Scottish balladeer Frank Burkitt and his band will wrap up Kerikeri’s Summer Folk Series on February 16.
Scottish balladeer Frank Burkitt and his band will wrap up Kerikeri’s Summer Folk Series on February 16.
Folk music fans are in for a treat over the next month as Kerikeri’s Turner Centre gets ready to welcome the world back to Northland.
The three-show Summer Folk Series features the songs and fiddles of Irish duo The Barleyshakes, the slide guitars and velvety voice of Canadian troubadour Joël Fafard, and the quirky songs and stories of Scottish balladeer Frank Burkitt.
Turner Centre general manager Gerry Paul said he’d been able to lure a few exciting folk groups to Kerikeri now that international acts were finally back on the touring circuit.
The Barleyshakes (Ireland/Australia) are to kick things off on Wednesday, January 25, with what Paul described as the “upbeat sounds of Ireland on sweet sensuous fiddle and spirited guitar”.
Irish duo The Barleyshakes will open Kerikeri’s Summer Folk Series on January 25.
The trio - Alan and Kristin Kelly, with their son Rory - will play Scottish, Canadian and Eastern European compositions alongside original and traditional Irish tunes.
Folk aficionados who are also compulsive Tolkien fans may recognise Alan Kelly as the bodhrán soloist on the Lord of the Rings soundtrack.
Next up would be Canadian Joël Fafard on Friday, February 3 with a dose of Southern roots and blues classics.
Paul said he had met Fafard at a music convention in Kansas City in 2017 and fell in love with his music straight away.
He had the “sexy, sandpapered-sounding vocal style of the new-generation bluesman”, told stories between songs with the confidence of a late-night talk show host, and could let rip on a resonator guitar.
Joël Fafard will bring his “sexy, sandpapered” vocals to the Turner Centre on February 3.
Finally, Scottish balladeer Frank Burkitt and his band will wrap up the series on Thursday, February 16 with a night of “rambling storytelling, top-quality songwriting and close-knit harmony”.
Their show was part of a five-week New Zealand-wide tour and would be their first in Kerikeri in 15 years.
Based in Aotearoa for five years but now back in the UK, Burkitt’s second album, Raconteur, landed him a Tūī in the 2019 Vodafone NZ Music Awards for Best Folk Artist.
Paul said the show would swing from Burkitt’s stripped-back, pensive folk ballads to the band’s own brand of “foot-tappin’ Americana”.
The band includes Kara Filbey on vocals, Sam Frangos-Rhodes on double bass, and Whangārei’s own Cameron ‘Dusty’ Burnell on mandolin and slide guitar.
Meanwhile, Paul, who is an accomplished guitarist and songwriter in his own right, could be up for a folk accolade later this month.
His bluegrass band T-Bone’s album Good’n’Greasy is a finalist for the Best Folk Artist Tūī 2023. The winner will be announced at the Auckland Folk Festival on January 27-30.
■ All three all-ages shows take place in the Turner Centre’s Theatre Bar and start at 7.30pm with a $25 entry charge each, or a $60 charge for all three shows. Go to www.turnercentre.co.nz for more information.
