SoundBites: Guy Wishart, Broods, Wendy James

Guy Wishart

Tauranga-born Silver Scroll Award winner Guy Wishart this week releases his fifth solo album, after four years in India and Thailand.

To mark the release of West By North, Wishart and band will be touring the country, kicking off in Auckland on Saturday with the rest of the dates from late May onwards.

Tour stops will include Hamilton, Dunedin and Oamaru.

Recorded at Roundhead Studios, the album is said to exhibit "a distinct country feel by way of Glenn Ross Campbell's captivating pedal steel playing".

Wishart, whose style is described on his Facebook page as acoustic lounge rock, won his Silver Scroll Award in 1990 for his third album Don't Take Me For Granted.

Brother and sister duo Broods will celebrate the release of their album Conscious with concerts in Christchurch, Auckland and Wellington.

The album is their follow-up to their 2014 debut Evergreen, and features the single Free.

Tickets go on sale this week for the gigs at Christchurch's Horncastle Arena on July 14, Auckland's Vector Arena on July 15 and Wellington's Shed 6 on July 17.

You probably don't often ask yourself whatever happened to Wendy James from Transvision Vamp - that late 80s pop punk band whose biggest hits were I Want Your Love and Baby I Don't Care.

But here's the answer anyway - James has released her third solo album, The Price of the Ticket, and it's receiving some strong reviews.

Village Voice said it was a "wild, moving, shocking, hilarious, raging, exhilarating, giant of an album ... a dazzling performance that listeners will delight in".

James' band includes musicians who've played with Patti Smith, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Iggy & The Stooges and the Sex Pistols.

Revisit a classic
In which we revisit and reproduce this item from a few months ago, when the late, great Prince announced his impromptu New Zealand visit:

With the Great Purple One, the artist formerly known as TAFKAP, set to play in New Zealand, many fans will be revisiting one of his most popular albums, Purple Rain.

The record - 32 years old this year - accompanied the movie of the same name but made a much bigger splash in the pond of cultural history, with its hits When Doves Cry, Let's Go Crazy and, of course, the title track with its amazing closing guitar solo.

Of course, this is just one of Prince's dozens of albums - he released his 38th and 39th just a few months ago - and there are gems to be found throughout his career (1999, Sign 'o' the Times, 7 and more), but this has to be the go-to album for a nostalgia fix.