Ragtime Washboard Kings - probably the only band ever, in New Zealand, to feature not one but two washboard players.
This alongside acoustic and resonator guitars, upright bass, fiddle, lap steel, mandolin, djembe, cajon, and more promises to be an audio feast for Kauaeranga Music's final gig in 2022.
Versatilebluesman par excellence Mike Garner, with eight albums to his credit, has toured internationally to Australia, Japan, Europe, the US, and even Kathmandu, Nepal for the Himalayan Blues Festival. Mike plays ragtime, blues and other pre-war American music as though he has lived it.
Some impressive accolades Mike has achieved include being played on Dan Ackroyd's syndicated House of Blues Hour radio show, as well as a support slot for Motown masters The Four Tops, The Miracles and The Temptations, in front of 50,000 people at the Mission Estate concert in 2010.
Robbie Lavën has a long experience as an international musician with Red Hot Peppers. Robbie contributes a wide array of accompanying instrumentation - mandolin, fiddle, Stroh violin, lap steel guitar, harmonica and washboard.
On upright bass, Stuart Lawrence from Dargaville has worked with the Whangarei Big Band.
On percussion and washboard, long-time associate Warren Houston from Motueka, has toured with Mike in Australia, New Caledonia and Nepal, as well as recording on most of Mike's albums for more than two decades.
In a review of the band, Vincente Zumel of Hora Del Blues, a radio station in Barcelona, said, "Without a doubt, Mike Garner is one of the best-known and most popular blues musicians in New Zealand. A singer with an evocative voice, he also performs acoustic and electric guitar, slide, resonator guitar, bass, mandolin and harmonica."
