New Zealand's country music legends Eddie Low, Dennis Marsh, Gray Bartlett and Brendan Dugan are on the road for a special concert tour. Photo / Supplied
New Zealand's country music legends Eddie Low, Dennis Marsh, Gray Bartlett and Brendan Dugan are on the road for a special concert tour. Photo / Supplied
New Zealand’s Highwaymen Dennis Marsh, Gray Bartlett, Eddie Low and Brendan Dugan are on the road (again) to the Waikato as part of a special nationwide tour.
The legends of Kiwi country music are set to play 20 shows together throughout May and June, including shows in Hamilton, Putāruru and Taupō.
The programme will transport fans back in time, as the Highwaymen belt out their own biggest hits while also putting their own unique spin on classics from international icons like George Jones, Kenny Rogers and original Highwayman Johnny Cash.
Bartlett, 80, says he and his fellow Highwaymen couldn’t wait to catch up with fans all over New Zealand.
“For me, it will have been many years, in some cases, since I last performed in your town or city. .. Playing in the USA and other places is great, but there is nothing like playing for our Heartland Kiwis,” Bartlett says.
Although the NZ Highwaymen are known individually in their own right and have toured the country many times in various groups, this is the first and likely the last time that all four of these legendary New Zealand artists will hit the road together.
The tour kicks off in Tauranga on May 18, then travels throughout the North Island, before finishing in the South Island in Nelson on June 17. The southern leg of the tour will also take New Zealand’s Highwaymen to the old home of the That’s Country TV show, when they play at Christchurch’s The James Hay Theatre.
Te Kuiti-born Marsh, 72, has been performing country music since the mid-1980s.
New Zealand country music icon Dennis Marsh was born in the Waikato. Photo / Supplied
Low, 79, from Rotorua, has been singing since his early teenage years and rose to fame with the Māori Quin Tikis in 1966.
Bartlett, from Auckland, has been involved in the music scene since 1961. His work has taken him around the world performing in Japan, Australia, the US and England, amongst others.
Dugan, 71, from Christchurch, began his music career in 1968, when he appeared on the television show New Faces and won a talent contest. Like Bartlett, he, too, went on to perform overseas.
The original Highwaymen were an American country music supergroup made up of Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson that was active between 1985 and 1995.
Tickets for the NZ Highwaymen can be purchased online.
● The Details - Hamilton
When: May 19, at 8pm
Where: Heaphy Room, Claudelands Event Centre
Tickets: from $62.50, available online at Ticketek
