It’s a bit of a star-studded Queenstown duet.
Internationally-acclaimed Celtic harpist Kate Targett-Adams and accomplished guitarist Chad Robinson – both also experienced singer-songwriters – are finalists in this Thursday’s long-running MLT Songwriting Award.
It’s held in Gore as part of the annual NZ Gold Guitar Awards.
Robinson won the event in 2021, the last time it was held, for his song, Alexandra Road, and has also been a runner-up as well as a finalist on two other occasions.
Targett-Adams, meanwhile, used to songwrite a lot in her native Scotland before moving to Hong Kong in 2008 and then Queenstown in 2020.
The song they’ve co-written for next week’s awards – the first they’ve collaborated on – is called Comte de Paris.
It’s about a ship of French settlers, the Comte de Paris, that came to Akaroa in 1840 to colonise the South Island, only to find the British had beaten them to it.
And intertwined through this is a love story.
Targett-Adams: “It is such a fascinating story how there’s still all this French influence in Akaroa, and it’s so unique, and I think it deserves a song to be written about it.”
Christchurch-raised Robinson says the song’s a bit of a departure for him: “I suppose my style has been almost introspective storytelling sort of stuff, so that song that won [in ’21], I actually performed that with just myself singing and acoustic guitar, there was no accompaniment.”
He explains these awards you only enter a song with one singer and one instrumentalist, however on Thursday he’ll be on guitar, Targett-Adams will be on harp, and they’ll both be singing.
Targett-Adams says “personally I’m just going to be enthralled to be in that [5000-seat] concert hall and to meet all the industry people”.
“I don’t think we really mind what the outcome is, because just to be in the finals has given us some confirmation as songwriters, so we’re happy.
“I think we’re quite excited to get into the more creative songwriting mode now, rather than just play covers.”
MLT Songwriting Award, Country Music Honours Awards evening, SBS St James Theatre, Gore, June 1, 8pm; $60
