Folk tour finale at Sawmill

After travelling the length of New Zealand on a 20-date tour in a “low-slung people mover”, a group of Australian musicians will play their tour finale at the Leigh Sawmill on Sunday May 1, at 5pm.

Folk-Americana singer-songwriter James Kenyon will be accompanied by double bassist Luke Richardson and Matt Dixon on pedal steel guitar, while “coastal-folk” troubadour Monty Bevins will open the show.

At the end of the month-long tour they should be well rehearsed.

“We will be humming by then,” James says. “It will be a bloody great show. Luke and Matt are both classically trained musicians, and the sound we can get with that instrumentation is really interesting. I think people interested in odd approaches to music will love it.”

James says it is the biggest tour he has undertaken and he planned the trip after travelling the South Island in a campervan four years ago.

The Melbourne-based musician is touring his new single, The Motorbike Song, which will be on his second album Imagine you are Driving, to be released in July.

“I’m really happy with it. It’s the album I’ve wanted to make for a long time.

“Lyrics are really important for me and I’m interested in how you map your emotions through geography, and a lot of songs involve driving and moving through landscape and reflecting on life.”

His first album The North Pole was critically acclaimed and he won the inaugural The Age Stage Award and has been short-listed for the Vanda and Young Song contest.

No stranger to Kiwi music, James has played with NZ musicians Marlon Williams, The Eastern, Aldous Harding and Tiny Ruins at gigs and festivals in Australia.

Mahurangi Matters has a double pass to giveaway.

Write your name and number on the back of an envelope, post to James Kenyon Competition, Mahurangi Matters PO Box 701 Warkworth or email editor@localmatters.co.nz with the subject line: James Kenyon. Competition closes April 27 2016.