Paul Ubana Jones has a considerable sized NZ tour planned for 2019, with 25 concerts booked, and audiences looking forward to hearing him perform recent and new songs.

He's playing at The Jam Factory in Tauranga on February 6.

'In August I recorded eight songs while on tour in Switzerland,” says Paul. 'The new songs will be released on my next album.”

Working the new songs into the two sets he'll be playing at each show is all part of being a performance artist.

'There's a thread that goes through what I write,” says Paul. 'Subjects pertinent and relevant to the human condition.

'How we react and respond to each other, people born into situations with destitution. They outgrow that and become champions of situations like their own. Also songs about unrequited love. 'Relationships that do well then crumble. Suicide. The real stuff out there.

'I'm not one of these heavy thinkers. I like jokes, but when it comes to portraying everyday life, it's about all these different people that we are. I reflect on the down-and-out, and the trodden-upon, be it socially, racially or the ones in relationships. That's been my theme.”

He wrote a song about a friend who committed suicide that has resonated with many over the years.

'I'd been carrying the song since 1974 and re-examining it, sculpturing the corners like marble. I played it to these high school kids who sat on the floor of a massive tent at the Vancouver Folk Festival in the early-1990s. There was a huge canopy of sadness that came down on me from what these kids were carrying. That night at my motel I had a good cry and realised that's why I'm doing music.”

Winner of three New Zealand Music Awards, Paul has shared the stage and toured with the likes of Tuck and Patti, BB King, Bob Dylan, Taj Mahal, Keb Mo and Crowded House. His blues and soul performances have wowed audiences across Europe and the UK.

'I ate with BB King and his band in Italy when I was opening for his show,” says Paul. 'And he once stopped me at an airport to ask what brought me to America, and said to me: 'My, my, my I haven't seen an afro like that since 1968.”

'I opened for him in Auckland and he'd eat with us, talking with the musicians. He grabbed me to kiss me, so I wrote this article ‘Kissing with the King'.” Paul chuckles at the memory.

'My point is there is this interaction and warmth with whoever is on the show, they're all important. 'People you meet on the way up you meet on the way down.”

In constant demand in NZ, part of Paul's appeal is this warmth, his embracing spirit, an agile and effortless guitar hand, and that smoky voice flowing along on his toe-tapping rhythms.