Adam McGrath - Queenstown Winter Festival

Adam McGrath, Lead singer and songwriter from mythical mongrel Christchurch folk/country band The Eastern, returns again to the state highways and byways of these long isles as part of his Autumn ‘Ragged Ramble’ Tour. This special show in the Workshop at Sherwood is part of the Queenstown Winter Festival.

Described by influential country magazine No Depression as “One of the best modern roots acts from any country period”, by the NZ Herald as “NZ’s toughest minded songwriter” and by Radio NZ National as a “National Treasure”, an Adam McGrath show is primed and proud to reach your heart, head and boots.

A folk singer in the truest, traditional sense but one who’s songs speak to the times we find ourselves in and the people with whom we share them with McGrath has a virtual lifetime spent on the road around NZ and everywhere beyond. He sees his job as to pick up the stories he finds, siphon them down to the bone and the heart and bring them around to the next place and the next.

He’s toured and played with everyone from Fleetwood Mac to Steve Earle to Paul Kelly to Old Crow Medicine Show and many, many more, Barry Saunders from The Warratahs simply described him as “The truth”.

A people's player with a blue-collar work ethic McGrath treats any opportunity to play, big or small, as a gift which he intends to earn. He looks ever forward to returning to the road, especially after his last well received run last spring. McGrath says “somewhere between Waimamaku and Bluff just over there on the left side of the road, that’s where things tend to make the most sense”. He hopes friends of both the Eastern and his solo work will make it out, in part so he can keep the truck gassed and the rent paid, but mostly so as both him and they can feel (at least for a couple of hours) that they aren’t all alone in this mixed up shook up weird ass place we all inhabit together.