I have a new album from Ritchie Pickett playing on the stereo right now, and it's great to hear him again.

It was always possible that Ritchie's death would yield more music from him than the meagre output that incompetence, indifference and insecurity allowed for while he was alive, and this first offering is perhaps just a trickle at the start of what will hopefully become a flood. At least a little more of his remarkable talent is being documented, something that should please his many friends and fans in Tauranga, the place where he lived and made music for so long.

But, just before digging a little deeper into Ritchie's new disk, I wanted to remind everyone that with this big rugby thing drawing to an end it is time to rush out and snap up Arts Festival tickets.

The first week of the festival is particularly strong on its theatre content so – if y'all aren't too tuckered out after the weekend – pop online to www.taurangafestival.co.nz and check out the offerings, including German vaudeville extravaganza Berlin Burlesque, the intimate Salon, a real Kiwi Christmas in Silent Night, and, if you still haven't had enough of oblong-balled shenanigans, Roger Hall's C'Mon Black!

It's also worth noting that there's a show by ex-Tauranga fella Liam Ryan, currently the Artistic Director of the Jazz Festival, now living in Nelson. Liam's on on Saturday (no rugby that day!) playing an hour-long concert at 5pm in the Crystal Palace. The man really is one helluva keyboard player and will be helped out with his modern groove music by the guitar of Aaron Saxon and trumpet of Mike Booth. For a mere $10 it sounds like a good deal to me (and there's another $2 discount for TECT members).

But, back to that wicked piano-pumping Pickett.

Last thing I wrote about Ritchie was a rather cross obit, scribbled down in a very few hours between the news of his death and the newspaper deadline. You do that sort of thing when a friend drinks himself to death. And Ritchie was a friend, not just to me but to a whole pile of Tauranga musicians. This is going back a few years, to the late 80s and early 90s when Ritchie was living here and was the most exciting musical game in town.

Just as a measure of how broad his influence was, if we look at the established Tauranga bands, more than a few of Ritchie's old mates are still out there. Graham Clark of Brilleaux is one; Derek Jacombs from Kokomo played guitar with Ritchie; Simon Elton of The B-Side Band played bass with him; and John Michaelz (ex-Hard To Handle, now with new band The Usual) started as a guest-singing roadie.

(By the way, John's new outfit are playing a debut gig at Brewer's Bar on November 4 with special guests – well worth checking out.)

And a lot of the tracks on this new CD date from just after that period; Simon is even playing bass on some of them.
First let me get my reservations out of the way: the album is called White Horses, but it bears the inscription The Best of Ritchie Pickett. It's not. That was a handle insisted upon by the good folk at Sony who were, presumably, interested in a quick buck.

These are actually sessions Ritchie did with Auckland producer Simon Lynch in 1994 and 1995. They are not in pristine quality and don't include his most well known songs.

But, despite that, it's a great collection to have. It's the only place you can hear some of Ritchie's best tunes, never released but favourites live, such as ‘Angry Man' or the wonderful ‘A Dog Called Samuel'. ‘Rain Across The Lake' is a country romp that showed up on a Glen Moffatt album, while a number of the others appeared in different guises on Ritchie's ‘All Strung Out In A Bunch'.

This is a cut-price CD, so you should be able to pick it up cheap at JB Hi-Fi or Tracs and, if you ever enjoyed Ritchie, you should.

The album is short and imperfect, but the vitality of the music and songwriting shines through. Ritchie Pickett – still brilliant after all these years.