Singer writer Jez Lowe - pride of the north east of England - sang for a dedicated band of followers at the Victorian Garden Conservatory this week.
His performance was part of the Hamilton Gardens Festival.
On his umpteenth New Zealand tour, he was this time accompanied by fiddler and
songstress Kate Bramley.
Lowe was raised in County Durham, in a coal mining family with Irish roots. He is known for his music and lyrics dealing with life in North-East England, particularly in his hometown of Easington Colliery.
He performs as a solo artist and with his band, The Bad Pennies and accompanies himself and The Bad Pennies on guitar, harmonica and piano.
Many of Lowe's compositions address the distress that the North Country suffered as a result of industrial decline. "Galloways," "Nearer to Nettles," and "These Coal Town Days" are among songs that directly address social conditions.
Jez Lowe concluded his concert with his poignant "Last of the Widows" - written in 1991 to mark the 40th anniversary of a major pit disaster at Easington Colliery - as a tribute to the West Coast Pike River mine tragedy.
