Drinking in the blues
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Five top Aussie and Kiwi bands are lined up for the BB and B festival.
Five lineups will deliver sounds from two stages at the Blues Brews and BBQs festival on Saturday.
An annual event since 1994, the festival has become an important part of Marlborough's entertainment calendar and is a forum for the province to show off its boutique beers, home-grown cuisine and musical guests.
A mix of New Zealand and Australian-based performers will take their turns on two stages on Saturday. One, guitarist Nick Charles from Melbourne, has been described by Melbourne newspaper The Age as "Australia's virtuoso" of the acoustic roots guitar.
"Acoustic country blues" is his term for the music he plays. Ninety per cent of it is original but influences include Big Bill Broonzy and Blind Blake, the countrified picking of Doc Watson and Merle Travis and the infectious swing and melody of Django Reinhardt.
"No matter what I'm playing ... as long as I feel it's got some relevance in a bluesy sort of way, I'm being true to what I love," Charles said over the telephone from Christchurch. "If something has a `good feel', a good melody, I'm being true to it."
He had flown in from Melbourne the night before. Fellow Melbourne musician Lloyd Spiegel, also performing at Blues, Brews and BBQs, was already dazzling an audience at Le Cafe in Picton.
However, Spiegel silenced one round of loud cheers and applause with the remark: "If you think I'm good, wait until you see Nick Charles. He has probably forgotten more about the guitar than I will ever learn."
Charles doesn't say much when the compliment is repeated but suggests punters can make their own comparisons when he and Spiegel share the stage for a short while on Saturday. Tonight he is doing his own solo show at the Linkwater Country Inn and another on Sunday at Le Cafe.
Although based in Melbourne, Charles keeps busy on the concert-festival circuits in Australia and the United States, averaging more than 200 shows a year. Music, he says, has been his life for more than 25 years and this is his third visit to New Zealand and second time in Marlborough.
The Melbourne musicians will be competing for audience attention on Saturday with the Darcy Perry Band from Auckland, described in a press release as "one of New Zealand's best blues bands".
Perry has performed with Kiwi blues icons Bullfrog Rata, Midge Marsden and Shayne Wills and is joined on Saturday by Craig Bracken (harmonica), Darren MacDonald (keyboard), Adam Sharplin (bass) and Emanuel Cameron (drums).
Another act, the Giddy Robins Trio Electric Blues, claims to be from "outback Methven" but its lead guitarist, discreetly identified as "Robin", first performed at the festival while studying at Marlborough Boys' College. He is joined by Tom Taylor (bass) and Chris Greaves (drums).
Hawke's Bay duo The Rollicks is a female duo originally from the Netherlands. Laura (vocals, rhythm and lead guitar) and Rick (vocals, acoustic and electric guitar) may be remembered by blues fans at an earlier BB and B festival they were guests at.
Blenheim band Chilli Dogs complete Saturday's lineup with a mix of old and new grooves played by Simon Byrne (guitar), Nigel MacDonald (vocals, bass) and Adrian Nicolls (drums).
- The Marlborough Express
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