The Church Tour 2015 presents one of its most tantalizing artist line-ups in its already storied seven year history, with four of New Zealand’s most lauded, singular and extraordinary musical talents combining: Delaney Davidson, Tami Neilson, Barry Saunders and Marlon Williams: The Lost Highway.
Country, Alt-Country, Spaghetti Noir, Country Rock, Rockabilly, Western folk, Americana, Honky Tonk…..The Church Tour 2015 will showcase the styles and genres that scatter loosely under the flag of Country Music, converging at a place where yarns, myths, tales, legends and fables come to life through exceptional songwriting delivered via the incomparable voices of four artists-in-arms.
Delaney Davidson is a singer, songwriter, producer and travelling minstrel - ten years on the road, of no fixed abode. He’s inspired by icons from Hank Williams and Howlin’ Wolf down through Johnny Cash and back up to Buster Keaton. He is a three-time winner of the APRA New Zealand “Country Music Song of the Year”, has a “Country Album of the Year” Tui Award, has produced albums for tour mate Tami Neilson and had his “Swim Down Low” album trumpeted by the UK Independent as “a rattling, twanging celebration” (5 stars).
Tami Neilson has a soulful voice straight from the golden age of country and rockabilly music. A winner of multiple Country Album of the Year Tuis and a prestigious APRA Silver Scroll for Song of the Year (2014) amongst many other career highlights, Tami has been described as a “red-hot honky-tonker, somewhere between Patsy Cline and Wanda Jackson with perhaps just a little bit of Peggy Lee sophistication.” (Nick Bollinger, NZ National Radio). Her last album “Dynamite” received a 5/5 star review in the NZ Herald, which praised “This world-class album is a major statement from an artist at the top of her lyrical and vocal game”.
Barry Saunders adventured far and wide as a young gigging musician, playing in bands in New Zealand, Australia and the UK. When Barry pitched back up in Wellington some misty years ago, living on a diet of Hank Williams, Hank Snow, Jimmy Rogers, early Elvis and Chuck Berry, he formed the Warratahs and gave us songs that have become part of the national lexicon – from Maureen and Hands of My Heart to the Interislander Song and Rescue Me. The Warratahs continue to roam (having just released a brilliant new album “Runaway Days”), alongside and in tandem with Barry’s solo work, which has included the glorious Magnetic South (winner of the Country Album of the Year Tui) and Red Morning. Barry Saunders is an icon.
Marlon Williams has been described as the impossible love child of Elvis, Roy Orbison and Townes van Zandt. At the age of 17 he exploded onto the NZ music scene, fronting acclaimed alt-country band The Unfaithful Ways, then gathered a Country Album of the Year Tui with his tour mate Delaney Davidson and has just released his phenomenal self-titled debut album. Music industry bible Billboard Magazine has already tipped: “Expect to see and hear a lot more from this man with the voice of an angel”.
Renowned for curating inventive bills, twists and artist combinations on the Church Tour, Civic Events promoters Brent Eccles and Campbell Smith are thrilled with the line-up for the Tour in 2015. Eccles pronounces concert-goers are in for a real treat:
The bill for this year’s Church Tour is something very special, it has all the elements we think you need for a landmark tour – talent, camaraderie, passion and freshness, bound together by great songs and incredible voices in stunning venues. It is going to be epic.”
The Church Tour shows will run in two halves. Each artist will perform a set on their own, two artists per half, each backed by a multi-instrumentalist “house band” made up of Dave Khan, Ben Woolley and Joe McCallum. However the magic of The Church Tour is always in the collaboration and audiences can expect the artists to jump in and out of each other’s sets throughout.
Now in its seventh continuous year, The Church Tour in 2015 will play 8 shows in 6 cities between the 1st and 10th of October.
