THE EASTERN: One of the hardest working bands in the country. Pictures supplied
Described as “one of the best modern roots acts from any country”, The Eastern is gonna sidle on up to the stage at The Dome next Friday and you're in for a special treat.
Not only does The Dome have The Eastern coming to hit the strings, but Gisborne boy Eliot Witters will perform as their special guest.
Witters, “champion of dulcet tones most often found in the American heartland”, also knows how to belt out a decent bluegrass tune.
The Eastern are a string band that roars like a punk band, swings like gospel, drinks like country, works like a bar band and sings love songs like union songs.
They roar out as the big six-piece string band or swing a loud and lonesome sound as a two-piece.
The band averages over 200 shows a year and can hold it down in all settings for all comers.
They tour a great deal and have played all over New Zealand. They have snapped strings and dented floors from Papanui to Portland, Shirley to Sydney, and they've seen more than their share of bars and street corners.
The band treats any opportunity to hold it down and play as a gift. They play like they mean it, like it's all they know how to do, and maybe it is.
They've toured with Steve Earle, Old Crow Medicine Show (twice) and the Lil' Band of Gold as well as opening for everyone from Fleetwood Mac and the Jayhawks to Jimmy Barnes, Justin Townes Earle, Jim White, Victoria Williams and Vic Chestnut.
Over the past five years, having delivered two albums (The Eastern and Arrows), three EP's and close to 1000 shows, The Eastern have won a reputation as one of New Zealand's hardest working bands. They gather converts and friends and great reviews wherever they or their records land.
Their visit to Gisborne is part of their tour of Taupō, Napier and Hastings, and Witters is cheered to be appearing with them.
“I get the privilege to share the stage with my favourite New Zealand band of all time,” he wrote recently.
“I'll tell you what always made sense to me. Whenever I'd walk into an Auckland bar and Adam and Jessie and whoever else of The Eastern crew they had assembled that night were on stage singing their songs and doing their thing, nothing else mattered. Work stress, money stress — it was just the songs. That was it, man. That was this seemingly elusive truth I'd been desperately seeking.
“And it was right there in the songs and the performers. They made it tangible, like I could reach out and touch it, put it in my pocket and take it home with me for safe keeping.”
Witters, self-described as “raised by whisky, wolves and Wilco”, is a guitarist/vocalist with a deep golden voice and an almost self-mocking — but magnetic — stage presence.
An accomplished songwriter, he's up to play a selection of songs from his own songbook.
Once described as Springsteen via Fred Dagg, he's a different experience to either. Witters' performances draw from such things as hopping freight trains in the American Midwest to being chased out of dive bars in northern Scandinavia.
They're all tales that have matured this Gisborne-born performer's voice and stage presence well beyond his years. The strength, richness and tone of his voice is something to experience.
“It's corny and sappy but sometimes dreams do come true when you least expect it, you know?” he wrote.
“So if there's ever a time you'd nip down to Gizzy to see what old Jay Colette and Wickets are up to, it's for the weekend of the 14th. The Eastern and Eliot live and loud at The Dome in Gisborne.”
Outside of his solo work, Witters has been bassist for Auckland bar room rockers Kingsland and guitarist for Napier Avalon Jones.
“There's a wolf in your bedroom, you don't know how you're gonna escape . . . You're never without the loneliness . . . on and on, with the night sky, on and on.”
— From Casanova Walks East 14th
Adam McGrath is bringing The Eastern up the coast for a big night in at The Dome, Friday, October 14, 8pm. Performing with friend and guest Eliot Witters. Tickets $30 from the Aviary or adammcgrath.net/shows