Winston Watusi Music Plus

This week – a couple of live shows. There's a blues afternoon at the end of the month but, first, a fella coming to Katikati who needs no introduction.

So what do you have to do to ‘need no introduction'? I guess it's different for different people. From a musical perspective, all you have to do is write one unforgettable song. That's it. Just one. Easy eh? For all the McCartneys and Springsteens, who create seemingly endless moments of brilliance, entry to the club is just one.

Ask Ralph ‘Streets Of London' McTell. Or even John ‘Damn The Dam' Hanlon. From that moment on it's all the introduction you'll need.

On Saturday, October 29, Eric Bogle is coming to The Arts Junction at the invitation of the Katikati Folk Club. Eric Bogle needs no introduction. Well, only this: he's the man who wrote ‘And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda'. That's it, done.

Eric is a Scottish-born Australian folk singer-songwriter. He's written dozens of songs on a wide range of subjects: bright comic songs, satires, protest songs and other serious considerations of the human condition. But it's that one – a devastating account of young Aussie diggers transplanted to the killing beaches of Gallipoli – covered by and spread across the globe by The Pogues and others, which now define him.

Eric's coming with long-time musical collaborators Pete Titchener (guitar) and Emma Luker (violin). Tickets are $20 for members, otherwise $25, available on the door or the folk club website, where you can also find all other details.

Rehab.

Blues acts

The following day, Sunday, October 30, there's a blues combo at the Mount. Not only that but it's free. Totara Street's brilliant new Chur Chon Sndy initiative, offering complimentary music and food every Sunday at the venue, has proved slightly over-ambitious so they've scaled back to once-a-month. And this next one will be a doozy, featuring two up-and-coming blues acts; one of seasoned professionals, one of school-kids.

The seasoned professionals are Rehaab, the new four-piece fronted by singer-songwriter Roy Hudson, which has risen from the ashes of Hybrid Blues.

Roy has had a busy and challenging time of it during the past three years. That's when he returned from a 30-year stint in the UK having, among other things, sung there in well-respected metal band KORU. Finding the metal scene too regimented for his tastes he'd already started a blues band on the side, Loose Moorings, and it was that passion he has followed in Tauranga.

Somorous.

After an exhaustive search for musicians he assembled Hybrid Blues, who released an album last year made at Welcome Bay's Colourfield Studio and was signed to an American label, only for the project to come to an abrupt end with the sad death from cancer of much-loved guitarist Mike Everard.

Starting over

Roy, along with drummer Grant MacCracken, started again from scratch, and by a quirk of fate guitarist Mike Furness, top of their list, veteran of Phil Rudd's European touring outfit, a man legendary for his killer tone, had just departed eight-piece Electric Universe looking for a smaller band. Bass played Larry Treanor completes the line-up.

Now Rehaab is recording at the Mount's 11b Studio and already posting free-to-air demos on their website. They're also gearing up for November's NZ Blues and BBQ Festival in Rotorua.

Rehaab also have a passion for supporting young Aotearoa musicians and next week have invited a young blues band from Taupo, Sonorous, to join them at Totara Street. Sonorous are Lucian McDermott (aged 15, on guitar/vocals), Khani Te Mete (aged 15, on bass) and drummer Paris Takarangi, a veritable veteran at 18. Their manager Carol told me: 'We met Rehaab at the Rotorua Blues Club. The boys loved them and are so grateful for their constant support and inviting them to the Totara Gig. Such awesome guys!”

The Rotorua Festival also includes a Youth Band Competition so Sonorous is writing blues songs especially for the festival. They say they 'can't wait to compete and just be around all the blues music and amps”.

Catch Sonorous and Rehaab at Totara Street from 2pm on Sunday, October 30. It's free – and there's food!