KEY POINTS:
One the most influential songwriters of his generation, Leonard Cohen, is to play in New Zealand in the New Year.
The 74-year-old Canadian with the deep, dark voice - whose CV extends to poet, novelist and, briefly, Buddhist monk - plays Auckland's Vector Arena on Thursday January 22 and Wellington's TSB Arena on Tuesday January 20.
Since releasing his debut The Songs of Leonard Cohen in 1967, he has released just 11 albums.
But Cohen's songs - which grapple with love, religion, politics and depression - have been covered by a multitude of artists.
Bird on a Wire and Hallelujah have been recorded many times by acts such as the Neville Brothers and the late Jeff Buckley, while other interpreters of his songs have included Bob Dylan, Tori Amos, and New Zealand's own Straitjacket Fits, who released So Long Marianne as a single.
Earlier, this year Cohen was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Lou Reed.
Said Reed of Cohen's baritone voice: "Cohen's is the voice of the gravel crunching under your shoe. He's the voice of the rickety rocking chair creaking on the porch. There's nothing sweet about that voice. It socks you in the gut the way good noises should."
Cohen will be supported at his shows by Kiwi poet Sam Hunt. Tickets go on sale on Monday November 10.
