Adam McGrath, lead singer and songwriter from Christchurch folk/country band The Eastern, returns again to the state highways and byways of these long isles as part of his Autumn Ragged Ramble tour.

He will be stopping off at the Whanganui Musicians Club next Friday to offer his audience an opportunity to feel "that they aren't all alone in this mixed up, shook up weird-ass place we all inhabit together".

Described by country magazine No Depression as "One of the best modern roots acts from any country period", by the NZ Herald as "NZ's toughest-minded songwriter" and by Radio NZ National as a "National Treasure", an Adam McGrath show is primed and proud to reach your heart, head and boots.

A folk singer in the truest, traditional sense but one whose songs speak to the times we find ourselves in and the people with whom we share them with McGrath has a virtual lifetime spent on the road around New Zealand and everywhere beyond.

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He job, he says is to "pick up the stories he finds, siphon them down to the bone and the heart and bring them around to the next place and the next".

McGrath has toured and played with everyone from Fleetwood Mac to Steve Earle to Paul Kelly to Old Crow Medicine Show and many, many more. Barry Saunders from The Warratahs simply described him as "The truth".

A people's player with a blue-collar work ethic, McGrath treats any opportunity to play, big or small, as a gift which he intends to earn.

He looks ever forward to returning to the road, especially after his last well-received run last spring.

McGrath says "somewhere between Waimamauku and Bluff just over there on the left side of the road, that's where things tend to make the most sense".

Adam McGrath: The Ragged Rumble Tour, 7pm, Friday, April 26. Whanganui Musicians Club, 65 Drews Ave.