APRA best country song and MLT songwriting award finalists revealed

Some very talented Kiwis are among the artists shortlisted for awards that celebrate the best of Australasian country music.

Songs about grief, cancer, the bond of twins, and the feeling of nostalgia feature in the lineup released this week by the Australasian Performing Right Association Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (APRA AMCOS).

In the APRA Best Country Music Song category, finalists include Southland’s The Mitchell Twins, Maegan and Nicola Mitchell, for their song Find A River, inspired by the Topp Twins’ recent battles with illness and separation. The song explores the deep bonds of the twin connection, and pays a tribute to the role music has played in the lives of both the Topps and themselves.

Tami Neilson joined the twins in the co-writing of the personal song. The Canadian-born New Zealander has also been nominated for Best Country Music Song for her song Beyond the Stars, which she wrote with Delaney Davidson and performed with the late Willie Nelson.

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Neilson said her song was born of grief, and her pain from the loss of her father and her longing to be with him once again.

The song features on her fifth studio album Kingmaker, and is also co-written with Delaney Davidson, and recorded at Roundhead Studios in Auckland. Willie Nelson features as the voice of Tami’s father in this duet.

West Coaster and Lyttleton resident Mel Parsons has also been nominated, for her hypnotic and meandering Slow Burn which conjures up a nostalgic feeling of simpler times.

Slow Burn is the title track from Parsons’ latest record, and debuted at number 3 on the Top 40 charts. Parsons was also a finalist for Best Folk Artist at the 2023 Aotearoa Music Awards.

APRA AMCOS head of New Zealand operations Anthony Healy said all the finalists’ songs told a story “that resonates”.

“The best country music not only captures the heartache, the joy, and the love that define our human experience but also something that leaves and indelible mark on our lives, reminding us of the power of music to inspire, and to connect us all,” he said.

“These songs deserve our celebration here and the attention and accolade everywhere.”

The award will be presented at the inaugural Country Music Honours, formerly known as the NZ Country Music Awards, on Thursday June 1 as part of the Gore Bayleys Tussock Country Music Festival.

The MLT Songwriting Award will also be presented, acknowledging unreleased songs from writers from New Zealand and Australia, presented by the NZ Songwriters Trust.

MLT Songwriting Award 2023 finalists

• Compte de Paris written by Kate Targett-Adams and Chad Robinson

• Co-Parent written by Peter & Joanna Green

• Daffodils written by Jenny Mitchell and Ron Mitchell

• Goosebumps written by Keith Pereira

• Help Me Remember written by Keith Pereira

• Little Less Lonely written by Jenny Mitchell

• Love Ya Like I Can written by Kerryn Fields and Matt Joe Gow

• Nobody Warns You written by Mel Parsons

• Prairie Song (Hard Times) written by Kerryn Fields

• Whirlwind written by Matt Joe Gow