True legends on the road...again

There was a time that Brendan Dugan’s face was seen more on a house listing than on a gig poster, as a self-imposed sabbatical from music saw him try his hand as, among other things, a real estate agent and restauranteur.

Fast forward three decades, and the 65-year-old has long since put away the open home signs to tend to houses of another kind – full ones.

‘‘Gray [Bartlett] and I did a show the other night in Tauranga – we hadn’t played together in a while – and we turned away 150 people at the door.’’

Fourteen months after a sellout show at Richmond’s Club Waimea in Richmond, the Kiwi country music legend and 1985 NZ Entertainer of the Year will join fellow New Zealand country music icons and multi-award winning country artists Eddie Low, Jody Vaughan and guitarist Gray Bartlett for the True Legends tour, which comes to Nelson’s Theatre Royal this Sunday.

After winning New Faces as a 16-year-old in 1968, Dugan’s baritone voice has carried him on an almost 50-year career that has included a performance with Bartlett at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry theatre.

‘‘That was a huge honour,’’ he said.

The four True Legends recently performed to 6000 fans at Stampede Festival in Auckland, sharing the stage with US stars Leanne Rhimes and Scotty McCreery.

Dugan said while the country genre was on the rise globally, Kiwi musicians were having to stomp a bit harder on the floorboards to be heard on the airwaves.

‘‘Country’s actually growing, but for some reason New Zealand radio and that don’t play it like they do in Australia and in around the world everywhere it’s so, so big but New Zealand radio always seems to have a problem with it, which is a great shame but that’s the way it is,’’ he said.

While TV shows like ‘ That’s Country’ – which gave massive exposure to local acts in the 70s and 80s – were seldom screened these days, Dugan said the hard-work ethic of year-round touring and performing kept careers like his alive and kicking.

‘‘We just go out, do it ourselves and sell out theatres.’’

‘‘It’ll happen again – the good ol’ boys just keep on keepin’ on."

Opening the matinee performance will be local artist Aly Cook, whose song Western Line features Dugan on vocals and is still number one on the Australian country airplay chart.

A good friend and collaborator of the Nelson singer/songwriter, Dugan is set to release a new album of original material later this year for which Cook co-wrote several tracks.

‘‘She’s a great lady – she’s just got that gift of writing great music and is so hard-working.’’