Band add legend to line-up

A pared-back version of The Eastern will perform at The Cabana in Napier on Friday from 8.30pm, with Warratahs frontman Barry Saunders.

Take one swinging folk trio, add a songwriting legend and you have the potential for magic.

A stripped-back version of Lyttelton act The Eastern will be pairing up with Warratahs frontman Barry Saunders for a whistle-stop North Island tour, beginning in Napier on Friday.

"Barry is my songwriting hero, over the last few years we have become pretty close," The Eastern's Adam McGrath says. "After the September earthquake in Christchurch we did Band Together with him, we practiced together under a tree at Hagley Park, it was quite beautiful.

"He's an unassuming guy, but he's a deep well; his songs are impeccable, give anyone a chance to listen to his music from Warratahs or the solo material, and they will be moved."

Saunders will open at The Cabana, but there's bound to be a collaboration at some point.

"We tend to do some songs together, but we just roll it out on the night, we are a bit old- fashioned that way.

"We don't like to plan too much, there are no set lists. We literally play to the audience, and that may change mid-way through, we sing what we want to, we sing what we have to, then the world is wide open."

This year is full on for The Eastern, who recently recorded their new CD, The Territory, set for release in October, before these North Island gigs and a two-month European tour, finishing in September.

"We are off to spend winter overseas, but we have this run of shows first, "McGrath says.

"We had a few weeks spare after finishing the record before playing Europe, we haven't been to Hawke's Bay for about a year, but we love The Cabana and we love [owner] Roy."

"People there have been really nice to us and we have got a new fiddle player to showcase."

The recording process had been "long and drawn out", as the band had to rest, having spent a solid year on the road playing tracks from Hope and Wire, which was written and recorded in the midst of their broken home town.

The Eastern were also heavily involved with Hope and Wire - a hard-hitting television series featuring tales of real Christchurch people, set to debut on TV3 from 8.30pm tomorrow.

"It's named after our last album, we did some of the music and we also feature.

"It will be interesting to see the way people react."

While The Eastern helped re-ignite the garden city's music scene and admit the quake influenced their last offering, it did not define them.

"We have to tread a line, we are not just the earthquake band, we are alive, we are here in the future, but for whatever reason we had to bear witness to those events and we don't take it lightly - if people want to know we tell them if they want to hear our songs, we sing them."

Whether they play as a roaring six-piece string band or stripped back to a duo, they are always a crowd pleaser.

They have opened for impressive names such as Steve Earle, the Old Crow Medicine Show, the Little Band of Gold, Fleetwood Mac and Jimmy Barnes to name a few.

The show starts from 8.30pm at The Cabana in Napier. Tickets $20 from www.undertheradar.co.nz/ticket/3703/The-Eastern-with-Barry-Saunders.utr