Masterton debut for Kiwi music star

IN TOWN: Greg Johnson makes his Masterton debut at King Street Live on Friday.

Award-winning Kiwi singer songwriter Greg Johnson is to stage his Masterton debut on Friday.

The Greg Johnson North tour includes King Street Live in Masterton on a nine-date bill also taking the California-based performer through a handful of other centres in the North Island including Auckland, Hamilton, Rotorua and Wellington.

Johnson will be joined on stage by his longtime bandmate Ted Brown, and Lisa Crawley had travelled from her new Melbourne home to rejoin the band as well, Johnson said.

He will perform some of his favourite songs during his Masterton debut taken from the 10 albums he had released to date, including Isabelle, Liberty, Save Yourself, Now the Sun Is Out, Don't Be The One, Don't Wait Another Day, Kiss Me, Looking Out On Monday, and Swagger. The North tour repertoire will also include some live previews of his newer material.

Johnson, who won a Tui Top Male Vocalist award in 1995, an APRA Silver Scroll in 1997 for the song Liberty, and a Tui Best Compilation Album award in 2003, said he was looking forward to his first Masterton concert.

"Wairarapa is a lovely part of the world and I've heard great things from my Kiwi music mates about the fantastic King St Live venue. I can't wait."

Johnson also had just launched an innovative venture offering incentives to fans for crowd-funding his upcoming studio album, to be recorded in the US, he said.

Fans were able, through his website, to select a range of downloads and limited edition recordings ranging from $20 for a digital download a week before the album drops, to $150 for a digital download of the upcoming album and a limited edition CD of demos from throughout Johnson's career, and $5000 for a download of the album, a signed CD and a house concert "anywhere in New Zealand".

"I've been writing new songs for two years, on the piano and the guitar and playing them every chance I get, road testing and honing. I will play some of the new tunes over this tour and warm up the vocal chords and musical chops.

"In May, we'll spend a week recording those songs in an old school world class studio in Los Angeles.

"We'll have a collection of amazing musicians from New Zealand and California and we'll hang out and play music and at the end of it, we'll hopefully have something special recorded."

Tickets for the Greg Johnson North show at King Street Live on Friday cost $40 from ticketmaster.co.nz or through kingstreetlive.co.nz

-For more information about Johnson or to crowd-fund the upcoming album, visit gregjohnsonmusic.com.