| February Concert: Mary Hubble and Pat Higgins |
Sunday 22 February, 8pmToi Poneke67 Abel Smith StPat Higgins is an Irish musician living in Wellington, a Galwayman who moved to New Zealand last century. More recently his performances have centred on traditional, country, blues and his own original songs on steel string guitar. Primarily a finger-style guitarist with an emotional, lyrical delivery, Pat has taken traditional songs from Ireland, its neighbours and elsewhere to re-work them in non-standard “open” tunings (DADGAD/DGDGBD and DADF#AD…). His inspirations include David Rawlings, Gillian Welch, Joni Mitchell, Paul Brady, Martin Carthy, John Sutherland, Niamh Parsons and Dolores Keane. In concerts, Pat strives to take a committed audience with him to a musical sharing, which is when he feels most alive. In January 2008 he opened the Auckland Folk Festival “Invitation Concert” and in June he sang live to to a world-wide audience on SKY-TV and to 30,000 people at Westpac Stadium. Recently he played Wellington and Whare Flat Folk Festivals and took part in a song-writers forum, where he premiered some of his own material.
Mary Hubble has been around the folk scene for nearly 30 years and is probably best known for her work in groups – the Jimmies, the Bach Choir of Wellington, and the somewhat-less serious Hex Crystals (not to mention the Ghettoblasters), but a recent concert at the Museum of Wellington City and Sea, (on invitation from Anne McGregor), left her audience in no doubt of her ability and appeal as a solo performer.
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