By Darren Lum

Lunar Bloom needs your vote to win theCBC spotlight contest with their popular love song Sweater.

Haliburton's connection to indie folktrio Lunar Bloom is Jocelyn Regina a well-known singing and actingtalent who has performed in open mic nights as a teenager and on thestage for productions in the Highlands Summer Festival at theNorthern Lights Performing Arts Pavilion.

Daughter to Lauren McInnes and TomRegina both well known music teachers in the area and a HaliburtonHighlands Secondary School graduate of 2008 Regina has strong rootsto the Highlands.

Last week the Toronto-based band ofRegina Kelly McNamee and Brittany Rae Robinson learned they were onestep closer to winning the music contest by making the top-100 whichwas divided into 50 voted and 50 judged this past week.

Using a “texting thread” where theycan message each other the three learned of the good news at thesame time.

Although Lunar Bloom was happy to haveadvanced and included as part of 50 voted by the public Regina jokedabout feeling a little uncertain about why they weren't included inthe 50 entrants chosen by a judging panel.

“We were just really happy to be inthe top-100 because it felt like the response we were getting onsocial media it seemed like a lot of people were supporting us so itwas really nice to make it in” she said. “We did have a littlelaugh. We were like 'Hmmm I don't know whether to be like a littleinsulted that we didn't make it in the producer way … but no wewere actually just really really thrilled and really feeling all thelove from friends and family that took the time to vote every day.”

The next step now is for the band tomake it into the top 10.

There will be three spots chosen by thepublic and seven spots decided by a panel of judges. Seehttps://www.cbc.ca/musicinteractives/searchlight to vote for LunarBloom before the deadline on Tuesday Feb. 25 at 2:59 p.m. The grandprize winner will be announced on Thursday March 5 at 10 a.m.

The top prizes for winning this contestinclude a spot with Allan Slaight Juno Master Class and a Juno Awardsexperience; recording residency at Studio Bell in Calgary and a CBCMusic Festival Performance.

Getting to be included in the top-100is a credit to the band's support Regina said.

She's thankful to those who helped votefor her band to earn the top-100 in the second round of the contest.The support for the band has included Canoe FM's Kris Kadwell whohas been playing their music and telling people to vote.

“There are quite a lot of people havebeen sharing the video and voting for us. So just a really bigheartfelt thank you to everybody for the support” she said.

Followthe band through their website at www.lunarbloomband.com or@lunarbloomband.

See a longer version of this story in this coming week's Echo .