Darren Watson: Good times preacher

BODY POLITIC BLUES : Veteran Kiwi bluesman Darren Watson to perform in Masterton on Saturday. PHOTO SUPPLIED

Politics and life are like heartbeats and music, says veteran Kiwi bluesman Darren Watson; one is never without the other.

Wellington-based Watson last played Wairarapa at the Greytown Little Theatre with special guests Matt Hay and Clint Meech, and will be back Saturday for a debut Blues in the Night performance at King Street Live in Masterton.

The award-winning Watson, in between times, had toured alongside Dunedin alt country musician Matt Langley in their nationwide Shoot Your Television winter tour, and also this year released his latest album, Introducing Darren Watson.

Watson has shared the stage with the likes of Jimmie Vaughan, Billy Boy Arnold, Doctor John, Emmylou Harris, Eric Burdon, Tony Joe White, Keb Mo, Koko Taylor, Robert Cray, George Thorogood, and Mavis Staple's guitarist Rick Holmstrom. He was proud to have carved out a successful career as a solo performer and blues educator and had ditched his day job to teach guitar.

Occasionally, being a capital city son, his music gets political.

Last year he released a satirical song, and music video by Jeremy Jones, titled Planet Key, which pictured the Prime Minister strumming an endangered Maui's dolphin while an oil rig explodes in the background.

The Electoral Commission banned television and radio broadcasts of the song, decreeing it a breach of the Electoral Act. Watson and Jones challenged the commission in court, saying their work was intended only to lampoon.

On Saturday, he took another tuneful "dig at the big boss" in a song played on the steps of Parliament at a rally protesting the TPPA.

"It's up to every musician and artist as to where they draw the line, but for me politics is part of life. Everything you do is political.

"You've got to fight against these big PR machines and it's not just me. New Zealand has a history of it going back to the 80s when I was [a] teenager. There was a lot of political music at the time and a lot was happening. It was a time of change and things feel the same now."

But his set list for King Street Live will cast only a shadow of the body politic at best, he said.

"I'll keep the old politics in there but this gig in Masterton will be really just about a good time, you know. I might play one of those songs but I'm not going to be preaching," he said.

"I just love playing for people, solo or with a band, and the past ten years of my career has been awesome. My whole life is music today. I'm blessed and I just want to keep sharing that for as long as people want to keep listening."

 Tickets are available for the Blues in the Night show at King Street Live on Saturday for $21.50 each at upwithpeople.co.nz and eventfinder.co.nz