Delgirl pleased to announce they have won a Tui

Delgirl are pleased to announce they have won a Tui award for best folk album 2008.

The Dunedin based female trio received the award at the Auckland folk Festival held at Kumeu last night.

The award was for their debut album Two, maybe three, days ride" which was released independently in November 2007.

Recording Industry Association of NZ chief executive Campbell Smith said the Delgirl album was "highly deserving" of a Tui award. "Dunedin has a history of fine musicians, and Delgirl shows that this talent and passion is alive across a range of genres" he said. Finalist for the Tui award included Martin Curtis from Cardrona and the Hamilton County Bluegrass Band.

Delgirl were thrilled with the win and made the following comment:"We are absolutely rapt that we have won the Tui, it is a great honour and we are really chuffed. We were just so excited to be one of the finalists, to be included with musicians the calibre of Martin Curtis and the iconic Hamilton County Bluegrass Band is just amazing. We feel really priviledged to be honoured with this award. The folk music scene in NZ is a really vibrant and supportive community. More and more young people are getting involved in this kind of music, which is actually very wide and varied. There is a great new generation coming through at present, we are so stoked to be involved."

Delgirl are a three piece acoustic group who do as much avoiding of definition as they can. If pushed they'll admit to playing skiffily, folky, country, jazzy, bluesy roots music with a Pacific edge bordering a swamp. The result is a beautiful big harmony sound built around the double bass, guitar, ukuleles, banjo, snare & percussion. These three Dunedin based women musicians and songwriters have been making music together since 2000.

Delgirl are:

Deirdre Newall: Double bass/Bodhran drum/Vocals
Erin Morton: Guitar/Trumpet/Ukulele/Vocals
Lynn Vare: Percussion/Snare Drum/Tenor Ukulele/Banjo/Vocals

2008 was a big year for Delgirl, playing more than 60 gigs and touring across New Zealand. The band was successful in obtaining Creative New Zealand funding to tour their album enabling them to take their music from Invercargill to Whangarei and beyond. A track from the album was selected to feature on a NZ Trade and Enterprise CD "New Zealand - New Music" which is distributed to music supervisors in television and film worldwide. The band also featured extensively on Radio NZ National, TVNZ, several national magazines, and even made an appearance on the Air NZ inflight quiz.

Delgirl are continuing the hard work with a quick tour to the West Coast and demo tracks for the next album already completed. The band will be playing at the Hokonui Moonshiners Festival in Gore on Feburary 21st, at the Dunedin Fringe Festival in March, and the Wanaka Festival of Colour in May. In between they have a number of exciting performances in the works.

Reviews and more information can be found at www.delgirl.co.nz

ENDS

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