A fantastic 2014 Country Music Awards of Australia were held in Tamworth on Saturday night, with ABC Music artists dominating the Golden Guitar winners list.

Lee Kernaghan was the night’s biggest winner, claiming four Golden Guitars; Male Artist of the Year, Single of the Year for ‘Flying With The King’, Music Video of the Year (with Producer Duncan Toombs) for ‘Flying With The King’ and Highest Selling Album for Beautiful Noise. 

Kernaghan has now achieved a staggering 31 Golden Guitar Awards. Only the legendary Slim Dusty has won more.

On the eve of the awards, Kernaghan headlined a memorable concert to over 10,000 people at Tamworth’s Bicentennial Park.

Australia’s most celebrated female storyteller Sara Storer also had a huge night, winning the coveted Album of the Year award for Lovegrass, Female Artist of the Year and Vocal Collaboration of the Year.  Lovegrass was Storer’s first full album of original material in six years, with Storer experiencing “tears of joy” at the results. 

Lovegrass immediately returned to the top of the iTunes Country Sales chart following the award presentation and Storer will shortly announce dates for her 2014 National Tour. 

To cap off a huge night for ABC Music artists, McAlister Kemp’s Drew McAlister won two Golden Guitars for Song of the Year and Heritage Song of the Year, as co-writer of the song ‘Lady Of The Land’ with Luke O’Shea. 

He then headed down the road to join duo partner Troy Kemp on stage at Blazes Showroom to perform to a capacity crowd at McAlister Kemp’s massively successful album launch party for the brand new album Harder To Tame.

Harder To Tame debuted at #18 on the ARIA All Genre Albums Chart during the festival, with the album appearing in the US iTunes Country Albums Sales chart during its first week of release.  

Saturday’s Golden Guitars ceremony featured fantastic performances from ABC Music’s multiple nominees Jasmine Rae (Album of the Year, Female Artist of the Year and Single of the Year) and The Wolfe Brothers (New Artist of the Year, Group/Duo of the Year, Song of the Year, Highest Selling Album) with both those artists also performing shows to large crowds during the festival.

‘It’s On’, the title track to The Wolfe Brothers’ multi-nominated debut album, was the theme song for this year’s Tamworth Country Music Festival, while Rae partnered with Wests Entertainment Group and Sunburst Music to help raise money for the McGrath Foundation - with the help of leading artists as well as Glenn McGrath himself, who all personally signed the ‘Pink Guitar’ that was raffled during the festival.  

Another festival highlight was Jayne Denham’s performance with Shannon Noll of their hit duet ‘Beyond These City Lights’ to a capacity crowd at TRECC on Wednesday evening. That track was also nominated for a Golden Guitar Award.