"Are you as nervous as I am?" Stretch asked his audience after his first two songs, Come Back to My Arms and Nothing Can Hurt You Again.
On July 22, the Dannevirke Fountain Theatre audience responded with laughter but Anthony Stretch was sincere, admitting that "it was not easy to put your stuff out there in front of people you know".
He need not have worried because from the opening ballad, the absolute sincerity of his lyrics and the deep, soulful tone of his voice, coupled with his huge skill in making his guitar sing, had the audience in the palm of his hand. After the show he commented that the evening was not one in which he and the audience were separated as performer and listeners. "We were at one," he said.
Stretch is not mainstream as a performer. His refusal to sing other artists' covers stems from his desire to put his own experiences and philosophies out there, performed in his unique style. He is unique and that uniqueness is due to the fact that every word he sings he believes, because he wrote it after long thought and inspiration.
As a songwriter Stretch has a unique gift. His inspiration comes from almost 50 years of living – some are narratives, others philosophies about life, some capture moods and others celebrate or mourn events.
As a performer he incorporates guitar, harmonica and looper beat and can change the dynamic in an instant from powerful sound to a whisper, rapid rhythm to a lazy strum – all part of telling a story. He describes his music as "freestyle and loose" and he offered to "talk you through some songs while others will speak for themselves".
All the time the show was sprinkled with humour, personal anecdotes and interactions with the audience. He relates writing his latest album, Our Dreams are Changing, while off the grid in a seaside bach and the eerie shock of coming back into "civilisation" midway through lockdown and being Hoss the Cat on stage in his teens.
He prefers to play small centres, although he has performed before 20,000 at the Mission Estate opening for Elton John.
He really enjoyed his night among friends, many of whom assembled as a kind of reunion. He has toured the world, resides on Bluff Hill in Napier and is forever a proud Dannevirkian.
He said the Fountain Theatre was epic, adding every town needed one like it to encourage artists to follow their dream in the hiatus between school and a career just as he did, pleading for shows to be supported like his was.
The tour was called Last Call For The Road, which opens his latest CD. He will be back – the audience demanded it!