Winston Watusi Music Plus

I have a long list of things I'd like to write about; but time-dependant stuff keeps getting in the way.

Case in point: there's a new local album from singer/songwriter Ian Gilmour; there are newly-announced tour dates from England's Frank Turner; and I'm still obsessing over left-field folkie Stephen Fretwell.

Yet that must remain on the back-burner since two Americana duos are coming to the Bay next weekend, and I do feel an obligation to help plug things happening here.

First up, a duo I previewed last week. Matt Joe Gow and Kerryn Fields, are coming to The Jam Factory from Australia on Saturday, May 6.

They are two Kiwis who have achieved great things across the ditch, both of them serious practitioners of that huge genre deceptively known as ‘Americana'. They've each won multiple awards and have toured extensively and are now on a nationwide tour.

Matt grew up in Dunedin, surrounded by music. He picked up a guitar at an early age and, after travelling the world, settled in Melbourne. He's since released a string of albums while supporting the likes of Chris Isaak, The Jayhawks, Justin Townes Earle, Marlon Williams, and Jimmy Barnes. His 2019 album ‘Break Rattle & Roll' was Music Victoria's Americana/Country Record of the Year.

Kerryn grew up in Te Kūiti before relocating to Melbourne in 2007. She toured extensively around Australia, NZ and Canada for the next 13 years until the Covid-19 pandemic brought her back to New Zealand and led to her 2021 record ‘Water', which went on to win Music Victoria's Folk Work of the Year in 2022.

You can listen to both of them online and it's certainly worth it. Things happen 7pm; tickets $30.

Matt Joe Gow and Kerryn Fields.

Katikati

That same night the Katikati Folk Club once again prove to have their fingers on New Zealand's folk pulse as they welcome the duo We Mavericks who, after being nominated as Artists of the Year at the Australian Folk Music Awards in 2021, got a nomination as Best Folk Artist in the 2022 Aotearoa (NZ) Music Awards. Clearly these guys know what they're doing.

Perhaps explaining the multi-county nominations is the fact that We Mavericks comprise of both an Australian and a New Zealander. Fiddle player Lindsay Martin is from New South Wales and combines his masterful strings – he's also fluent on guitar and mandolin – with the acoustic guitar and beautiful vocals of Kiwi Victoria Vigenser. They sing original songs with echoes of their Celtic roots and once again a nod towards that big beast Americana.

The pair first recorded an album of Victoria's songs, ‘The Gap', under her name in 2018; and a full collection by We Mavericks, ‘Grief's A Gardener', followed in 2021. Several videos showing exactly what they do are on their website, at: wemavericks.com.au.

They're at Katikati's Arts Junction, Saturday, May 6, from 7pm for a 7.30pm start; members $20, casuals $25. Also on May 6 at Totara St: Dead Favours, Skinny Hobos and Dead Empire Boondocks from 8pm; tickets cost $30.

We Mavericks.

‘The Wendy House'

The following day, Sunday, May 7, sees the launch of an autobiography by local singer/songwriter and general multi-tasker Shirley Ryder. As she writes in the prologue: 'In 2017 I received a devastating diagnosis of stage four ovarian cancer. With the prognosis of a mere six per cent survival rate to five years, time became my new commodity”.

Shirley has so far used that time well. She interviewed a huge variety of New Zealand musicians for her web series ‘The Shirley Ryder Show', has released five albums and a concept musical film, and this will be her third book.

Cyprus to NZ

It is called ‘The Wendy House' and documents her musical journeys along with a life that has taken her from Cyprus to England to New Zealand.

Shirley describes herself as 'never one to shy away from controversial subjects” and says this book is no exception.

Although the passage I read concerned musicians and interviews, Shirley says: 'Along with musical and romantic confessions, (‘The Wendy House') gets in your face with brutally raw topics like cancer, date rape and the bright side of evil”. Shirley launches ‘The Wendy House' at the Tauranga Citizens Club on May 7 at 4pm.

Shirley Ryder's book.