Zac strumming his way to Tamworth
From strumming his way through life’s difficult times to a golden debut in Gore, the star of St Arnaud country musician Zac Griffiths is certainly on the rise.
Four years after surprising the Sunday crowd at the Tapawera Hotel with a rendition of Johnny Cash’s Ring of Fire, the 12-yearold has capped of a successful few months by being awarded the 2017 Camarata scholarship to attend the Tamworth Country Music Academy in Australia.
Having introduced her son to the world of country music performance, Zac’s mum Lynette Ellis will accompany him to the New South Wales town in July next year.
‘‘It’s the only scholarship to the country music academy that’s awarded in this manner,’’ Ellis said. ‘‘There’s three judges and they’re judging all the under 18 contestants for that scholarship and it’s awarded each year for one under 18 and a caregiver- fully funded.’’
It is understood that Zac was the first junior Kiwi to have received the scholarship.
The scholarship involved an intensive eight-day course honing aspects like songwriting and harmonising, culminating in a graduation concert before an audience of around 5000.
‘‘It’ll be an eye-opener I’d say,’’ Ellis said.
While she had no idea where Zac’s performance spark came from, Ellis said Zac’s first steps towards Tamworth occurred after she and Zac’s father separated several years ago.
‘‘He went through a bit of a tough patch as kids sort of do, he’d always been quite musical and they had the Tapawera country music club held two doors down from us every Sunday and I thought it might be something he might be interested in – it kind of went from there.’’
After an impressive debut Zac’s confidence quickly led to him being named best junior performer at the Golden Valley Country Music Awards in Pohara, aged just eight.
In recent months that level of achievement has ramped up even further, winning the junior title at Blenheim’s Gourmet Paradise Country Music Awards, followed soon after by the West Coast’s Best Of The West Country Music Awards in May, where he was awarded the Camarata scholarship.
The accolades continued at June’s NZ Country Music Awards in Gore, where he won two golden guitars for best junior gospel and best traditional intermediate, as well as the under 14 ‘‘freeze your bits off’’ busking winner.
Not bad for his first trip to Gore.
Ellis said Johnny Cash remained his favourite country performer, but had also developed an appreciation for Hank Williams and Merle Haggard in recent years.
‘‘He’s very old school in his taste,’’ she said.
‘‘It’s grown on me too – it certainly wouldn’t be my first choice of genre but you do develop an appreciation for it – if you ask his younger brothers they’ll tell you no way would they voluntarily listen to a country music song.’’