GO HEAR YOURSELF

I make no apologies. I’m trying to get you to pay the money and go see Adam McGrath at Tuning Fork on Saturday Night. I’m pushing the show not as a favour to Adam, but more as a favour to you. If you’ve seen him play before, either with or without The Eastern, you’re more than likely already convinced. But it’s the dabbler in live music I’m trying to appeal to here, the person who doesn’t go to a heck of a lot of shows, doesn’t buy a ton of music. Likes the stuff, listen to the radio a bit – but don’t get too hung up on it. It’s just there. And some of it’s good. Like Barnsey & Springsteen. But some of it’s really good. Like the music Adam McGrath makes.

It’s not good because of Adam’s vocal range, any kind of guitar virtuosity or complex smart- arse musical arrangements. It’s good because you know the people and the places in the songs. And you know he means it. This guy’s the real deal, he’s playing for his life, committed to the rambling ways of the troubadour – and our country, not just our country’s music, is better off for it.

After the earthquakes in Christchurch, The Eastern, and others, sought to bring people together with music played in public spaces because there were no venues to play in. What a joyful, beautiful thing that must have been amongst all that darkness. These talented, generous, empathetic people doing everything they could to heal their fallen city. I love them for it and I wasn’t even there. Music for the people.

I’ve been thinking that if this was a different time, say the 1970’s; those early, exciting days of two tv channels, that on one of those channels every saturday night at 7.30 the whole country would sit down and watch The Adam McGrath Show,  a musical state of the nation with guests and humour and a giant sense of community and being in it together.

I want McGrath to be as popular and well liked and as Billy T James.

Because at these shows, it’s not just the music, it’s what the music does. When you leave, you feel like you’ve been part of something and richer for it. There are plenty of laughs, it’ll be raw and sad too. Above all, it will be true.

Adam’s songs are full of the New Zealand we’re all familiar with, even though it might not be our particular part of it. Take the Rugby league Club:

“He just laughed swept her up under his arm,

said did you hear about Hemi Wihongi, he got a contract in France,

she said that’s true well he can play, but unlike you, he sure can’t dance..”

What about this guy – we all know him: “He had a half finished tribal tattoo from the 1990’s..”

 Or capturing perfectly the feeling of a rebuilding, pulling together Christchurch in the title track of 2013’s Hope & Wire:

“Well here in Christchurch City it’s Christmas time round the corner,

there ain’t many lights shining there’s despair across the water,

then I crashed my car into a Mongrel Mob fella who was driving with his daughter

But when he raised his hand I had nothing to fear when he stopped and whispered

Merry Christmas, and a happy new year bro”

These are older lyrics, but I’m really excited for Saturday Night to hear some newer songs.

There just might be some too. McGrath has been, in conjunction with the Christchurch City Council, actively looking for stories. He serves coffee and listens to people talk, the situations they’re dealing with. It’s a beautiful idea and is bound to yeild some gems.

It’s that slightly awkward thing that occours when you’re being, perhaps, entertained by the story of someone elses struggle, but at the same time, you’re connecting with the reality of the folks that are doing it tough. You’re feeling empathy. Good music has always been about that. Empathy of course, being something the world can do with more of.

By the way, this isn’t country music. These are meaningful songs played on largely acoustic instruments telling stories. You can move hips, even dance, for sure sing along to a couple of the choruses, and it will get boisterous. Yeeha. One of the things I like about Adam is the scale of the man. This is not some skinny little folk singer. He’s a big unit. He’s not making that rugby league club stuff up.

If  you had to call it something – you’d call it ‘folk music’, probably. Of course, the definition of ‘folk’ being ‘of the people’ – clearly that’s what the music of Adam McGrath is.

It might even sound a little ‘Aotearoacana’ as I like to call it – it’s pretty hard to tell a story over an acoustic guitar and not sound a bit ‘Americana’. The Americana press, by the way, most notably ‘No Depression’ magazine, rates McGrath and his bandmates as good as anyone from anywhere. They’re respected by the best in the business, not just me.

Put simply, what Adam does, is what Bruce Springsteen and Jimmy Barnes do: Connect with an audience through the stories and struggles of ordinary people, the workers and unsing heroes.

Except he does it in our accent, in our towns and cities, down by our rivers, in our cars, with our people.

Do yourself a favour. Be part of this.

https://www.ticketmaster.co.nz/adam-mcgrath-auckland-08-06-2019/event/2400566797F818EF