Good Habits are a progressive Folk duo with a Manchester sensibility, and English band Mishra dwell in Folk and World music intertwined. Both deliver music of enchantment.
Mishra start the evening off at Kumeu Live. A warm sunny evening even though stormy weather was blowing through in the afternoon.
They take Indian classical music and splice it into British Folk which ends up sounding more West than East. In recent times they have collaborated with Sufi singer Deepa Nair Rasiya. The ecstatic God realm of Qawwali mixed with Western Folk would be a sound to behold.
They have a strong hold on world music, as If We Listen showcases. From a project to be released soon and reflecting the sound of Mozambique. The banjo has a distinct African tone. The bass sound is coming from her floor pedals and can sound like hand claps.
Rise is adapted from a classical Indian raga. It sounds like seamless English Folk. Banjo must be channelling some of the resonant tone of a sitar or a saraswati veena. The surge and fade would be an Indian style.
Wild Young Men is adapted from older Folk traditions. Griffin commented that most of those feature noble (or drunken) men, and women who end up being killed. Which is one definition of Folk and Roots Country music. So, she kept the first line and subverted the rest.
The songs we’ve sung/ The rights we’ve won.
Collier plays this with tabla beats on a hand drum to give it a great propulsive drive. A powerful Eastern atmosphere.
A new untitled song is essentially a call-and-response between flute and banjo. Great circular flute riffs create a pastoral dervish dance. They ask for a title, and everyone suggests the NZ bird of the century!?
Too long-winded. Call it Norwegian Blue. This bird has flown, and it has beautiful plumage, sir.
Griffin is a superb banjo player, and she plays in a clawhammer style. Which I should have recognised. There is more of an African cadence, but the origins are mostly British. It predates the classic American Bluegrass three-finger picking style.
She informs me later that she learnt from a great English virtuoso player Dan Walsh. Who happens to be playing at a local Folk club tonight. He can make a banjo sound like a sitar.
Lark (In the Morning) is one song resulting from working with Deepa Rasiya. A call-and response and a multi-faceted sound.
They finish their set with two instrumentals, one of which is Harmonium. Collier starts with a flute breakdown and then swaps into an acoustic guitar, played in a Folk Rock style. The banjo rings like a sitar.
This takes me back to the glory days of Fairport Convention in sonic impact.
Good Habits we first met in 2021 when they were stranded in New Zealand because of a world gone mad with contagion fear, and a country gone mad with incarceration.
Somewhere I heard the term Future Folk (yes, that was towards Aussie Coastal Folk purveyor Ziggy Alberts).
Good Habits stretch the boundaries out add some Jazz and Pop as well as a generous dose of Manchester lyrical themes, as per the Smiths and the Stone Roses, whose She Bangs the Drums they have released as a single.
Schwarz is distinctive for strapping the cello on and extracting deep bass tones from it. If she was taller, it may tempt her to attach herself to a doghouse bass.
The accordion is a much-maligned instrument but can be as versatile as a piano in the right hands. And you can strap yourself to it.
A drawback to hitch-hiking though, as Shaw relates in an anecdote.
To be serious though, listen to Cajun and Zydeco, plus Ry Cooder when he plays with Flaco Jimenez doing nortenas and you will hear soulful Tex-Mex and Americana, transformed from the European polka tradition.
After a short preface where the unusual deep tones of the cello stand out, they launch into Hitch. Pop Jazz with fast vocals bordering on scat. Schwarz sings words so you could stretch it to light Rap. Klezmer Jazz melodies from the air compressor.
So is new song Sunday. But with conventional singing and a café Jazz accordion solo. They recorded this recently with the help of Kate Griffin.
The Cuckoo. I’m not sure if this is a traditional tune or not. It is not the Folk standard that appears on the legendary Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music album.
Also new is The Earth Has Moved. The experience of an earthquake. The cello part replicates the same intro to Lou Reed’s Street Hassle. The closest lyrically to the Smith’s style for the evening.
Not quite true, Fridge Photos could also be the Smiths accompanied by an accordion. Ironically funny and tender. I want to buy a fridge with you. Soft and sweet to start, but Schwarz can unleash a powerful voice as it builds.
Feel Unsafe is a song addressing their time in lockdown here. I think the idea is whether you choose an easy option or a risky one. And were you given good reasons to feel safe?
They perform a mash-up of Those Were the Days, an old Russian song whose English translation Mary Hopkins took to number one when produced by Paul McCartney, and I Will Survive as sung by Gloria Gaynor.
A rousing number to sing in a pub or Folk club. Enough singers in the audience to help.
Before the last song of the night, which is a cover of Fatboy Slim’s Praise You, praise must also be given to Kumeu Live for running this boutique music venue out in the heart of Boganville, the Wild West of Auckland.
Hit by biblical floods last year, Guy Wishart and Michelle Wishart are back, as strong as ever and may even be able to expand their space.
I have seen many memorable shows there, mostly New Zealand acts. The first one I attended was an American Bluegrass husband and wife duo probably from North Carolina.
Good Habits heard Praise You at a Glastonbury DJ set (probably Fatboy) and wanted to adapt it. They make a novelty out of it by using thin paint brushes as sticks (yes, Four Sticks). The accordion has a low bagpipe drone.
Special Folk music from two great duos, Good Habits, and Mishra. Containing multitudes. They will be playing at the Auckland Folk Festival in Kumeu on Anniversary weekend in January 2024. Along with Dan Walsh.
They are also playing up and down the country like Folk Troubadours.
Rev. Orange Peel