Blues in New Zealand

The history of blues in New Zealand dates from the 1960s. The earliest blues influences on New Zealand musicians were indirect — not from the United States but from white British blues musicians: first the R&B styles of The Animals and The Rolling Stones, and later the blues-tinged rock of groups such as Led Zeppelin. The first American blues artist to make a big impact in New Zealand was Stevie Ray Vaughan in the early 1980s. Other blues-related genres such as soul and gospel almost completely by-passed New Zealand audiences, except for a handful of hits from cross-over artists such as Ray Charles.

Midge Marsden is a blues and R&B guitarist, harmonica-player and singer with a career spanning four decades.

Darren Watson is a singer and guitarist in a wide range of blues styles, as well as an international award-winning songwriter. Watson led the very popular blues band Smoke Shop, which featured on the New Zealand charts and toured extensively throughout the country in the 1980s and 1990s, opening for several international blues artists including NZ tours with Koko Taylor, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, and two tours with The Robert Cray Band. More recently Watson has recorded three successful albums: King Size, which was nominated for Best Roots Album at the 2003 NZ Music Awards, 2005's South Pacific Soul, and his latest Saint Hilda's Faithless Boy, which Wellington's Dominion Post named in their Top 5 albums of 2010. And was recently favourably reviewed in prestigious US publication Blues Revue.

The Windy City Strugglers is a Wellington band whose music is based on the singing, songwriting and guitar playing of Bill Lake and the vocals of Rick Bryant. Long-serving band members are Andrew Delahunty on guitar, harmonica and mandolin and Nick Bollinger on double bass.

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