Blues in New Zealand
Encyclopedia
The history of blues in New Zealand dates from the 1960s. The earliest blues
influences on New Zealand
musicians were indirect — not from the United States
but from white British
blues musicians: first the R&B
styles of The Animals
and The Rolling Stones
, and later the blues-tinged rock
of groups such as Led Zeppelin
. The first American blues artist to make a big impact in New Zealand was Stevie Ray Vaughan
in the early 1980s. Other blues-related genres such as soul
and gospel
almost completely by-passed New Zealand audiences, except for a handful of hits from cross-over artists such as Ray Charles
.
While New Zealand does not have its own blues style, it does have some fine blues artists, some excellent venues, including the Southern Blues Bar in Christchurch
and The Hotel Bristolhttp://www.hotelbristol.co.nz in Wellington
, and an established following (including members of The New Zealand Blues Society and the Wellington Blues Club — Capital Blues).
is a blues and R&B guitar
ist, harmonica
-player and singer with a career spanning four decades.
Darren Watson
is a singer and guitarist in a wide range of blues styles, as well as an international award-winning songwriter. Watson led the very popular blues band Smoke Shop, which featured on the New Zealand charts and toured extensively throughout the country in the 1980s and 1990s, opening for several international blues artists including NZ tours with Koko Taylor, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, and two tours with The Robert Cray Band. More recently Watson has recorded three successful albums: King Size, which was nominated for Best Roots Album at the 2003 NZ Music Awards, 2005's South Pacific Soul, and his latest Saint Hilda's Faithless Boy, which Wellington's Dominion Post named in their Top 5 albums of 2010.
Tura "Bullfrog" Rata is a blues singer and guitarist who often plays alongside Midge Marsden.
The Windy City Strugglers
is a Wellington
band whose music is based on the singing, songwriting and guitar playing of Bill Lake and the vocals of Rick Bryant. Long-serving band members are Andrew Delahunty on guitar, harmonica and mandolin and Nick Bollinger on double bass.
The Remarkable Beat Roosters was formed in the mid-1990s by members of Midge Marsden's band, Sid Limbert (bass), Freddy Limbert (drums) and Brian Harley (guitar), and became New Zealand's most powerful R&B trio, rapidly gaining a loyal New Zealand-wide cult following. Their only recording, Live 'n' Loose, has become a collectors' item. It was recorded in Sid Limbert's home studio in 1996. It is a cross section of their regular set material, but the standout is Limbert's original slow blues "Blues Still Blue", an evocative memory of the first time he visited Mississippi
. The Remarkable Beat Roosters opened for B. B. King
's Auckland concert in the early 1990s. King was so impressed that he called them up on stage at the end of the show. This was also a reunion with King's long-time drummer Caleb Emphryas, who had taken the Limberts fishing in Mississippi some years before. All the band members are still actively playing. Freddy Limbert has teamed up with Simen "Bluekeys" Taylor to form a blues duo and Sid Limbert toured New Zealand with his son Freddy, Taylor and Darren Watson in 2005.
Mike Brosnan is a songwriter, singer and guitarist. Despite extensive international touring, for much of his early career he remained relatively unknown in the wider world. This lack of wider recognition may have been due to the music industry's inability to pigeonhole his music, containing as it does such diverse influences: from rock to folk, from blues to Celtic to country. His slide guitar work is considered a highlight, with many positive comparisons drawn with Ry Cooder
's best work. Brosnan now lives, performs and records very successfully in Germany
and his latest album
, Beneath Southland Skies, has been reviewed very favourably both in Europe and New Zealand. Included are the gritty, real-life details of "Another Song for the Road", the dark poetry of "Be with You" and the rocking opening track "Letter to a Friend".
Hammond Gamble is a singer and guitarist. He achieved considerable fame in the late 1970s fronting one of the biggest bands on the New Zealand rock circuit at the time, Street Talk, and later the Hammond Gamble Band. He recorded two albums with Street Talk and three under his own name. Probably his best and most widely known recording is the live 1995 album Plugged in and Blue. Gamble is also a songwriter. Joe Cocker
recorded his song "If You’ve Got Love, Give Me Some", and Gamble composed rock classics such as "Leaving the Country" and "Should I be Good or Should I be Evil". In 1992 and 1993 he had a number-one hit with a rare non-original, "You Make the Whole World Smile". Gamble has won a number of New Zealand awards, including Rock Performer of the Year, Album of the Year, APRA Silver Scroll and Film Soundtrack of the Year. He has played as a support act for many major performers in New Zealand including Tina Turner
, Talking Heads
, Fleetwood Mac
, Bonnie Raitt
and Joe Cocker.
Malcolm Bishop and Blutopia is a 10 piece band. The band was originally founded in Christchurch but Malcolm moved to Auckland in April 2010 and reformed the band.
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
influences on New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
musicians were indirect — not from the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
but from white British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
blues musicians: first the R&B
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
styles of The Animals
The Animals
The Animals were an English music group of the 1960s formed in Newcastle upon Tyne during the early part of the decade, and later relocated to London...
and The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
, and later the blues-tinged rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
of groups such as Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...
. The first American blues artist to make a big impact in New Zealand was Stevie Ray Vaughan
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Stephen Ray "Stevie Ray" Vaughan was an American electric blues guitarist and singer. He was the younger brother of Jimmie Vaughan and frontman for Double Trouble, a band that included bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton. Born in Dallas, Vaughan moved to Austin at the age of 17 and...
in the early 1980s. Other blues-related genres such as soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
and gospel
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
almost completely by-passed New Zealand audiences, except for a handful of hits from cross-over artists such as Ray Charles
Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...
.
While New Zealand does not have its own blues style, it does have some fine blues artists, some excellent venues, including the Southern Blues Bar in Christchurch
Christchurch
Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of...
and The Hotel Bristolhttp://www.hotelbristol.co.nz in Wellington
Wellington
Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...
, and an established following (including members of The New Zealand Blues Society and the Wellington Blues Club — Capital Blues).
Artists
Midge MarsdenMidge Marsden
Keith Douglas "Midge" Marsden MNZM is a New Zealand blues and R&B guitarist, harmonica-player, and singer with a musical career spanning four decades.-Biography:...
is a blues and R&B guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
ist, harmonica
Harmonica
The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
-player and singer with a career spanning four decades.
Darren Watson
Darren Watson
Darren Watson is a New Zealand singer, songwriter and guitarist in a wide range of blues styles.Darren Watson was born in Wanganui. His first musical experience was playing drums and trumpet but he soon moved on to guitar and was playing in bars and clubs throughout his years at Hutt Valley High...
is a singer and guitarist in a wide range of blues styles, as well as an international award-winning songwriter. Watson led the very popular blues band Smoke Shop, which featured on the New Zealand charts and toured extensively throughout the country in the 1980s and 1990s, opening for several international blues artists including NZ tours with Koko Taylor, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, and two tours with The Robert Cray Band. More recently Watson has recorded three successful albums: King Size, which was nominated for Best Roots Album at the 2003 NZ Music Awards, 2005's South Pacific Soul, and his latest Saint Hilda's Faithless Boy, which Wellington's Dominion Post named in their Top 5 albums of 2010.
Tura "Bullfrog" Rata is a blues singer and guitarist who often plays alongside Midge Marsden.
The Windy City Strugglers
The Windy City Strugglers
The Windy City Strugglers are one of New Zealand's most enduring blues bands. Their music is based on the singing, songwriting, and guitar playing of Bill Lake, and the vocals of Rick Bryant. Their long-serving band members are Andrew Delahunty on guitar, harmonica and mandolin and Nick Bollinger...
is a Wellington
Wellington
Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...
band whose music is based on the singing, songwriting and guitar playing of Bill Lake and the vocals of Rick Bryant. Long-serving band members are Andrew Delahunty on guitar, harmonica and mandolin and Nick Bollinger on double bass.
The Remarkable Beat Roosters was formed in the mid-1990s by members of Midge Marsden's band, Sid Limbert (bass), Freddy Limbert (drums) and Brian Harley (guitar), and became New Zealand's most powerful R&B trio, rapidly gaining a loyal New Zealand-wide cult following. Their only recording, Live 'n' Loose, has become a collectors' item. It was recorded in Sid Limbert's home studio in 1996. It is a cross section of their regular set material, but the standout is Limbert's original slow blues "Blues Still Blue", an evocative memory of the first time he visited Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
. The Remarkable Beat Roosters opened for B. B. King
B. B. King
Riley B. King , known by the stage name B.B. King, is an American blues guitarist and singer-songwriter.Rolling Stone magazine ranked him at No.3 on its list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. According to Edward M...
's Auckland concert in the early 1990s. King was so impressed that he called them up on stage at the end of the show. This was also a reunion with King's long-time drummer Caleb Emphryas, who had taken the Limberts fishing in Mississippi some years before. All the band members are still actively playing. Freddy Limbert has teamed up with Simen "Bluekeys" Taylor to form a blues duo and Sid Limbert toured New Zealand with his son Freddy, Taylor and Darren Watson in 2005.
Mike Brosnan is a songwriter, singer and guitarist. Despite extensive international touring, for much of his early career he remained relatively unknown in the wider world. This lack of wider recognition may have been due to the music industry's inability to pigeonhole his music, containing as it does such diverse influences: from rock to folk, from blues to Celtic to country. His slide guitar work is considered a highlight, with many positive comparisons drawn with Ry Cooder
Ry Cooder
Ryland Peter "Ry" Cooder is an American guitarist, singer and composer. He is known for his slide guitar work, his interest in roots music from the United States, and, more recently, his collaborations with traditional musicians from many countries.His solo work has been eclectic, encompassing...
's best work. Brosnan now lives, performs and records very successfully in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and his latest album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
, Beneath Southland Skies, has been reviewed very favourably both in Europe and New Zealand. Included are the gritty, real-life details of "Another Song for the Road", the dark poetry of "Be with You" and the rocking opening track "Letter to a Friend".
Hammond Gamble is a singer and guitarist. He achieved considerable fame in the late 1970s fronting one of the biggest bands on the New Zealand rock circuit at the time, Street Talk, and later the Hammond Gamble Band. He recorded two albums with Street Talk and three under his own name. Probably his best and most widely known recording is the live 1995 album Plugged in and Blue. Gamble is also a songwriter. Joe Cocker
Joe Cocker
John Robert "Joe" Cocker, OBE is an English rock and blues musician, composer and actor, who came to popularity in the 1960s, and is most known for his gritty voice, his idiosyncratic arm movements while performing, and his cover versions of popular songs, particularly those of The Beatles...
recorded his song "If You’ve Got Love, Give Me Some", and Gamble composed rock classics such as "Leaving the Country" and "Should I be Good or Should I be Evil". In 1992 and 1993 he had a number-one hit with a rare non-original, "You Make the Whole World Smile". Gamble has won a number of New Zealand awards, including Rock Performer of the Year, Album of the Year, APRA Silver Scroll and Film Soundtrack of the Year. He has played as a support act for many major performers in New Zealand including Tina Turner
Tina Turner
Tina Turner is an American singer and actress whose career has spanned more than 50 years. She has won numerous awards and her achievements in the rock music genre have led many to call her the "Queen of Rock 'n' Roll".Turner started out her music career with husband Ike Turner as a member of the...
, Talking Heads
Talking Heads
Talking Heads were an American New Wave and avant-garde band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991. The band comprised David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison...
, Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac are a British–American rock band formed in 1967 in London.The only original member present in the band is its eponymous drummer, Mick Fleetwood...
, Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Lynn Raitt is an American blues singer-songwriter and a renowned slide guitar player. During the 1970s, Raitt released a series of acclaimed roots-influenced albums which incorporated elements of blues, rock, folk and country, but she is perhaps best known for her more commercially...
and Joe Cocker.
Malcolm Bishop and Blutopia is a 10 piece band. The band was originally founded in Christchurch but Malcolm moved to Auckland in April 2010 and reformed the band.
External links
- New Zealand Blues and Views — contains a selection of albums from New Zealand blues artists.
- New Zealand Blues Society — contains an extensive archive of New Zealand blues music reviews and articles, frequently updated New Zealand and international blues news, and New Zealand blues artists' directory.
- Hamilton Blues Society — Monthly jams, weekly blues radio, gig guide and more.