Matt Joe Gow and Kerryn Fields perform as a powerful Country Americana duo. Both are New Zealanders who have flourished and won accolades in the music industry in Australia.
It seems de riguer in these times for New-Zealand born Country artists wanting to establish a serious career in music, to base themselves in Australia, Nashville, or England.
Matt Joe Gow grew up in Dunedin and has been based in Melbourne long enough for the ‘Strines to claim him as theirs.
Polished as a singer-songwriter and has been performing solo with acoustic guitar throughout New Zealand over the last few years. He was playing with a full electric band previously, the Dead Leaves, who perform on his debut Messenger album in 2009.
She was bounced on the knees of Colin Meads, so the legend goes.
She sings and writes songs blending Folk and Country. The sound is Americana with the older style of Roots Country.
She also resides in Melbourne.
Both artists experienced the virus madness as a shared Kiwi experience. The harshest lockdowns in the world were in Melbourne with Dictator Dan, and in New Zealand with the Ardern-led government. It didn’t matter which place you were in.
First song is Fields’ Prairie Song. Has some nice old style Roots Country phrasing, and she plays a ringing banjo. She claims she is neither Bluegrass three-fingerpicking, or Dave Macon clawhammer. Self-taught, so maybe in the middle.
Until You is Fields’, and she sings about the Te Kuiti River. Classic old Country with deep roots. She tells me later that she doesn’t do American phrasing, but on this she has Leonardo De Caprio’s accent from Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon.
A brilliant movie and stuffed full of Americana like the Original Carter Family and Blind Willie Johnson.
This duo would fit right in.
They make a superb fist of Bob Blind Boy Grunt Dylan’s It Ain’t Me Babe. They do it in the style of Johnny Cash and June Carter. Fields wants to do Johnny, but she settles for June.
Fields has a remarkable voice. She has a deep tone which is hard to come by. Close to the one Sara Carter of the Original Carter Family had, especially in the recordings after 1937. The Family are one of the foundation pillars of Americana.
The only other singer who can replicate this tone is from Freakwater. Either Catherine Irwin or Janet Bean. I worked it out once, a long time ago.
Gow sings in baritone and Fields gets in some high vocals. Curiously this reminded me of the Turtle’s Folk Rock version. Sometimes the mind can play tricks on you when you’re trying to be so quiet.
They will be releasing an album next year, and Whirlwind is from that. Some lyrics rise up. Tell me are you living now? / Standing in an earthquake. Americana with soul. Combine Springsteen and the Modern Lovers Roadrunner and you have it.
They cover Dave Dobbyn’s It Dawned on Me. The original is great blue-eyed Soul. They match it in Americana fashion.
Your Heart of Gold can take its place as a classic radio song to sit beside Van Morrisons triple set. Brown-Eyed Girl, Domino and Caravan. It also borrows from Warren Zevon’s Play It All Night Long. A song full of sunshine and diamonds.
A high tone keening to start. She lays out her great vocal range, including the classic choke and sob of the best Country music. Maybe Neil Young would be begging. The aurora borealis is also mentioned.
Between Tonight and Tomorrow is Matt Joe Gow’s song he dedicated to his mother. This acoustic version sounds at peace. In the in-between /That’s when it hits you/ That’s when you fall. Another one to fit right into Astral Weeks.
They end the night with Love You Like I Can. A Folk Blues train song. Think of the Rock’n’Roll Trio channelling Elvis, Scotty and Bill.
Matt Joe Gow and Kerryn Fields play Americana at the top level.
Rev. Orange Peel
Photography by Isabella Rose Young
What an outstanding review. Kerryn & Matt are certainly everything in that article & so much more. How very blessed l am being a Melburnian and having them both in my life, not just as a fan, but taking that further to becoming good friends. Music for me is the air that l breath & the medicine l take. Kerryn & Matt have changed my whole world for the better. Totally love them both for the beautiful human beings they are.