Tim Pekamu's You Take the Light is a catchy ballad likely to have listeners singing along.
Tim Pekamu's You Take the Light is a catchy ballad likely to have listeners singing along.
The Rangitīkei district is home to a significant number of musicians writing and performing their own work, and fellow musician Rex Bond wants to showcase the talent.
Bond is also a producer who owns Groovemaster Studios in Taihape and he wanted to gather as many artists as possible for a compilation album that will help raise funds for Hato Hone St John’s new station in Taihape.
The vision became a labour of love requiring five years of dogged persistence. The result is a CD release Rhythm of the Rangitīkei that includes a boogie piano track by 90-year-old Helen Gordon and a proud little ditty written and sung by primary pupils from Pukeokahu School.
“The project was conceived to feature singer/songwriters in our district, not singers or groups but genuine artists writing original music because over the years I had observed how many we had in Rangitīkei,” Bond said.
“I wrote a letter to all the people I knew who were original artists and received replies from over 20 interested parties.”
“We tried the Earle Creative Trust but popular music didn’t meet their criteria - they were interested in classical or jazz music. We had classical pianist Helen Gordon on the album so we pushed this to the max when we applied again the following year.”
The application was again refused but it happened that Gordon had a long association with the Earle family who finance the grants. Although the family were not involved in the selection process, they heard about the venture and urged the committee to reconsider.
“Lo and behold we got accepted,” Bond said.
“It had taken me three years to get to this point so the good news was very welcome.”
The recording was finally under way in 2020 when the first Covid-19 lockdown was announced and the studio had to close. But Bond advised the artists to work on perfecting their songs during the enforced break.
When the recordings were finally completed, they were sent to a mastering studio in Nashville where, Bond said, the songs were “totally destroyed”.
“They promised to fix it at no extra cost but there was no improvement so we asked for a refund of the $2000 we had paid.
“We finally found a really good Canadian studio and the process and experience with these people was excellent. Once we got all the mastered songs back we sent them to Stebbing’s in Auckland to do the final pressing and packaging.”
Thanks to additional support from the Rangitīkei District Council creative fund, Rhythm of the Rangitīkei is now on sale with 12 original tracks (two artists opted out of the project during the lengthy process) performed by the songwriters with backing from local studio musicians and vocalists.
Virginia Baird went into the studio to record her original song for a music exam and the producer asked her to include it on the album.
The opening track is Tim Pekamu’s Take the Light, an up-tempo ballad that is followed by 11 songs celebrating the district and some of the colourful characters from its past and present. Contributions from Paul Revell, Andrew and Amy, Michael Andrews, Tim McCartin, Sherman Page, The Bush Chooks, Jack McKenzie and Virginia Baird round out the album along with Bond’s own contribution The Ballad of Bob McLintock.
“Bob McLintock was a swagman who was around theRangitīkei in the 1920s. My father used to tell me stories about him and he’s part of the local folklore so worthy of a song.”
Bond said he was undeterred by the trials and tribulations of bringing the project to fruition and volume two was already being discussed.
“Next time we will search further afield for artists interested in taking part. There must be heaps of original artists in Marton and Whanganui.”
Profits from volume one sales will be returned to the community in the form of a donation towards the cost of a new St John station in Taihape.
Hato Hone St John area operations manager Nigel Watson said the efforts of Bond and the musicians involved in the project were incredible.
“Hato Hone St John Taihape extends its heartfelt thanks to the community for their fundraising efforts over the last four years and we look forward to sharing further progress on the Taihape station build now that building and resource consents have been approved.
