In late 2007 a bunch of Wellington musicians got together in an old woolshed in the Takaka Valley to record some songs. From this summertime project, The Woolshed Sessions band and album was born.
Distinguished by lashings of lap-steel guitar, lush vocal harmony sing-a-longs, taonga puoro and banjo, The Woolshed Sessions is a fresh approach for New Zealand songwriting.
Starring in The Woolshed Sessions band are a handful of NZs finest independent musicians, including Age Pryor (guitar/vocals), Andy Hummel (guitar/vocals), Jess Chambers (guitar/vocals), Justin Firefly Clarke (guitar, banjo, vocals), Al Fraser (taonga puoro, guitar, vocals), Lee Prebble (lap steel), Peter Hill (bass) and Brett Skinner (drums).
The Woolshed Sessions album was captured on an improvised recording set-up essentially a borrowed collection of nice microphones plugged into an old computer. The musicians worked 4 days straight, morning, noon and night, jamming and recording live, often crafting takes until getting a version down that was felt to be the one.
Echoes of folk, country, 1920s swing jazz and old time blues wash over the assortment of modern NZ songs that were written by various members of the collective before and during the recording session.
The end result is tinged with the ambient resonance of the space the music was created and recorded in a converted woolshed with bare timber floors, lined with plywood and clad in corrugated iron. |
