Biography

Gail was born in New Plymouth 1949 [New Zealand] and was raised on a small sheep and dairy farm 25 miles north of New Plymouth. Surrounded by country music at a very early age she recalls that both parents were very talented singers and musicians .
Gail’s first solo performance was at a Primary School concert at the age of 12 , when her teacher made her sing Blue Hawai’i and San Antonio Rose.
From that time on stage alone she knew that she wanted to make music a big part of her life .
Through High School , she took singing lessons and performed in productions and competed in singing competitions .She continued studying voice at Teacher’s College and wanted to become an Opera singer but never got that far as marriage and children came along in the 70’s.
After a decade away from Taranaki Gail joined a country music club when she moved back to New Plymouth .She soon found herself becoming addicted to singing country music and after a year had the request to join a Dance band . Her band The Isonics were formed with two musicians from Iceland [Gutti and Rosi ] both married to NZ girls.
Most weekends were spent entertaining and gave Gail great experience which was what she needed as she progressed with her music career. In 1991 Gail moved to Wellington and performed with other bands in the same sort of venues. At this time she also started competing in Country Music Awards and had lots of success over the next decade gaining places .Along with her duo partner Rewa MacGregor they as ‘Innovation Duo’ took out Two Over All Country Music Awards in 2002 .
It was in 2003 that Gail decided to try her hand at songwriting and one of the highlights for her was when she won a songwriting award with a wedding song that she wrote for her niece .The song called ‘This Is Our Special Wedding Day , took out the song writing award at the Gourmet Paradise awards in 2005 .With this success she wrote more songs and finally her album I’m Just A Country Girl At Heart was released in May 2006 with nine of her original songs .
In August of that year to her surprise she found that she had climbed very high on world charts coming in at spot no 4 On the world’s most played artist and at spot no 3 On Joyce Ramgatie’s Worldwide Country Charts .
Gail has recorded another album of ballads and some gospel songs, some of which are her own originals . Gail works part time as an OT support worker at Porirua Hospital for the mentally ill , she loves to cook , walk ,read, write songs, compete in Veteran Awards , travel and enjoys making new friends on the net . She loves to do guest spots at Country Music Clubs and still appears on country music shows mainly in the North Island . In 2008 Gail joined the Blue Highway Country Showband to do a small tour of the South Island ending up in Gore, the main country music centre of New Zealand. Along with her friend Evelyn Such and partner Peato they competed in the Busking Competitions and reached the finals which she says was just wonderful .
Gail lives with her Tokelaun partner Peato In Titahi Bay , has three grown up children and one grand daughter.

For further info please visit Gail at
www.freewebs.com/gailrussell
or email lesleygail@xtra.co.nz