ABC Music artists featured prominently in last Saturday night’s Country Music Awards of Australia, winning a total of four Golden Guitar awards. 

With their Golden Guitar win in the Best New Talent category, McAlister Kemp cemented their status as country music’s hottest new act of 2010. Their highly praised debut album All Kinds Of Tough features two #1 radio singles and the #1 music video and current single ‘Hell Yeah’. All Kinds Of Tough was produced by Album of the Year winning producer Matt Fell.

Sara Storer and music video producer Duncan Toombs won the Music Video of the Year award for the second year in a row with ‘Calling Me Home’. The track appears on one of last year’s best selling releases, the ARIA Country #1 album, Calling Me Home – The Best of Sara Storer.

Ian Simpson and John Kane, two of Australia’s most accomplished banjo players, won Instrumental of the  Year.  Their highly successful album The Banjo features the most loved and famous banjo tunes from across the instrument’s vast and growing repertoire. The recording captures the traditional bluegrass virtuosity in pieces like ‘Foggy Mountain Breakdown’ and ‘Cripple Creek’ and the whimsical strains of ragtime in the Scott Joplin classics ‘The Entertainer’ and ‘Maple Leaf Rag’.

Australia’s king of country Lee Kernaghan won the Top Selling Album award for the ARIA nominated album, Planet Country. The album still remains in the ARIA country charts nearly fifteen months after release. Planet Country features the four #1 singles ‘Planet Country’, ‘Australian Boy’, ‘Love In The Time Of Drought’ and ‘Dirt’, with more hits still to hit media.

Other highlights for the label on the night included Catherine Britt’s stunning performance of ‘Sweet Emmylou’ and the presentation of the Group of the Year award by international guests Doc Walker.

ABC Music also wish to congratulate their other Best New Talent nominee Peter McWhirter on a great year which included the release of his debut album Lucky As A Seven and the success of his first #1 song, ‘Humm’.