Ronel Hunter and the PortHillbillies

Ronél Hunter and the Port Hillbillies join forces for a night of great music.
Ronel South African born Singer Songwriter, Ronél Hunter’s, musical journey certainly didn’t happen in a straight line.
As a child she wanted to be a singer and performed in primary school productions with great enthusiasm, an enthusiasm and confidence which she lost during her high school years. During these years you would find her on the athletics field representing South Africa in the 800m race.

At the age of 18 she bought her first guitar and began her self-taught journey with guitar and song writing.
Ronél started performing at lots of local arts festivals around South Africa with her band “Griet”, who mainly performed Afrikaans folk/rock songs written by Ronél.
In 2009 Ronél came to New Zealand for a working holiday. She ended up meeting her husband and becoming a Citizen. The couple built their home in the beautiful Kaka point, in the Catlins and they have 3 children.
In 2020, Ronél released her debut album, “Move at will”
Song themes include, encouragement to be yourself, Motherhood, dealing with depression and heartbreak and finding new love.
Influences on her music include Tracy Chapman, The Cranberries, Dolly Parton and in recent years Mary Gauthier and Guy Clark.
In early 2021, after dealing with loss, Ronél enrolled into “one on one songwriting sessions” with Grammy nominated artist Mary Gauthier, who helped her to face some of her emotions and to be honest about them in her writing. It was a journey of emotional truth, leading to a new depth in her music.
In February 2022, Ronél released “Dang Black Dog”. A song about dealing with depression and grief.
Her main hope is that the stories and experience, found in her songs, will help others in some way and encourage them along their journey. Through her story telling, she will make you laugh and maybe even cry, illustrating that all emotions are just part of being human.

The Port Hillbillies
Every Tuesday evening they slope from the shadows of the Port Hills
One American, Justin Rogers on mandolin, guitar and vocals, one Aussie Gary Elford on guitar, acoustic bass and vocals.
They meet up with a six toed Kiwi singer, banjo and guitar player, Steve Stern to share their love of Bluegrass, Old Time and Americana music as well as Janes chocolate chip cookies and milo.

Playing together for years now they have formed into well-balanced instrumental and vocal trio, driven by Steve's banjo playing and Justins sympathetic and innovative mandolin ornamentation. Gary's contribution on guitar and bass pulls the whole thing together into the tight unit that is the Porthillbillies.
They play a range of songs and tunes from toe tapping, recognisable standards to some obscure songs from other genres that are given the Porthillbillies once over.