Thursday 18 April (note this is the 3rd Thursday – a change this month), Roseneath School Hall, Maida Vale Road, Roseneath, Wellington, 7:30 pm. Parking on site or catch the number 14 bus.
Entry: $15/$10 for members. Cash only (no eftpos facilities).
Karen Clarke has been lurking backstage in the provincial acoustic scene refining her feels for the last 25 years. With an active live performance schedule, two albums under her belt and another release due next month, collaborating with Wellington-based producer and kiwi blues legend Darren Watson, she’s well and truly earned her piece of the heartland acoustic music stage.
Starting out in folk Karen finds herself now firmly rooted where RnB and Alt-Country collide – you’ll detect a dalliance with jazz too. She has an eclectic repertoire of self-penned material dealing with themes of belonging, love lost and trying to figure out life’s riddles.
On stage Karen’s power-packed performance is strong. Grounded. Built. Warm. Emotionally direct with interpretations and song feels that move your waters.
Based in Taranaki, Karen runs an occasional acoustic venue called The Sound Shed with husband Mike Self and is the chair of the Taranaki Singer Songwriter Development Trust. Karen still holds a strong connection back to her former home base on the Kapiti Coast where she convened the Kapiti Live Music club for a while and played in Kapiti groups GingerJam and Mynimo; and Hard Candy.
https://open.spotify.com/track/6XRBraM21JeuogqW3x1EnY?si=25f044a7a54e4acb
https://open.spotify.com/artist/1zIwRIFCi5iIWGi3YUzOQq?si=wBb0V71sSCKuQWPeRqx9AQ
Al Witham started out with nothing and still has most of it left. As a youngster in the 80s he inflicted himself on folk club audiences who were kind enough not to lock him out. A youthful obsession with Bob Dylan led him to explore the weird byways of early American folk, blues, jazz, and country music. Somewhere via Mississippi John Hurt, Johnny Cash, John Lee Hooker, Charlie Christian, and Tony Joe White he began writing songs, plugged in an electric guitar, and stumbled onto his own anachronistic way of expressing this temporary existence.