Blues CD ready to go

Blues CD ready to go

Mike Garner is back, and he's got a new CD ready to launch!

'Back?” I hear you say. Given that he was playing in town on October 15 and again at the Matua Pub with the Bay City Ramblers last weekend, when did he have time to be ‘away'? Well, in between those dates, in addition to spending a few inconvenient days in hospital, Mike was flown to Japan along with harp virtuoso Neil Billington to play at the prestigious Live Magic Festival in Tokyo. It's a festival that spans two days, with this year's headliner being the acclaimed American slide guitar player Sonny Landreth, all organised by Peter Barakan, one of Japan's most influential radio hosts. Mike and Neil had featured on his show during their second tour of Japan last year, which led to this year's invite.

The Japanese launch

It's a huge world music event with a cross-section of roots acts across three stages and Mike took the opportunity to release his new CD ‘40 Below Blues' at the festival. The duo was rapturously received, with Neil being invited to join Sonny Landreth on-stage for the festival's closing jam. They also sold a bunch of CDs, special ones pressed over there with Japanese text and altered artwork. The rest will go to shops in Japan. Mike reports that CDs there, as well as vinyl, still seem to be widely popular. So this, after the Brilleaux boys launched their new CD earlier in the year during their tour of the United Kingdom, marks the second CD in recent months to get a Tauranga release only after an international one. That's not a phenomenon I saw coming for the local music scene and I suspect is unlikely to reoccur any time soon! But now, next Saturday, November 12, Mike is launching ‘40 Below Blues' down at Brew Craft Beer Pub on The Strand.

Back to his roots

The album has been recorded during the last few months at the Colourfield Studio in Welcome Bay. It's been a little bit of a departure for Mike, as he explains: 'I have six earlier CDs, largely featuring various bands, so for this album I thought I'd go back to my early roots and my passion for solo acoustic guitar”. Indeed it is largely a solo acoustic album, with just two guests: Neil Billington of course, and Tauranga maestro Robbie Laven who adds fiddle, giving a lovely hint of early blues string bands. And, despite being known as a blues songwriter, this album contains mainly old blues tunes. 'There are three originals but the rest are a snapshot of songs that were important to me when I was getting into the blues, almost all from the 1920s and 1930s. 'I no longer have a permanent electric band and for some time this kind of material has been the backbone of my live sets.” He even includes two songs from the legendary Charlie Patton, an idol of Robert Johnson's, who is sometimes known as the 'grandfather of the blues”. Mike says: 'He was a great innovator, and a star in the 1920s, and the first recorded person to feature on-stage antics like playing the guitar behind his head, throwing it into the air and so on long before Hendrix and others did it”.

The Tauranga launch

Of the CD launch itself, Mike says it will feature all the songs from the album plus the regular material he plays with long-time percussion partner Warren Houston. There will be guests, including Warren and Robbie Laven and probably other Bay City Ramblers. In keeping with the times the actual CD will only be available at live gigs such as this, though the album is also gettable via digital download and streaming from the usual suspects. Things'll be kicking off at 4pm at Brew, running through ‘til 7pm, with no charge. I'll get hold of an album and review it in a couple of weeks and we'll no doubt get back to Mike in the not too distant future since he's heading back overseas at the beginning of December as one of the Bay City Ramblers, playing at the Norfolk Island Jazz Festival.

watusi@thesun.co.nz

Sunrise. Photo: Matt Rossiter. Send us your photos and stories from around the Bay of Plenty. Email: photos@thesun.co.nz

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