Featuring music from BB King and Eric Clapton, Wellington Heads, Al Whitham, Hans Theesink, Carol Bean, Otis Rush, and Blues Buffet, plus news from the Wellington blues scene.
1. Help The Poor by BB King and Eric Clapton
2. Nothing Wrong by Wellington Heads
3. Woman I Love by Al Witham
4. 29 Ways by Hans Theesink
5. Crossing The Dirty River by Carol Bean
6. I Can’t Quit You, Baby by Otis Rush
7. Play for a Living by Blues Buffet
Blues Roots n Boogie is broadcast each Monday evening at 8.30pm on Access Radio. 783 KHz AM or streamed live on accessradio.org.nz
Your host is Del Thomas. Del is one of the club’s hard working committee members and hails originally from Scotland.
This month we feature music from Mavis Staples, Midge Marsden, Paddy Burgin & The Wooden Box Band, Elmore James, Al Whitham, The Coalrangers, Dave Murphy and Del Thomas, as well as local Wellington blues scene news.
1. Down in Mississippi by Mavis Staples
2. Waiting For Rain by Midge Marsden
3. Gentle Landings by Paddy Burgin & The Wooden Box Band
4. The Sky is Crying by Elmore James
5. That’s Alright by Al Whitham
6. Positive Blues by The Coalrangers
7. Cigarette Machine by Dave Murphy
8. Mixed Signals by Del Thomas
Blues Roots n Boogie is broadcast each Monday evening at 8.30pm on Access Radio. 783 KHz AM or streamed live on accessradio.org.nz.
Your host is Del Thomas. Del is one of the club’s hard working committee members and hails originally from Scotland.
Featuring blues and roots music from Albert King, Emma Davey, Billy Gibbons and the BFGs, Dirt Box Charlie, Seasick Steve, Cat Stevens, and Mississippi Mud Steppers, with your host Del Thomas.
1. Crosscut Saw by Albert King
2. Damaged Man by Emma Davey
3. Quiero Mas Dinero by Billy Gibbons and the BFGs
4. Shuffle Me baby by Dirt Box Charlie
5. I Started Out with Nothin and I Still Got Most of It Left by Seasick Steve
6. You Are My Sunshine by Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens)
7. Jackson Stomp by Mississippi Mud Steppers
Blues Roots n Boogie is broadcast each Monday evening at 8.30pm on Access Radio. 783 KHz AM or streamed live on accessradio.org.nz. Your host is Del Thomas. Del is one of the club’s hard working committee members and hails originally from Scotland.
Blues Roots n Boogie is broadcast each Monday evening at 8.30pm on Access Radio. 783 KHz AM or streamed live on accessradio.org.nz
Featuring music and interview with Chris Cain during his tour of New Zealand as well as music by Albert King and Gary Clark Jr. with your host, Del Thomas.
1. Whole Lot of Lovin by Chris Cain
2. Chris Cain Interview
3. She’s a Real Heart Breaker by Chris Cain
4. Chris Cain Interview
5. Bad Luck Blues by Albert King
6. The Story of Boy Slim by Gary Clark Jr.
Blues Roots n Boogie is broadcast each Monday evening at 8.30pm on Access Radio. 783 KHz AM or steamed live on accessradio.org.nz
Your host is Del Thomas. Del is one of the club’s hard working committee members and hails originally from Scotland.
Listen to music from Wellington Heads new album Southern Night Sky, Chris Cain, early Fleetwood Mac (Mick Fleetwood is playing here in a couple of weeks) BB King and Vintage Trouble.
1. Southern Night Sky by Wellington Heads
2. Rockin’ Horse by Del Thomas
3. So Excited by Chris Cain
4. Have You Ever Loved A Woman by Freddie King
5. Stop Messin’ Around by Fleetwood Mac
6. Better Not Look Down by BB King
7. Nancy Lee by Vintage Trouble
Blues Roots n Boogie is broadcast each Monday evening at 8.30pm on Access Radio. 783 KHz AM or steamed live on accessradio.org.nz
Your host is Del Thomas. Del is one of the club’s hard working committee members and hails originally from Scotland.
This week’s show features an interview with Wellington Heads and some sample tracks off the new album Southern Night Sky as well as music from Lowell Fulson.
Blues Roots n Boogie is broadcast each Monday evening at 8.30pm on Access Radio. 783 KHz AM or steamed live on accessradio.org.nz
Your host is Del Thomas. Del is one of the club’s hard working committee members and hails originally from Scotland.
Here’s the Podcast of our first show and features an interview with up and coming Wellington blues musician Jake Stokes as well as music from BB King, Jake Stokes, Knikki and Mike Beale plus news from the Wellington blues scene.
Blues Roots n Boogie is broadcast each Monday evening at 8.30pm on Access Radio. 783 KHz AM or steamed live on accessradio.org.nz
Your host is Del Thomas. Del is one of the club’s hard working committee members and hails originally from Scotland.
Lester Mundell was a member of the Wellington Blues Club and a harp player in his wife and musical partner Carol Bean’s band, Blue Highways. They played for Roomfulla Blues at the Bristol over a ten year period.
Lester’s day job was as a chief advisor to the Ministry of Health, he advised in the areas of disability legislation. He had four children; his son Finn and three step-daughters, Jyoti, Matreya and Mitra.
It wasn’t until Lester’s memorial service on June 6th that we discovered he’d learned to play harmonica from his musically gifted mother Dorothy. She was a pianist and a fine singer, a soprano trained by Sister Mary Leo. On the family summer holidays Dorothy would bring out her harmonica and entertain holiday makers on beaches near New Plymouth where the family grew up. She also taught Lester how to cook – another one of his passions. At high school Lester was in a Madrigal Choir and he enjoyed acting in school musicals. Lester’s first band was in Palmerston North in the late 60s. He played T-chest bass. The band was called The Anonymous Nipple and Stomach Trouble of 1968 Band. Their 2nd jug band was called The Nash Street Nooskie Band. They had a gig in Wellington once. They had one or two gigs in Palmy, but basically they just hung out and got into heaps of trouble and had fun listening and playing along to old blues and jug band albums.
At Lester’s memorial service, Rowan Peters (the guy playing banjo) arrived unexpectedly from Wales. He told the stories of those days, those infamous days of their enduring friendships and all the mad Goon Show, Furry Freak Brothers’ goings on. We laughed and we cried for Lester – a man who was gentle and loving and had great spirit and love of music. He will be sadly missed.
Lester died two years after a liver transplant. He’d had HepC since living at Nash Street, and he died of a sudden pneumonia on June 1st, 2015. May he Rest in Peace.
All roads lead to the Pope for Wellington blues singer Laura Collins.
The 45-year-old will open and close the second annual Voices of Faith event at the Vatican next month with a hauntingly beautiful ballad penned by fellow Kiwi musician Steve Cournane and accompanied on piano by Wayne Mason, writer of the 1960s pop hit Nature.
“The whole thing is pretty surreal. I’m kind of humbled really. It is hard to believe,” Collins said yesterday.
The opportunity is the result of her friendship with Cournane, a former Wellingtonian whose Peruvian wife, Rocio Figueroa, is second-in-charge of the annual event. It was founded last year after Pope Francis called for a greater female presence in the Catholic Church.
Cournane was asked to compose a song for this year’s event and hand-picked Collins to record the song Voices of Faith. “I knew immediately I wanted to do it with people from New Zealand,” he says.
Mason Kapiti-based keyboard maestro Wayne Mason, who wrote the 1960s hit Nature, played piano to Collins’ vocals at recently closed Braeburn Recording Studio in Wellington. “What they sent back to me blew me away,” Cournane says of their recording, which was swiftly sent to the event directors.
“The next thing was, ‘Will you come to Rome to sing it?’,” Collins said. “It’s one of those left-field things life throws up. It’s an honour, and what a great opportunity.”
Mason will miss out on the Vatican trip because of cost. An Italian pianist will accompany Collins.
has been reading up on Italy and papal protocols. “What to wear – that is a major question for me. Basically we’re going with elegant.”
iwi heritage will be on display with a special piece of pounamu around her neck, created for her by a Hokitika-based musician friend.
While not Catholic herself, Collins says she is “spiritual” and supports Pope Francis’ push to empower women, a theme she includes in her own songs.
“I’m a feminist of old and this (event) rings true to me.”
She admits it will be “pretty wild” if she gets to meet the Pope.
The foundation’s executive director will formally invite the Pope this week to five-hour event is on International Women’s Day, March 8, in a room near the Pope’s living quarters. He has been invited and organisers are hopeful he will attend.
You’ll often see Elliot Fuimaono on bass at the Bristol, leaning back with eyes slightly closed, behind Darren Watson, Dave Murphy, or the Kemptones. His baselines have anchored many a jam night and special show, and he has recorded with Darren Watson, Brannigan Kaa, and Carol Bean. Recently I joined Elliot for a quiet beer and a chat.
In 1960 Elliot Fuimaono was born to Maori and Samoan parents in the King Country town of Taumarunui. His early life centred around family and church: first a mainly Maori church, then a Samoan church after his family moved to Wellington when he was 9.
Music started with singing at church, and later playing on family instruments. He took up bass at his brother’s 21st. His brother was the usual bass player for the family band, but he didn’t want to do it on his birthday so Elliot filled in and has never stopped. He has been playing in family bands since 1975. They used to play open air Christian gigs at Pigeon Park on Sundays, then switched to playing covers, and later originals, as Taste of Bounty.
After the death of dynamic Hendrix-inspired lead guitarist Roy Fuimaono, the band became Bounty, then New Shuz, playing mainly pubs, but also at Sweetwaters. Elliotte joined Brannigan Kaa’s Brown Street about the same time as Chicago Smokeshop was smoking stages all over New Zealand. The bands went to each other’s gigs, often playing at the Oaks and at Western Park jams.
The 90s found him joining South Side of Bombay, who had been going 6 years and already had a hit single ‘What’s The Time Mr Wolf’. Elliot spent 3 years with them, touring New Zealand, Australia and Noumea as a full-time musician. That was quite a cool band, wasn’t it? “Apparently – I was only in it!” Lance Sua told me once that touring with SSOB was what made you as a bass player. “Apparently … [Laughs] Well, I suppose you make less mistakes.”
At jam nights you pick up songs very quickly by ear. You seem to have very good ears. “Apparently!” How did you end up getting involved with the Blues Club? “I started coming along about 4 or 5 years ago just to listen and enjoy the night. I already knew Dougal Spier – he was nice to me. I didn’t know anyone else. Then I started playing music with Dougal. I love the Blues Club. I like to go along no matter who is playing.”
Who do you admire? “I like all the big names but I like watching local guys play. I get more out of that than US players. It’s not like watching a DVD. It’s more immediate.”
New Zealand bass players he likes include Brent Thompson, Max Stowers, Max Hohepa, Ryan Monga, Paul Dyne, and another familiar face at the Blues Club, George Barris.
Elliot admits that punctuality isn’t his strong point. A couple of times he’s turned up for a gig after the band has started playing. “Everyone knows I’m going to be late, but I’m going to turn up anyway.” I mentioned that at the previous evening’s jam I was tired and ratty, didn’t feel like singing at all, but once I started playing I suddenly found my mojo. “It always happens like that. Sometimes you turn up, you’re so tired … you’ve been on the jackhammer all day [at work], but you start playing and you get a big lift that carries you through. It happens straight away, as soon as you start the first song.”
Bluznuz guest editor (June issue) – Al Witham – June 2008
