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April Concert: Mike Harding

Sunday 26 April, 8pm

Toi Poneke

67 Abel Smith St


Mike Harding

Mike grew up in and around Eketahuna in the 1950's and 1960's. In the 1970's University and High School teaching competed with the guitar and the urge to travel. A musical apprenticeship in the streets, markets and clubs of Auckland in the early 1980's was followed by his "Time on the Road" decade, taking his all- Kiwi, solo acoustic shows to all corners of New Zealand and partts of Australia and Britain.

Seeing home from over the seas strengthened a sense of identity and inspired the search for songs that tell our own stories. His need to know more about the songs he was singing and recording led to the 1992 publi- cation of "When the Pakeha Sings of Home", Mike's source guide to the folk and popular songs of New Zea-
land.

Mike's    tenth    recording    "Past    to    the    Present", is drawn from some of his
homegrown    repertoire    recorded    and    broadcast to New Zealand by National Radio in the 1990's.


 

This recording  featuring    folk    songs    of    New    Zea-    land's past & present along with the best of Mike's original songs. Recent years have seen the wandering minstrel living    in    New    Plymouth, teaching guitar and being a family    man while still performing Kiwi music solo or with Taranaki combo Gumboot Tango.    In    a    typical    performance, Mike    will    call    on    songs    from    or    about the past, folk-songs from the days of the European explorers and settlers    through to the present, including the work of contemporary rock songwriters.

 

"I will be at Acoustic Routes to share my passion for the songs of New Zealand,  songs that have Kiwi char-    acters    telling    their    own    stories:  Dicky Barrett, whaler;  Tex Morton, rodeo    operator; immigrants on the Charlotte Jane, 1850, toasting their new life; reluctant haymakers and famous sheep-stealers; courting cattle-drovers.

 

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