New CMAA President: “let the dust settle”, as Cassar-Daley and Harvey pull out of awards

In his first order of business as the new President of the Country Music Association of Australia (CMAA), Dobe Newton has expressed his sadness at the public display of emotions, in what was a tumultuous week for Australian country music.

It began with the former CMAA President John Williamson quitting, citing his dissatisfaction with the “Americanisation” of the annual Golden Guitars music awards in January. He questioned why an album of mostly American covers, Troy Cassar-Daley and Adam Harvey’s The Great Country Songbook, should have been nominated for album of the year. He also hit out at the fact that US-based Keith Urban should have been nominated for Best Male.

Yesterday, Cassar-Daley and Harvey pulled their album out of the nominations. They said they would not perform during the Tamworth country music festival but would attend to support the acts.

“The conversations and debates about the album over the past few days have fragmented an already fragile music community,” they said in a statement. “We are very proud of the achievements of the project, however we wish to not have the album as part of the awards.”

They emphasised, “There never was and still is no problem with the album’s legitimate qualification”, but the “recent objection and ensuing industry debate” had forced their decision. We are just sad for country music that this has all happened. The last thing we wanted to do was cause any controversy. It was just two mates paying tribute to our musical heroes.”

At the same time, former Tamworth mayor James Treloar expressed “serious concern” about the integrity of the awards in the local newspaper, and urged council to get more involved in its running.

::TMN’S AUSTRALIAN COUNTRY MUSIC FEATURE | PART ONE | PART TWO | PART THREE

Newton said, “I’m saddened by the very public debate inspired by comments from the past President.”

He defended the nomination of The Great Country Songbook as within the guidelines of the awards.

Newton pointed out, “While Troy Cassar-Daley and Adam Harvey’s decision to withdraw their album from the 2014 Golden Guitar Awards may be seen as a drastic move, it is perfectly understandable given the unnecessary media attention that’s been generated. How disappointing that a wonderfully received and commercially successful product should be ’tarnished’ at a time when it should be celebrated.

“It is important for fans of country music – as well as casual observers, to understand that it is not the organisation’s place to dictate what can or cannot be recorded, nor what people like or want to listen to. A nomination and judging process took place strictly in line with the CMAA’s published rules.

“If anyone has a comment or a suggestion on that process, we would encourage them to contact us, so that a full and informed debate can take place, rather than the unedifying sound-byte exchanges we’re now witnessing. To draw Keith Urban into the ’debate’, just makes it all the more unfortunate.”

Treloar’s comments about the awards came after two instances when albums had to be dropped from being voted on because they were ineligible. The CMAA went public with the mistakes and double checked the eligibility of all entries in each of the categories.

Tamworth’s Northern Daily Leader quoted Treloar as saying, “The awards, for many years, have been a pinnacle event and I don’t want to see that diluted.” He wanted the city of Tamworth to get more involved in their staging.

“It’s got to that stage that we’re no longer capable of running the awards the way it should be run and things are bound to go wrong,” he said. “I said to (Mayor Col Murray) that awards like this should always belong to a classic country town like Tamworth. Tamworth owns the Golden Guitars, so it needs to take more responsibility for it.”