Dave Walker, right, and the Blue Moon Lodge, from left, Mark McNeilly, David Ricciuti, Greg Hunt and Louch Evangelista.By Kath Gannaway
DAVE Walker and the Blue Moon Lodge are tuning up for what they hope will be an award-winning performance.
The song ‘Brophy’s Tent” by the Warburton-based band has been nominated for the Trailblazers Heritage Award in the Victorian and National Country Music Awards.
The song which featured on the band’s second album ‘Diamonds on the Road’ was written by Dave Walker after a trip to the Birdsville Races in 2007.
“Fred Brophy’s Boxing Troupe is the last boxing tent left in the country,” Mr Walker said.
“The song talks about the fact that the whole time we were up there we didn’t see a single fight – anyone who needed to let off some steam put on the gloves and got into the ring with one of Fred’s boxers.”
The Victorian and National Country Music Awards will be staged on Friday, 5 February, as part of the Whittlesea Country Music Festival weekend.
The awards recognise and encourage excellence in the Australian Country Music Industry and are considered second only to Tamworth’s Golden Guitar awards.
The band will face some stiff competition with John Williamson, The Slim Dusty Family, The Sunny Cowgirls and Marcie Jones also competing for the Trailblazers award.
“We’re really proud to have been nominated,” Mr Walker told the Mail.
“It’s great that we’ve been able to gain this sort of recognition with what is a relatively new project. It has been a great effort from our management team and all the boys in the band to get things happening as much as they have.”
There were over 500 nominations for the awards and Dave Walker and the Blue Moon Lodge made the top 10 in five other categories including best album and best male vocal.
Mr Walker said everyone in the band was encouraged by comments from festival organisers that they were really impressed, particularly for a band doing only their second album.
The band has also been booked to play at the Apollo Bay Music Festival in March, another major event on the country music calendar.
