Country’s best here to catch a big break
IS the Gold Coast Australia’s new capital of country music? It sure will be tonight.
Some of the biggest names in the bush have made tracks for the beach to kick up their heels at country music’s night of nights, Foxtel’s CMC Awards, at Jupiters Hotel & Casino.
Newcastle-born surfing singer and songwriter Morgan Evans has returned from Nashville to host tonight’s gala event – the largest annual fan-voted awards in Australian country music.
Evans met his fiancee, singer (and Taylor Swift’s bestie) Kelsea Ballerini when they co-hosted last year’s CMC Awards.
“I’ve been to the Coast so many times,” the naturalfoot surfer said yesterday.
“As soon as I could drive I was coming up here for holidays with mates from Newcastle. You have the best surf breaks in the world.”
Evans will hit the road for a surf trip after this weekend’s CMC Rocks music festival at Ipswich.
Tonight’s ceremony will see Evans joined by presenters including The Real Housewives of Sydney’s Melissa Tkautz, Wentworth’s Bernard Curry, US actor Charles Esten, aka Deacon Claybourne on hit TV series Nashville, and the awards’ Queensland ambassador, former Broncos captain turned Fox League commentator Corey Parker.
While Tkautz is new to the world of country music, the actor, model, singer and mother is no stranger to the Coast. She spent the best part of the 1990s living iving here.