February 3, 2021

Concert Review: Auckland Folk Festival, Kumeu Showgrounds 29 January to 1 February 2021

The 48^th Auckland Folk Festival almost didn’t make it. Nervous times as the progress of coronavirus in Auckland dominated the news. Festival President Nigel Robertson is MC for Sunday night’s Showcase Concert, and it was nervous times right up to Opening Evening on Friday. Part 1 of 2.

But the Music Gods continue to favour us and a great weekend of diverse Folk and World music was laid out. Because of closed borders, all were local artists. But the high standard of past festivals was matched. There was high anticipation for many of the featured acts.

Troy Kingi and Delaney Davidson

One of those was Troy Kingi who played on Sunday afternoon. Making his first appearance at the Festival to showcase his new Folk album to be titled Black Sea Golden Ladder. Out in a month or thereabouts, so it was a privilege to be the first to hear them publicly. Part of his Ten Albums in Ten Genres project.

Last seen showcasing Heavy Funk with about a dozen players, this could not be more different. Accompanied on stage today by Delaney Davidson, who is producing the album. Acoustic and electric guitar and two voices. Ten songs built around poems looking at life from the intensely personal inner spiritual path leading to death and beyond.

Whilst the themes are Folk, the musical genres bleed into one another and the music ranges far and wide.

Sleep sounds Indie-Pop with soulful vocals. Feel the darkness ascending/ Feel the sea stretch behind you.

Call My Name goes to primary school. Melodic Folk-Pop with a simple click rhythm. A little Dylan wordplay Rap. Back in time to Greenwich Village in the Sixties.

Hunt Down Happiness is great theatre. Music as cinema and vaudeville. Chris O’Connor comes on stage to play the 44-gallon drum. A door creaks open as the barrel is scratched. Eastern electric guitar tones. Some heavy breathing. Little baby falling to the soft sky. Ritualised incantations. A scary movie as the music builds from Sixties Garage Rock to English Prog.

Then there is Twilight. A twang of Fifties Rockabilly guitar and George Jones style Country-Soul vocals.

Sea of Death uses the ocean as a metaphor for the journey. You come out from it. You go back into it. Peaceful Indie-Pop sounding like Coldplay.

To contrast, Gimme Hell brings back the 44 gallon drum. Nice R’n’B guitar riffs which progress and stretch out to a Bo Diddley meets Velvet Underground drone. A nice Electric guitar solo rips through the middle.

Quite a stunning and idiosyncratic set. A real treat for the Main Marquee on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Kingi wearing his trademark warm jean jacket and shades.

Delaney Davidson and Barry Saunders

Midday at the Main Marquee. Delaney Davidson and Barry Saunders are featuring their highly regarded album Word Gets Around. Country Album of the Year in 2020. Legend has it they found a musical connection in Church. How Southern Baptist is that?

Dressed all in black, and the energy levels are whipped up quickly with Country Rockabilly and Cow Punk numbers.

Long Ways Home and Nineteen Days. Dirty electric guitar fuzz. Outlaw Country. ZZ Top good times.

A tasty acoustic guitar solo breakdown from Barry in the middle of those two songs, on Mind Reader Blues.

Deep into the dark heart of Rockabilly and they cover a classic from cult artist and early Presley musical confidante Charlie Feathers and his Can’t Hardly Stand It. A slow start and an ominous building tone. Shivers from the electric guitar. From a distance you can see a resemblance to Keith Richard in Barry.

A highlight is an old Skip James song they cover, Special Rider Blues. Incantatory voices. A dirty grimy sound with an ominous rhythm. Mutated Memphis Rockabilly Blues like a Panther Burns.

There are some new songs being given their test runs. One called Little Dollar (I think) has some nice lonesome harmonica wailing by Barry. Dolorous and resigned in feel, and would be in good company on Springsteen’s Nebraska.

As would Stolen River, off their own album. A song of protest and remorse about environmental degradation. Walk beside the stolen river/ you won’t see your reflection here anymore.

They end the set with some fire and venom with Word Gets Around. A whirling intro of Cow Punk drums.

The Eastern

The Eastern are an acoustic string band and old-timers to the Folk Festival. Out of Christchurch maybe 13 years ago they have been one of the hardest working live outfits over that time. Led by the loud and mercurial Adam McGrath, who never fails to capture a crowd, big or small from the moment he walks on.

Very much a Folk band in the tradition of protest and social conscience. Of course, there are elements of Country, Roots Americana, Pogues style Irish Folk Punk.

They play as smaller combos, soloists, with other bands but this weekend they are together as a seven-piece. Including Reb Fountain as backing vocalist.

McGrath takes a little time to point out that Folk music is protest and social commentary in the long tradition of the travelling troubadours. And they will give you a rousing good time while they’re at it.

Starting with I Ain’t Got No Home in this World Anymore and Woody Guthrie’s song done Springsteen fashion. Inspiring and starts the set on a high.

Follow that with Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Fortunate Son. Revved up with a little Cajun swing from the fiddle.

A couple of Country Rock numbers. McGraths rasping delivery has more than an echo of The Boss.

A song about wanting to cut the fat from Gerry Brownlee to warm the poor starts as a boogie and segues into Baby Please Don’t Go. Van Morrison style.

Jess Shanks plays banjo and shares the main songwriting credits with McGrath. She sings lead and they do it Country style and slower with all the Kings horses and all the Kings men/ Couldn’t keep me from Rosie’s door again.

The Great Society talks to the working man and is filled with loss and regret. Lyndon Johnson’s slogan. A similar one became a catchphrase four years ago. Any mention of the last US President quickly gets jeers from the audience.

Close to the end they pay tribute to Roger Giles. A titan of Folk music in New Zealand. He established the Festival 48 years ago and was President for many years. Passed away late in 2020. Love of the Common People. Done without amplification as Roger was well-known for his love of acoustic-only music.

Finish by jumping off the stage and singing Old MacDonald’s Farm to the children.

Aro

The Festival has highlighted te reo Maori this year. Starting with a powerful powhiri on opening night.

There are several performers who sing in contemporary te reo this weekend. One of the best are Aro. Husband and wife duo Charles and Emily Looker make their debut here.

At home in a Folk setting. Emily has a mellifluous Soul Jazz voice and Charles has a nice smooth tenor. But he can also beef it up to sing Haka-style.

They feature music from their album Manu and current EP He Manu Ano.

Beginning with Kotare and Huia off the EP. Melodic and warm. It is Maori Pop and it sounds fresh and underlined with some serious musical chops.

Miromiro has great Soul Jazz English vocals from Emily and nice Indie-Pop feel. Charles responds at the end with a robust haka-style reply.

Kotuku was written during Lockdown and their underlying soulfulness is to the fore. With a bit of the classic era Motown feel.

Korimako is off their debut and was a finalist for the APRA Best Children’s Song.

All the above songs are written around New Zealand’s native birds. Each one has a story around it which combines Maori folklore and myth.

Aro have also received funding from the Ministry of Arts and Culture to produce music for children.

Their music has lots of hooks and changes in tempo so it is hugely appealing. And not just to kids.

Like Pukeko. A bird that stands its ground. More a Pop Haka and verging to melodic proto-Rap. Piwaiwaka is a hook-laden haka.

Tauhau is about finding yourself in a storm. But it is sunny and bright and could be Soul from the late Sixties.

Essentially a soulful duo who can write great hooks and are moving the language of the land into exciting areas.

The Black Quartet

The Black Quartet are an interesting group. A classic string quartet. Jessica Hindin and Mahuia Bridgeman-Cooper on violins. Joseph Harrop viola and Rachel Wells cello.

They are the first on the main stage on Saturday morning, and I catch them halfway through their set.

A Country tune and with a nice Celtic swing, it is probably Irish in origin. Brings Van Morrison to mind and the strings he used in his Caldonia Soul period.

Next comes Four Seasons in One Day with a nice vocal by Wells. There’s a familiar descending pattern opening riff but it still takes a full minute to recognise Cream’s Sunshine of your Love.

Trip Hop is an original piece which sounds like an Irish reel.

A-Ha’s Take On Me is presented with a nice arrangement and does sound like an old parlour piece.

Britney Spear’s Toxic sounds classical at first. Then fast rhythmic passages blow the whole performance into great melodic Pop.

They are all fine solo performers in their own right. They have a lot of years of friendship between them so they can play around with different styles and genres and still essentially be a string quartet.

Later, in the Evening Showcase concert, they throw in a Gypsy Jazz tune which gets faster and more rhythmic until it becomes a reel.

Henna is movie music mixed with Oriental tones. Their eclectic nature makes them World Music type artists and not surprisingly they have performed at a Womad.

Rev Orange Peel

See part 2 of the Rev’s review here.