8 Oct 2024
UsernamePassword

Remember Me? | Join | Recover
Click here to sign in via social networking

Barry Saunders - Barry Saunders & Adam Hattaway - Single Review: Keep On

19 May 2023 // A review by roger.bowie

Keep On is the title track of a Warratahs album released in 2006 (don’t mind that Spotty-fi has it as 2020). An almost lost song, as was the album, but a classic Barry Saunders story centred  around someone, could be an acrobat, somewhere, where they don’t want to be, meeting a woman who shakes stars from her hair, dreaming in the morning, drinking in the afternoon, realising that love is the only thing missing, and therefore it must be plain sailing from here, just keep on, keep on, keep on.

Fortitude, persistence, resilience, the traits of the average Kiwi battler, and now Barry teams up with a younger version of himself, the multi-genred Adam Hattaway with his ever-ready Haunters, to revisit this timeless theme.

Whereas the original had fiddle and largely acoustic, this time round we get harmonica and electric guitar, sharper, darker, a little more earnest, the discordant harmonies serving to accentuate the message and put it in a time capsule for ever more.

Of course Barry can sing with anyone, be it Delaney, Marlon, Jackie, Tami or even Ebony Lamb, anyone who can soften or harshen his underlying grit , dependent on the outcome desired.

With Adam there’s no exception, with the younger voice taking the high road and adding a wail of emotion to the mix. Adam Hattaway can also sing with anyone, and this little gem, grit meets grit, is one we hope starts a trend, an expectation, characterised by the pervasive feeling which prevails at the song’s send: we want more of this…..

Keep On is released today, May 19th, and Barry and Adam are doing a celebratory show tomorrow night, May 20th, at the Vogelmorn Bowling Club (who?, what?) in Wellington. Be the lucky ones and be there!

Rating: ( 4 / 5 )
 

About Barry Saunders

Heading into his fourth solo album Barry Saunders was "wanting to do new things, let my songs take on a new life". The result is 'Red Morning' an artistic collaboration with a leading record producer who introduced some interesting new flavours to the familiar recipe.

In a lateral approach aimed at bringing new sounds to the mix Saunders asked Fur Patrol producer and Mutton Bird guitarist David Long to help. It may not have seemed the most obvious idea to team one of New Zealand's leading country artists with one of its top rock producers but as the resultant album 'Red Morning' proves, it worked like a charm.

'Red Morning' combines the considerable song writing talents of Barry Saunders with fully realised arrangements which expose the subtlety of the music and playing that allows the songs to achieve their full potential.

Visit the muzic.net.nz Profile for Barry Saunders

Releases

Word Gets Around
Year: 2019
Type: Album
Instrumentals
Year: 2012
Type: Album
Far As The Eye Can See
Year: 2010
Type: Album
Zodiac
Year: 2008
Type: Album
Red Morning
Year: 2002
Type: Album
Magnetic South
Year: 1998
Type: Album
Weatherman
Year: 1995
Type: Album
Long Shadows
Year: 1994
Type: Album

Other Reviews By roger.bowie

Album Review: Subset BC
16 Dec 2023 // by roger.bowie
Here’s an interesting little thing from Gisborne. A funky little band with three bass players.
Read More...
Gig Review: The Best of Come Together @ The Civic Theatre, Auckland - 9/12/2023
12 Dec 2023 // by roger.bowie
Get your heads around this line-up:  The singers: Jon Toogood, (lead and backing vocals), Julia Deans (lead and backing vocals), Dianne Swann (lead and backing vocals and occasional guitar), Samuel Flynn Scott (vocals and guitar), James Milne (lead and backing vocals), Milan Borich (Mick vocals) The players: Jol Mulholland (guitars and vocals), Brett Adams (lead guitar and vocals), Mike Hall (bass), Matthias Jordan (keyboards), Alastair Deverick (drums), Finn Scholes (trumpet, clarinet and percussion), Nick Atkinson (sax and percussion).  Stopped spinning?
Read More...
A Crude Mechanical - Album Review: Discourse
08 Dec 2023 // by roger.bowie
Shane Warbrooke doesn’t believe in lyrics, because of the risk of lyrics being hi-jacked and meanings bent to suit ideologies which he doesn’t like. Well, such ideologies which most of us don’t like, truth be known, but then again, Beethoven didn’t write lyrics, so the freedom of speech counter argument only goes so far.
Read More...
Gig Review: The Phoenix Foundation @ Hollywood Avondale, Auckland - 24/11/2023
26 Nov 2023 // by roger.bowie
This is a first of many things. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen The Phoenix Foundation play live.
Read More...
Velvet Arrow - Album Review: Songs of Solitude
17 Nov 2023 // by roger.bowie
A Song Of Hope & Fear would normally be a contradiction in terms unless darkness prevails and light shines through, which is an appropriate metaphor for the debut album from Whangarei’s Velvet Arrow and the opening song, with Dan Stenhouse’s husky voice helping us through the night against a ghostly horror wail from Hannah Jane. After all it’s just a song to help you through the night, just the words that speak, it’s not real.
Read More...
Gig Review: Atomic: Women of Rock @ The Civic, Auckland - 11/11/2023
13 Nov 2023 // by roger.bowie
What a feast of nostalgia we’ve had from Liberty Stage (Simone Williams) these past few years, as New Zealand’s finest have Come Together to cover the classic albums which made the soundtracks of our youth. In addition to this, there have also been special tributes like Tami Neilson’s rock ‘n roll party with Dinah Lee, just last month.
Read More...
Dimmer - Album Review: Live At The Hollywood
09 Nov 2023 // by roger.bowie
Wow, not very often that we see alive album these days, an unusual beast, but that’s we have, a 14-track monster from Dimmer, recorded from last year’s sold-out trilogy at the Hollywood Avondale. Which, if you didn’t get to go last year, you can still see on December 2nd at the Powerstation, unless, like me, you are going instead to The War on Drugs.
Read More...
Killergrams - EP Review: Lonely Nights In A Little Town
27 Oct 2023 // by roger.bowie
Someone walked out, and Tom Maxwell has lost his mind, in a gentle, acoustic way. Then his mind explodes in a cacophony of chaos, which might just be what it feels like, losing something that important.
Read More...
View All Articles By roger.bowie

NZ Top 10 Singles

  • DIE WITH A SMILE
    Lady Gaga And Bruno Mars
  • TASTE
    Sabrina Carpenter
  • BIRDS OF A FEATHER
    Billie Eilish
  • TIMELESS
    The Weeknd And Playboi Carti
  • ESPRESSO
    Sabrina Carpenter
  • GOOD LUCK, BABE!
    Chappell Roan
  • A BAR SONG (TIPSY)
    Shaboozey
  • LOSE CONTROL
    Teddy Swims
  • TOO SWEET
    Hozier
  • BEAUTIFUL THINGS
    Benson Boone
View the Full NZ Top 40...
muzic.net.nz Logo
100% New Zealand Music
All content on this website is copyright to muzic.net.nz and other respective rights holders. Redistribution of any material presented here without permission is prohibited.
Report a ProblemReport A Problem