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Click HERE for details of the Georgia Country And Gospel Music Associan Awards to Garrett on November 11, 2006.
Click HERE for photos of Garrett's March 29, & April 1 performance at
the Maggie Valley, NC Opry.
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Below: Banjo Contest held September 29, 2006 at Maggie Valley Opry House.
Garrett was awarded SECOND PLACE by the Contest Judges, and garnered 75% of Audience Approval for First Place.
PRATER'S MILL
October 16, 2006
Garrett is shown below performing with Ken Streeter, local folk/bluegrass musician and author.
Georgia Country and Gospel Music Association Presented Garrett with the Following awards: CD of the Year, Video of The year and the Most Promising Instrumentalist of the Year.
Garrett will go to Pigeon Forge, TN in March, 2007 to represent the State of Georgia in a National Contest.
Georgia Country And Gospel Music Association
Awards Details
November 11, 2006
Subject: Awards Show
Good Sunday Morning to all,
I want to thank you for coming to the awards show last night. I had a great time and I am so proud of all of you.
Congrads to all those who won.
I want to take a few minutes to explain everything about NACMAI to all of you who are new.
If you won an award for:
cd of the year
video of the year
songwriter of the year, then you won first place in this.
This means that your cd, video or songwriting, whatever category you won in, will move on to the National level.
If you won "Most Promising" in anything last night, this means that you will move on to the Nationals.
And of course, if you won, "Vocalist of the year" or "Entertainer of the year", you will move on to the Nationals.
If you won, "Duo of the Year" or "Most promising duo of the year" or any kind of "Band of the Year", this means that you move on to the Nationals.
Now, let me tell you this. Because I could only get T. Graham Brown on the 11th and due to having some last minute auditions, I knew that our awards show would be close to the deadline of when NACMAI wants their paperwork turned back in.
As you can see on the paperwork that you got last night, it says that their deadline is Nov. 15th.
About a month ago, I already asked Peggy Franks, who is the NACMAI president, if I could have an extension for GCGMA and she said yes.
So, my deadline is November 20th.
Now, because last year, NACMAI received so many checks that bounced from members in other states, (proud to say GA. was not one of them), NACMAI has this year, decided to change how they want their money sent to them.
If you want to send a money order or a cashier's check to NACMAI, that's fine.
But if you are sending a check, you have to make it out to GCGMA and then I will make one big check for all the entries sent to me and mail it to NACMAI. They will only receive checks from the presidents of each state from now on.
Yes, it would make it easier on me, if you could send your own money order or cashier's check and just let me know that you have done this, but it's totally fine with me, if you need to send me a check and I will then send NACMAI a check.
I know that all the paperwork might be a little overwhelming, so please call me. It's so much easier to tell you over the phone than by email. I will be available day or night, so please call me a.s.a.p. for help, because this paperwork must be turned in to NACMAI by the 20th or you won't get to go and whoever came in 3rd place in your category, will be asked if they want to move up to take your place.
Once again, please don't let this go without letting me know if you are moving on to the Nationals.
If I do not hear from you, then I will have no choice but to think that you are not going and I will move the next person up.
If you are in school, I'm sure you've seen by now, the consent form in the paperwork.
NACMAI started this last year and last year was when we found that GA. is very strict on letting their kids be out.
Some schools in GA. will give you a credit for going to this event, but most would not give permission for the kid to be out.
Even though the parents told the teachers that they would probably just miss one day out of the week, they still would not give permission.
So, last year, GCGMA had about a dozen parents who just wrote "Home School" on their consent form and signed it and we sent it on in.
And it was fine, NACMAI didn't care.
At the end of January, is when I will probably find out everyone's time slots for NACMAI and I will send it out to you as soon as I get it.
For the new members, what we normally do, is find a hotel room and rent it NOW. You can get a MUCH better rate now, than as it gets closer.
Rent it for the entire week.
When you get your competition time and you see when you are going to be up there, then call and cancel the other days that you don't need the room.
YOU DO NOT HAVE TO STAY THE ENTIRE WEEK.
As for the programs for NACMAI, yes they are a lot for an ad, so don't feel like you have to purchase one. Most people don't. I don't.
Now, what will happen at NACMAI is this:
This is now a whole new ballgame. Any audition that you did this year is over and has nothing to do about up there that week.
Let's say, for example, you won, "Most Promising vocalist of the year" and you get your competition time in January and it says that you perform at 11:00a.m.
You will get an 8 minute time limit. You get to do 2 songs for your category.
You will perform it LIVE for the judges.
This theatre in open all day and evening to the public and it is free to come in and watch anyone from any state any day.
The judges sit in the back of the theatre. There will be about 6 of them and it's usually pretty dark, so you can't really see them.
You go up and perform and then you are done for the week.
On Sunday, is their NACMAI awards show. It's about 5 times bigger than what our's was last night.
They dress the same way as our's and the awards are solid glass and bigger than our's.
I know some of you are thinking that I might be tired and you don't want to bother me so soon after the show, but please call me so I can help each of you with the paperwork, if you have any questions.
Once again, the paperwork has to be turned in by November 20th to NACMAI.
So, let me know how you are sending it. Are you sending it yourself or should I be expecting it from you.
Thanks so much for taking care of this as soon as possible.
Take Care,
Lisa.
Garrett & legendary Raymond Fairchild
