Wairarapa gig for Rag Poets

The Rag Poets include, from left, Dave Murphy, Carl Evensen, Al Norman, Clinton Brown, and Vic Singe.

Stellar Kiwi band Rag Poets will play a long-awaited Wairarapa debut at the Greytown Little Theatre on Sunday.

Rag Poets boasts a line-up of players including Dave Murphy, Clinton Brown, Carl Evensen, Alan Norman and Carterton-based Vic Singe who each hail from renowned Kiwi bands such as Kal-Q-Lated Risk, Fourmyula, Rockinghorse, The Warratahs and the Windy City Strugglers.

Singe said players in the five-piece unit had come together about two years ago and also had shared stages with a cast of renowned musicians including Sharon O'Neill, Rene Geyer, Clarence Gatemouth Brown and Champion Jack Dupree.

The players together represented about "300 years of New Zealand music history in them".

Singe shifted to Wairarapa with partner Trish in 2005 and was the only band member who lived outside Wellington. He had formerly played alongside Brown in The Warratahs and in Mickey Finn, the longtime resident band at Wellington Irish bar Molly Malones.

Singe has since played in Wairarapa alongside Stefan Brown, Lenny "T" Te Whare, "Dr Rob" Maunsell, Pat McKenna , Miles Reay, and David Mills.

The Rag Poets play regular gigs in Wellington and had been "for ages" planning a Wairarapa gig, which would showcase a repertoire from artists such as Huddie Ledbetter, Guy Clark, Johnny Cash, and Gordon Lightfoot.

"Our style ranges from country and blues classics to 60s and 70s pop to folk music, roots and country rocks -- with the soaring notes and vocal harmonies, guitar-picking, squeeze-boxing, drums and bass that go with these."

The band play the Greytown Little Theatre on Sunday, 5pm-7pm. Tickets to the BYO gig cost $20 each. More information, Village Art Shop, Greytown, 06 304 8255.