ONE WE MISSED: Grant Haua: Tahanga/Unplugged (Yellow Eye, digital outlets)

 |   |  1 min read

ONE WE MISSED: Grant Haua: Tahanga/Unplugged (Yellow Eye, digital outlets)

It's pretty well established that blues artists, with a few obvious exceptions, don't sell many albums in this country. But when they play live an audience always turns up.

When the great singer/guitarist Grant Haua – of Swamp Thing with Mike Barker, but also a solo artist – released this excellent solo album late last year we were snowed under and incapacitated.

But the blues and Haua are enduring and with a solo show in Auckland coming up (as well as a radio interview/session scheduled) it's certainly worth shining a spotlight on his earthy vocals and phenomenal guitar skills on this solo acoustic album.

But first let's note his Awa Blues album of two years ago which is also something you should check out.

He is just back from playing in Western Australia, is getting back with Barker and bassist Brian Franks to record a power trio album before heading off to tour it in France (he's signed to the French label Dixie Frog) later in the year.

Yep, Haua is some kind of hard working machine and with the energy he brings to the Tahanga album (which opens with the incendiary Bad Man) you could power a small city.

He revisits some of the material on Awa Blues (among them the excellent Tough Love Mumma and This is the Place which is a tribute to ancestors and whanau), takes Ray Charles' soulful I Got a Woman into urgent blues and speaks to and from the heart on Addiction and Better Day (the latter also from Awa Blues).

Grant Haua is the real deal in the blues and with his soulful voice – which can shift from raw to reserved – he's worth hearing, here or in concert.

.

You can hear and buy this album (and others by Haua) at bandcamp here

.

Grant Haua plays Auckland Blues Music Club, 1130 Gt North Rd, Pt Chevalier, Auckland, Wednesday April 19


Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   Blues at Elsewhere articles index

Ry Cooder and Taj Mahal: Get on Board; The Songs of Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee (Nonesuch/digital outlets)

Ry Cooder and Taj Mahal: Get on Board; The Songs of Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee (Nonesuch/digital outlets)

Ry Cooder and Taj Mahal first played together in the Sixties folk and blues band Rising Sons in California, recorded one album (which went unreleased until 1990) and then each went their separate... > Read more

Walker/Katz/Robson: Journeys to the Heart of the Blues (Alligator/Southbound)

Walker/Katz/Robson: Journeys to the Heart of the Blues (Alligator/Southbound)

Although singer-guitarist Joe Louis Walker would be the immediate name-hook here for blues enthusiasts, the prime mover behind this was respected British harmonica player Giles Robson who met... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

Elsewhere Art . . . Louis Armstrong

Elsewhere Art . . . Louis Armstrong

Absolutely obvious I know. But what else are you going to for the great Louis Armstrong other than cast him as some holy man radiating light out of New Orleans? This was created to... > Read more

DISCOVER LIVE, INTRODUCED (2019): An invitation across the nation in NZ Music Month

DISCOVER LIVE, INTRODUCED (2019): An invitation across the nation in NZ Music Month

In the interests of New Zealand Music Month, the musicians and the venues, we share this from Discover Live about some of the many things going on. . . . Aotearoa has an abundance of... > Read more