Long weekend’s musical offerings
Kiwi music heavyweights Shayne Carter and Don McGlashan will play together at Upper Hutt’s Queen’s Birthday Music Festival from June 1-4.
An annual event, the festival at Expressions features an impressive line-up which, with Anika Moa opening on the Thursday, is book ended by contemporary New Zealand musical figures of the highest calibre.
Carter and McGlashan have long and productive careers. They will join forces for a show which follows a well-received tour last year after a debut appearance at the Auckland Arts Festival.
‘‘While they won’t hold back on renditions of some of their best known songs, it’s not a reunion show, nor a nostalgia trip - more an adventurous wander down the dusty alleys of their musical inventories,’’ the festival information says.
Carter was the singersongwriter and guitarist of the Straitjacket Fits, a band who contributed much to the international recognition of New Zealand music in the 1990s.
He later formed Dimmer, a groove-oriented collective which delivered several classic songs and albums till 2012.
McGlashan is forever known for The Mutton Birds, a four-piece which emerged out of Blam Blam Blam and whose There is no depression in New Zealand remains a landmark in Kiwi music.
The Muttonbirds produced five albums in the 1990s with Dominion Road, The Heater and the cover of The Fourmyula’s
An adventurous wander down the dusty alleys of their musical inventories.
Nature all big singles. His solo career features includes the respected albums, Warm Hand and Lucky Stars.
Moa’s show promises to ‘‘revel in her clever, charismatic and funny as all hell character’’.
The singer-songwriter produced six albums and won awards aplenty including twice Best Female Solo Artist at the New Zealand Music Awards.
The festival’s Gala Night features American vocalist Tony Lindsay [Santana] with jazzfusion drummer Dave Weckl, Los Angeles saxophonist Adam Schroeder and the trumpet of Alex Sipiagin with The Rodger Fox Big Band.
The Blues Night features the return of the popular Chris Cain, the World Blues Revue regular and a three-piece band.
Tickets, $45 a show, are available at expressions.org.nz or by calling 527 2168.