Matt Joe Gow and Kerryn Fields play splendid Country Americana. Velvet Arrow are Goth Folkies.
They enchant the friends and guests of Roger Bowie,a champion of New Zealand artists and a long-time musical commentator.
So here we all are, lazin’ on a sunny afternoon. Living a life of luxury so it would seem with the hosts providing a great beggars banquet of food and wine.
Whilst we are entertained by two duos of superlative New Zealand musicians flying under the radar.
Velvet Arrow are Hannah Jane and Dan Stenhouse from Northland. They have been together as musical and life partners for about three years.
They were active musicians before that in the local Folk and possibly Country circles.
Coming together suited their explorations of the darker, melancholic side of music.
The truth is that murder, misery and the weather describe eighty per cent of Folk and Country. The genres are equivalent.
Since it’s rainin’ outside you better come on in to my kitchen and pass me that knife.
I saw them first two years ago at the Anthology Lounge in Auckland. They suffered from a terrible sound mix which buried their acoustic music.
The venue has since been improved, only to have met a precarious closure in the present time.
At Chez Roger, the sound is much better. Stenhouse also runs a studio and does production work, and he is the Soundie for both acts.
Songs of Solitude is their brand-new debut album, released a month ago, and Can’t Reason With a Dead Man from that, opens their set.
They are Folk but the atmosphere is strongly Americana. Jane has a steady clear pitch without affectation that you hear with Judy Collins and Linda Thompson. Possibly Sandy Denny, without the whiskey and fags.
Song of Hope and Fear. Stenhouse takes the lead and it’s heavily downbeat. A lower register and it could be Cohen or Cave.
I killed a man and maybe it’s true/ The only one I killed is me/ Like everything never meant to be.
This is Popular music, or Pop, for centuries. It is also the definition of Soul. Which is to transcend pain and suffering and end up with detachment and peace.
Go to the Dictionary of Soul and look up Otis Redding’s Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song). There is also the Country of Tennessee Waltz.
Red Revenge continues down that ribbon of Goth highway. The lyrics make it a great Country Blues to rival the most paranoid of Robert Johnson. Night descends I fear with dread/ What’s happening to me/ A dark and lonely path you lead me down.
Red Riding Hood is a dark tale masquerading as a children’s bedtime story.
Runaway Girl lifts the mood with a song of flight and freedom. It is hardcore Folk, and the girl is heading South for liberation. That means Texas. Therefore, it is also Americana.
They cover a Nick Cave tune to finish, Henry Lee. He may have appropriated the copyright, but it an ancient song which can be traced back to Scottish origins.
Why does the little girl kill Henry Lee? The wind howls as she does so. He had fallen love with another.
Check out Harry Smiths Anthology of American Folk Music for the source material. The Bible for all Folkies including Bob Dylan.
Matt Joe Gow grew up in Dunedin, which means he had exposure to the Country music capital of New Zealand.
Kerryn Fields comes from Heartland Te Kuiti and plays Country Folk with a distinctive Sara Original Carter Family voice. A deeper mellifluous tone as well as higher conventional range.
Both have furthered their musical careers to acclaim and appreciation in Melbourne.
Their collaboration sees them playing Country Americana at the highest level, and they are making a brief New Zealand circuit to promote a forthcoming album in 2024.
They play a mix of their own, and their collaborative efforts.
They open with one of Fields, Prairie Song. The phrasing is Americana. Fields insists the style is her own. There is a wealth of influences in her voice. She does remind me of the Topp Twins, who played harder Country with irreverence and could also yodel.
Provincial farm girls from Huntly. Actors and stand-up comedians as well.
Sweet Collapse is one of Gow’s finest. Where his Country Soul approach stands out along with certain resemblances to Van Morrison.
Even more so with Your Heart of Gold. A classic homage-to-radio song which can hold it’s own with the Belfast Cowboy’s triple shot of Brown-Eyed Girl, Domino and Caravan.
A lot of that influence and more is on Whirlwind, a song they preview from their forthcoming Album in 2024. The other vocal and song-writing influence for Gow is Boss Springsteen.
They cover Bob Dylan’s It Ain’t Me Babe. In the fashion of Johnny Cash and June Carter. Gow has the warm baritone.
Dave Dobbyn’s It Dawned on Me goes from the original blue-eyed Soul, to Americana now.
They close with Gow’s take me home, sweet Georgia Rose! Off his Seven Years album from 2016.
So, we all grooved on a Sunday afternoon to Velvet Arrow, and Matt Joe Gow and Kerryn Fields.
There ain’t no place I would rather be.
Rev. Orange Peel
Also see Matt Joe Gow and Kerryn Fields – Wine Cellar, 16 December 2023: Review
Photography by Leonie Moreland
Matt Joe Gow & Kerryn Fields
Velvet Arrow
