Hunt and Gooch bring poetry and beats

DYNAMIC DUO: Sam Hunt joins Riki Gooch for a debut Wairarapa performance for the pair at King Street Live in Masterton. PHOTO/SUPPLIED

Poet Sam Hunt and musician Riki Gooch will perform shoulder to shoulder for their Wairarapa debut next week.

Hunt, who lives "five gunshots from humanity" at his Kaipara Harbour retreat, is to stage a True Troubadours performance at King Street Live in Masterton on June 14, says his agent John Pell.

The Masterton show comes after two back-to-back shows next week at the San Fran in Cuba St in Wellington, Mr Pell said.

The 67-year-old was still completing his vaunted solo shows throughout the country, Mr Pell said, and over the past several years Hunt had also won acclaim for his live-performance work with a mounting number of New Zealand musicians including The Warratahs, Split Enz, Gareth Farr, and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

He also produced the 2009 album Falling Debris alongside David Kilgour & Heavy Eights, with whom he reunited in March and provided lyrics and lead vocals for a new joint album titled The 9th, which is scheduled for release in October.

Hunt was awarded a QSM in 1986 and received a Companion of the NZ Order of Merit in 2010.

He was further festooned in 2012 with the Prime Minister's Poetry Award and all his honours to date have been bestowed for "his services to poetry".

Mr Pell said Gooch was "undoubtedly at the very top of the percussion tree in the New Zealand music scene" and also had cemented his reputation as an arranger and producer.

Gooch's performance pedigree also included a lengthening roll call of successful Kiwi bands including Eru Dangerspiel, Trinity Roots, Upside Down, School Of Hard Knocks, Ticket, and Scopa.

"Most recently Riki has turned his supremely talented drum hands writing a brand new solo piece, specifically for these three live dates."

Pre-sale tickets cost $28 for the Sam Hunt show alongside Riki "Polynesian prince of Percussion" Gooch and are available online at eventfinder.co.nz