Peter Posa: My Pick

Reviewed by GRAHAM REID


Herald rating: * *

Guitarist Peter Posa was a genuine star in those pre-Beatles days of the Shadows when his distinctive — and frankly terrific — White Rabbit was a national and then international hit in'64-'65.

Posa recorded prolifically and across all genres, from traditional Pacific music through country, Irish folk and into pop'n'roll. Then he disappeared into alcohol dependency and after a career-stopping car accident in 1970 became a footnote in New Zealand pop culture. Now redeemed through faith -- and on the back of last year's nostalgically popular and gold-selling Best of compilation -- he here delivers a double disc, the first of MOR country songs mostly popular in his early days (La Cucaracha, a Hank Williams medley, Six Days on the Road) and the second of gospel tunes (Amazing Grace, Silent Night, The Old Rugged Cross).

Posa is still a technically superb musician with a unique tone, but these melodically faithful treatments are also bloodless, slightly perfunctory and anodyne. Perhaps it was too much to expect genre-defying music or a frisson of excitement, but here, for those now elderly fans who recall his heyday, is an armchair collection of undemanding standards. Background music at best.

(BMG)