And we're back again for 2023, firing on several cylinders, ready to roll.

I hope y'all had a good break, if you were lucky enough to have a break. Here at the Watusi Country Club things went completely sideways.

Yes, sad to say, what has been a pandemic fortress was finally breached by Covid on Christmas Eve. Which kinda scuppered plans for a massive Christmas meal with friends; the 55-day-aged eye fillet went straight back in the freezer.

I'm sure you have no desire to hear yet another 'what Covid was like for me” story. Let me just say it was not good. Many friends had a quick and easy brush with the 'vids; others had a harder time and I was surprised to find myself one of those. Sometimes I forget I'm not still the bright-eyed young Watusi of when this column began twenty years ago...

In fact even now, nearly three weeks later, I'm not a hundred per cent. So please forgive any errors that arise, I'll try and keep the brain-fog at bay.

Let's start the year with a folk column. Tauranga is currently a favourite destination for folk artists, since this year's Auckland Folk Festival happens at the end of the month. That means a bunch of people coming to town who are currently touring on the back of a festival gig.

Broad church

Folk music, like everything else these days, is a broad and sometimes eccentric genre. It can include some intimidating-sounding stuff. The UK Guardian's end-of-year list of Best 2022 Folk Albums starts with one described thus: 'Italian electronic music pioneer Luciano Berio's arrangements of traditional music from Armenia, Azerbaijan, France, Italy and the US were given bewitching new interpretations by the Irish chamber music ensemble.'

Next on the list was 'A galvanising set of traditional music from a critically endangered culture in Japan'. I can understand a certain trepidation at such seemingly eclectic sounds. And the next was cheerfully described as 'A concept album about black refugees living in a near-future dystopia'.

So it's kinda reassuring that the number two slot went to 'Ghost Story', the self-released debut album by Vermont singer Fern Maddie, which is an in-no-way-strange collection of updated folk songs played on banjo or guitar with a few accompanying folk instruments.

It's a lovely bit of work and all folk music lovers would be advised to check it out. If you want to know more about Fern, she now makes a podcast about traditional music, 'Of Song and Bone', writes music in her woodland cabin, tends goats, and documents her life, without embellishment, on Instagram.

Live and local

And if you want to catch a little music of the folky persuasion then try next weekend. The Katikati Folk Club have a very good Waikanae duo coming to town on Friday, January 20. Butter Wouldn't Melt are Nick Burfield and Andrea Reid, who bring folk music and stories from the past to the stage. Both sing, often in harmony; Nick plays an old 1930s Gibson guitar while Andrea plays tin whistle, bodhran, and dulcimer.

Though their sound has echoes of Americana, the stories they tell are New Zealand ones, as found on their debut album of last year '1931', which comprises ten original songs and touches on subjects such as the Hawkes Bay earthquake and the building of Wellington's Victoria tunnel. It strikes me that there are a lot of Kiwi bands at the moment pairing Americana styles with local subject matter. Perhaps we need a new word for this (one that isn't ‘Kiwiana')?

They'll be at Katikati's Arts Junction, doors – 7pm, concert – 7:30pm; members - $20, others - $25.

And I'm running out of space for the other show I wanted to mention. Damn that Covid-brain!

So, quickly: Next night (Saturday, January 21) at the Jam Factory you can see Sneaky Bones. Sneaky Bones is world traveller Matthew Bean who returns from somewhere in Europe for his third national tour. He's here for the Folk Fest and is very likeable, again original songs with an Americana bent: there are clips on YouTube so see for yourself... 7pm show, $20 from: www.eventspronto.co.nz