Well, The Stillest Hour is now well and truly launched. Last night, Sheish and I shared the stage with Helen Avery and Hinemoana Baker, and for a few tracks, Hinemoana, Sheish and this Lost Shark formed a three-piece with me sitting in on drums. For those of you who were there, you would have seen that playing drums makes me smile…
The coming together of friends, family and the poetry community makes magic. The crowd was a sea of smiles and the energy buoyed us along, each track, topping the one before it. It was one of those rare nights, where all the factors were just right.
I want to finish this post with the words of Hinemoana Baker, who launched our CD. We were (and forever will be) honoured.
———-
MIHI – ke te mihi atu ahau ki nga tangata whenua o tenei
wahi, ki nga iwi e kiia nei ko Yagerra, ko Turrbal nga
ingoa. Kia kaha koutou ki te tu motuhake, tu teitei i runga
i to mana whenua no mai ra ano.
It’s a great pleasure to be standing here to introduce and
launch this new taonga, this new treasure, ‘The Stillest
Hour’, by the spokenword supergroup that is Graham Nunn
and Sheish Money, performed by both of them and produced and
recorded by Sheish.
There’s an enormous amount of respect between these two,
as artists and as people, and there’s nothing sweeter to
me than the sound, and silence, of two people really
listening to each other. Both the music and the words on
this make as much room for jamming as for planning, for the
wildly unexpected as for the softly nostalgic.
So I don’t use the musical comparison lightly – I say
‘supergroup’ both because these two are superb acts in
their own right who also bless us by sharing the stage, and
because to me, rather than being a poet and a musician
standing before you, these two are more like a band, where
the lead singer happens to speak rather than sing. There’s
that kind of listening going on through the whole thing,
there’s that kind of rhythm, melody, dynamic, low and
loud, hard and soft – in the meanings of the words as much
as in the sounds Sheish makes. It’s a rare and wonderful
combination – Graham is a poet AND a musician, Sheish is a
musician AND a poet, so there’s a mutual co-creation,
every show is a unique opus with two composers.
And what’s even better is that this show (ie the CD)
and the one you’re about to see aren’t the same.
And never shall be forever and ever amen – and
that’s the beauty of what these two create. Tonight, when
you watch this performance and then buy the album you’re
getting way more bang for your buck.
What you’re about to see is a glimpse of something
that’s still very much alive, still responding to the
organic nature of what it is that we do and continue to do
as artists and engineers and audiences: which is to make,
and to love the making.
E nga manuhiri, ladies and gentlemen, Graham Nunn and Sheish
Money.
