{"id":7446,"date":"2014-07-17T01:02:32","date_gmt":"2014-07-17T05:02:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=7446"},"modified":"2014-07-30T16:09:56","modified_gmt":"2014-07-30T20:09:56","slug":"its-another-trip-to-the-rodeo-for-hoedown-showdown-contestants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/its-another-trip-to-the-rodeo-for-hoedown-showdown-contestants\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s another trip to the rodeo for Hoedown Showdown contestants"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Aspiring musicians from across Ontario descended on Theatre Aurora last week to see if they had what it takes to win the 2014 Wild Wild West Hoedown Showdown. <\/p>\n

Whether new to the competition, or returning for the second year running, their objective was clear: securing a spot in the Top 20. The Top 20 will perform at Aurora\u2019s Ribfest in September, while keeping an eye on the ultimate prize: $1,000 cash, a $1,000 Yamaha guitar, a professional studio recording session, and a chance to perform at Hoedown on September 13.
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\n\u201cWe\u2019re looking for someone who has the ability to go on and take it to the next level of their career by winning this contest,\u201d explained country singer Chris Seldon, who judged the contest for the second year running. \u201cThat type of singer is someone who is just good, authentic, and someone who can go on with their own career.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s preliminary round provided a healthy dose of Aurora talent with the likes of John Abel, Shannon Beresford, Kahlan Crowe, Lauren Hoyles, Jessica Joerges, and Daniele Neising, taking over the stage. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve loved country music since I was a little girl and I have been singing since I could talk,\u201d said Joerges, who billed herself as \u201c17-and-a-quarter\u2026and five days\u201d, before she went up to sing \u201cWide Open Spaces\u201d by the Dixie Chicks.<\/p>\n

When she heard about the Showdown last year, it was too late to sign up, but this year Joerges was ready, priming herself through other competitions, making the Top 8 in this year\u2019s Aurora Teen Idol competition. <\/p>\n

\u201cI hope the judges will see I am a fun person, and that I hopefully have talent,\u201d said Joerges. \u201cI want this really badly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joerges was in the first round of performances along with Neising. This was the second Showdown competition for Neising, 21, this time performing \u201cDrunk Last Night\u201d by Eli Young Band.<\/p>\n

\u201cStage performance is one thing I learned from last year,\u201d she said. \u201cI have known this song for a long time, so I am comfortable with it as well, and it suits my vocal range. I am in school now, so I don\u2019t have a lot of time to show around now [in competitions] but I have always just loved country music. It is fun, sometimes depressing, but it is very emotional and real and you can connect with it very easily.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another competitor this year fresh out of the Aurora Teen Idol competition was Crowe, 14, who came armed with \u201cBlown Away\u201d by Carrie Underwood. She has been making an effort to get herself out into the music scene.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the last year, I have been doing a lot more things with singing, so I think it would be great to try this as well,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen I was really little, I had this guitar my parents bought and I would just strum around on it. It was the same with piano. I want to show the judges I can do the belty high notes, but I also have a low range. It is a very upbeat song, so I will be dancing around trying to get them involved in the process.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the time the afternoon rolled around, Councillor Abel was ready for his second time participating in the Hoedown Showdown. Although it probably doesn\u2019t need to be said he shied away from the likes of Underwood and Lambert, and took his performance in a different direction with the Carl Smith classic \u201cLet Old Mother Nature Have Her Way\u201d from 1951.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am very comfortable with it, it borders between country and a little bit of rock and it suits my style,\u201d he explained. \u201cI would like to be able to move to the semifinals to get to Ribfest this year because that was a great experience for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Seldon, the importance of making it to these venues is all too clear for performers beginning their careers. After Ribfest, the Top 10 will then perform under the Hoedown Tent on September 12 as a prelude to the main event. <\/p>\n

\u201cMany of these people are true amateurs in the sense that they are singing at home in their bedrooms or at parties and this gives them the opportunity to play in front of some very large crowds,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019re talking about 4,000 \u2013 5,000 people and that will be the largest crowd these people will have ever played for. That is the big opportunity and [the prize] will give someone the chance to springboard from this competition into something more.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aspiring musicians from across Ontario descended on Theatre Aurora last week to see if they had what it takes to win the 2014 Wild Wild West Hoedown Showdown. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7378,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/2014-07-17-01.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-1W6","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-25 09:20:38","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}