Shannon multi-instrumental Nick Potts is part of the Blues After 5 free concerts. Photo / Supplied
Shannon multi-instrumental Nick Potts is part of the Blues After 5 free concerts. Photo / Supplied
The first New Zealand Blues, Roots & Groove Festival starts on Thursday in Palmerston North and many of the events are free.
Blues After 5 is a series of free concerts in bars and cafes around the city between 5pm and 7pm, finishing in time for patrons to attend theticketed festival concerts at the Globe Theatre.
Shannon multi-instrumentalist Nick Potts brings his solo acoustic show to Aqaba, Friday at 5pm. He has been a touring musician for the past 12 years.
"I'm a left-handed guitarist who plays on a right-handed guitar upside down," he says.
The other Blues After 5 artists are Mike Garner and Robbie Laven from Tauranga, Shayn (Hurricane) Wills from Raglan and Bullfrog Rata from Wellington.
The venues having music tomorrow, Thursday and Friday are The Celtic, Aqaba and Brewers Apprentice, while Little Savanna is Friday night only.
On Sunday as a special festival closing event, Blues Buffet from Whanganui, which features Palmerston North's own Erna Ferry, will play at The Celtic Inn 5pm-7pm.
Also on Sunday, 10am at the Globe, a free blues workshop offers students of all ages the opportunity to engage in a multidisciplinary, hands-on approach celebrating creative self-expression, festival organiser Rodger Fox says.
"The aim of the workshops is to enable participants to socialise with their musical peers, learn from experts, and perform in a friendly and unintimidating environment.
"The workshops are also designed to give a vivid, graphic overview of the essential facts of a blues master's life and musical highlights of artists such as Muddy Waters, Son House, John Lee Hooker, Robert Johnson, B.B. King, Albert Collins and Michael Bloomfield."
Players of any blues musical instruments - harmonica, bass, piano, guitar, drums, saxophone and any brass instruments, as well as vocalists, are welcome.
Warwick Murray will present two lectures on the history of the blues. Photo / Supplied
The Blues Outreach Programme on Saturday at 1pm and Sunday at noon at City Library is a 50-minute lecture on the history of the blues from Warwick Murray, Professor of Human Geography and Development Studies at Victoria University of Wellington, a singer-songwriter/multi-instrumentalist and a proud dad.
The lectures will be interactive with a performance element, Fox says.
