HOEDOWN: The Shot Band (from left) is Rob Joass, Hamish Graham and Bill Hickman. The trio play alongside Barry Saunders and Eb & Sparrow at King Street Live on Saturday. PHOTO/ROBERT CATTO
Wairarapa folk country legend Barry Saunders will share a stage at King Street Live this weekend with fellow Kiwi luminaries of the genre The Shot Band and Eb & Sparrow.
Up With People promoter Mark Rogers said the Lowdown Hoedown Christmas Special performance comprises "some of Wellington's finest country and
folk artists playing a one-off shindig, hootenanny and hoedown this Christmas".
Saunders is a legend of New Zealand music, Rogers said, who needs little introduction after a quarter of a century fronting The Warratahs, as well as a solo career that spans five albums and a retrospective.
Saunders, who has been described as "one of New Zealand's few, true troubadours", will be performing with the accomplished Caroline Easther, formerly of The Chills and Verlaines, on drums and backing vocals.
The Shot Band got together nearly a decade ago and now forms a lean, stand-up acoustic band, featuring Rob Joass, Hamish Graham and Bill Hickman. Three singers, three front men and three songwriters - equally at home in a big festival audience or unplugged at a folk club "where the spirit of Johnny Cash meets the swagger of Keith Richards," says music writer Nick Bollinger.
