Austral wins Folk Alliance Australia traditional folk album of the year award 2022

Austral received Australian Folk Music Awards' (AFMA) traditional folk album of the year in Melbourne on Wednesday for their release Thylacine.

The awards are run by Folk Alliance Australia, the peak national body representing folk cultural activity and the folk industry of Australia.

Crimmin said it was great to be recognised for the hard work over the past 12 months.

"Especially with an album like that as a lot of work went into it," he said.

"You don't do these things for awards but it's a nice feeling when you receive one.

"That recognition makes you believe in yourself and keep doing what you're doing."

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The award presenter said Thylacine was an absolute cracker of an album and an adventurous production.

"It's full of exciting tune arrangements and an interesting selection of songs that meld beautifully together," she said.

"As an album Thylacine is well able to challenge anything from the Northern hemisphere."

Crimmin was a finalist in five categories as part of three different projects: with Austral in traditional folk album of the year, duo, group or ensemble artist of the year and the people's choice award, instrumentalist of the year as himself and in the community event as part of the Celtic Piping Club.

"Over the COVID-19 pandemic period, I decided coming out of it I wanted to get involved in as much music going forward which means I've spread my wings in playing with different people in projects, genres and styles.

Thylacine was released in May.

"We were about to go in and record an album at the beginning of 2020 and we had everything ready but then the pandemic hit," Crimmin said.

"We couldn't get into a studio because the lockdowns meant the studios were locked and then unlocked."

Another spanner in the works was that one band member was in Adelaide and couldn't get across the border.

"By the time we were ready to record we had a whole bunch of new material so it wasn't the album we were initially going to record," Crimmin said.

He said the the band had received an amazing response to the album which he described as traditional Celtic music with a real Australian twist.

Austral have performed at the Koroit Irish Festival and the Robert Burns Scottish Festival and been part of Lake School of Celtic Music Song and Dance.

Warrnambool band Above the Bit which features Nigel Wearne and Luke Watt was nominated in the AFMA's was a finalist in the contemporary folk music album of the year category.

Both bands are also finalists in The Music Victoria Awards 2022 folk work category.

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