Tamworth Songwriters' Association 2021 annual awards: Wendy Wood wins Country Ballad of the Year

Tamworth's Wendy Wood won the John and Judy Martin Country Ballad Of The Year category for her song Fairytale, which tells the story of a family member who had their heart broken.

"It's really lovely. I love going in the competitions because you never know who's listening to your songs," she told the Leader.

"It could be somebody who's looking for a song, for an album, or a manager."

She said from the moment she wrote Fairytale, it always felt like a special song to her.

"It's just nice that other people think that it's a worthy song as well," she said.

"Over the years you write a lot of songs but sometimes you write something and think 'I really like this one, I think this one might have potential'."

Wood has been writing music for 30 years and joined the TSA in 1996.

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"The committee wants to make sure that songwriters get their names out there because 25 years ago you hardly ever heard the term singer-songwriter. It was all about the artist and it didn't necessarily matter who wrote the song," she said.

"Songwriters who didn't have the opportunity to perform, the awards were set up to acknowledge them.

"The Golden Guitars have Song of the Year but the other sections don't recognise the songwriters. So this is all about the songwriters. The TSA's moto is 'first the song' because without the song you wouldn't have anything."

Local dedicated country music radio manager Bob Kirchner was also honoured on the night, taking out the Tex Morton Award.

Meanwhile, Currabubula local Sarah Nicholls' song You Didn't Have to Be made the finalist list for the Novice - Gary Koehler Commemorative Award.

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