Wellington multi-instrumentalist folk muso Graeme James has come a long way since his early performing days, busking in freezing cold Queenstown winters.
Back in 2013, he says he cut his teeth busking here, but when it got too cold to play outside he started begging bars to let him play inside instead.
‘‘I developed a huge following playing ludicrous pub shows … for a good time — there were high levels of energy in the audiences.’’
Now, he regularly tours Europe and is in the thick of a nationwide sojourn playing sold-out gigs across the country for his Luminous TImes release.
He’s heading back to his old hunting ground tomorrow, to help celebrate the opening of The Cargo Collective, a new function and events space, including a brew hall, behind Gantley’s Tavern, established by Cargo’s Meron and Malcolm Blakey.
The couple and James have a long history together, which started in 2012 when they invited him to play at the first Arrowtown Long Lunch.
‘‘Then they opened up the venue at Waitiri Creek and they asked me to play at that and it was amazing,’’ James says.
Hailing from Taranaki, he started out young pursuing his love of music.
At 7 he began playing violin, “then I kept adding instruments’’.
‘‘I would describe myself as a fourteen-piece one-man band.’’
His shows include electric violin, guitar, bass, ukulele, mandolin, banjo, keys, harmonica and, as he says, ‘‘a whole lot of other things’’.
For the brew hall show, he’ll be accompanied by Taranaki-based drummer Ben Dixon.
‘‘He’s incredible, I’ve been playing shows with him this tour — it’s been wild, foot-stomping.”
James says the Queenstown show will be high-energy, and punters will want to get up and dance.
While known as a folk singer, he says that’s a broad enough genre to be an accurate description of what he does, ‘‘but it’s not specific enough’’.
‘‘It can mean sitting strumming a guitar quietly, or stomping around.
‘‘I’m doing the melodic things, and Ben the drummer is hitting the drums as hard as he can.’’
Cargo Brew Hall grand opening, behind Gantley’s Tavern, Saturday, from 4pm; Graeme James ‘Luminous Times Tour’, 8pm. Tickets $25 — kids under 10 free — via thecargocollective.co.nz
