival in July. By Friday there was certainly a lot more people around and some of the talent quests had already started. The first quest for me was on the Saturday which was the “Aristocrat” Entertainer of the Year. That was great as I also met a few new friends that I had not met before. By Sunday everything was certainly in full swing and each day just rolled into the next especially going from one venue to the next, between Telstra Road To Tamworth Busking Stage, Blazes at Wests, Diggers at Wests, the Coca Cola Stage, The Pub and CCMA is was so full on. I was very fortunate to have had The Palmer Brothers play at both Blazes and the CCMA quests, they are an awesome band and very supportive of all the young talent on stage.

I suppose my biggest highlight was that I was very fortunate to have been a Finalist in the 2007 Telstra Road to Tamworth, so I had quite a busy schedule once I arrived in Tamworth with the Telstra Busking Stage three times in the week, which was just fantastic and gave us a chance to showcase our talents. I was also interviewed out on the farm by CMC TV which was awesome, the camera crew were just great and made us feel very relaxed which made the interview very enjoyable. Nick Laing who played for me when I won my heat in Gippsland came out to the farm and was very supportive and played for me throughout the interview while we were being video’d. Nick is a very talented young man and I was very happy for him when he won the senior “Aristocrat” Entertainer of the Year Award for 2007.

My greatest reward I think was performing at the TREC, in my Final for Telstra Road to Tamworth. It was great to meet all the finalists, and they were all so supportive of each other. There were definitely a lot of encouragement and friendships made in that back room.

When my name was called and it was my turn to perform, it was like walking out on stage at the “Logies”, OMG, the lights, the camera’s, there was a great crowd in the audience and I could see my mum there, ready with her video. My mum and dad have been so supportive of me and they are always ready to jump in the car and head out to the next quest or gig. Dad carries all my equipment and gear and mum, as mum’s do, always ready with the make-up, clothes and wants to make sure everything is ok. My mum and dad are so very special and I love them heaps. They are always happy to help me pick my songs and make suggestions as to what sounds good.

A special thank you to some of the community radio stations announcers, Frankie T, Britton Morrison, Jeff Dunn and Ross Murphy who were happy to chat with me and take my promo cd with them. It is really great to have your support in helping young artists who are trying to impact in this industry.

To everyone who bought my promo cd, a very special thank you as you ARE the ones that encourage us to reach for the stars and follow our dreams.

A special mention to my very dear friends Ross & Robyn who have also supported me throughout the past few months and took time out of their busy schedule to come and support me in Tamworth. Thank you!!

To Auntie Lyn, Uncle Pat, Dot & Rob, Dorothy & Al, you are all fantastic and I love you all heaps, thanks for coming to support me in Tamworth.

To a beautiful lady, my Duo Partner and best friend Taryn, thank you so much for just being you. You are very special. Looking forward to a very successful time together.

It was soon time to leave Tamworth and a very sad moment as I said goodbye to many new friendships that I had made. We had a lot of fun and I am hoping to see many of you back in Tamworth for the mid winter festival “Hats Off to Tamworth” and hopefully Camerata.

Where to next: I think the Central Coast on 10 th March where I will be performing at the Central Coast Music Festival “Showcase” held at Main Stage on Saturday morning and then off to Wauchope on the Sunday for the Hastings Country Music Festival. Hope I might see some of you there.

Until my next diary update, cheers

Tori

Xoxoxoxox

The last few weeks have been pretty hectic leading up to Christmas. With many local quests, my duo gigs and planning for Christmas it has been very exciting and challenging.

Our Christmas was relatively quiet, had Christmas Day with some very special friends as most of our family are in Queensland. But our biggest surprise was when my older sister from Queensland arrived on our doorstep with her hubby Shayne and my two beautiful nieces Morgan and Jazmyn. Morgan is 7 and Jazmyn is 5 and they are just georgeous.

We had a very special time with them as they were here for 5 days and it was just great to have them here with us.

But now this is where it all begins again with our up coming trip to Tamworth. We will leave for Tamworth on Thursday 18th January and travel up on the New England Highway. We are staying on a 200 acre property about 15 minutes outside of Tamworth on the airport side.

This year will be my first year at busking and I plan to be doing some solo busking as well as busking with my Duo partner Taryn. I also have 3 half hour spots on the Busking Stage for Telstra Road To Tamworth which I am so excited about. My friend Tiffney Stroh will be supporting me as my guitarist,so we will have a great time together.

Won't be available to update till I return, so if you see me if Tamworth, please come up and say hello, I would love that...

Cheers

Tori

This way I can let u all know what I’ve been up to and what I’m doing in the future.

One of my most recent achievements was winning the Telstra Road To Tamworth Heat in Gippsland, Melbourne. The Road To Tamworth heat was held at the Saloon Bar in Churchill and it was a great atmosphere to have the competition. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Nick Laing for playing for me in the competition – you were great Nick. Nick was kind enough to make some time to come down to Gippsland and support me with the guitar even though we had never met before.

Having Nick there really helped me be comfortable and then the surprise of winning just topped the weekend.

Going backs a bit, just to let u know what I have been doing. A couple of weeks ago now on 28 th October at the Campbelltown Catholic Club the 2006 NSW.ACT Country National Showcase were held and I came out with the amazing result of 2 nd place.

I received my invitation into the Nationals through the Hunter Valley Country Music Festival held up in Hexham earlier this year. From achieving the Junior Overall Winner of the whole festival.

This time last year I had only just started singing country music after hearing my now favorite Country Rock song “Red Neck Woman” sung by the great Gretchen Wilson. My dad had bought her Album and I really enjoyed it and after that I was hooked on Country Music.

I am looking forward to Tamworth in January, but in the meantime, I have lots and lots to do, so I will catch ya later

cheer

Tori

xoxoxoxoxox