Here's a song inspired by the South Island's  magnificent Waimakariri River and an old friend, Guy Mannering, who took us the length of the spell binding gorge in his jet boat.  This mighty river is a vital artery in the South Island's natural infrastructure, but like rivers everywhere, it has been threatened with dams, and overuse for irrigation.  Bass and guitar by Tom and Joe Callwood. Percussion by Bruce McNaught with backing vocals by Jessie Moss and Holly Beals. I strum and sing and play slide guitar too. Recorded by Lee Prebble at the Surgery Studios, it's track two off our new CD, Old World. Tracks from this can be downloaded at https://itunes.apple.com/nz/artist/paddy-burgin-wooden-box-band/id636941570


Song Of The South Island River

This tune was originally written for an earlier recording project but we brought it back, added reverb guitar and gave it a "Django Unchained" cowboy kind of sound. Funky bass and guitar by Tom and Joe Callwood, with percussion by Bruce McNaught.  

Say My Name

Bound For Glory is played on a classical guitar I made a while back as a joint project with fellow luthier David Freeman. It's just myslef with Tom Callwood on bass and Bruce McNaught on percussion. I added a whisper of slide guitar later. Restraint was the order of the day with this track.   

Bound For Glory

The Floating Stone is a shortish guitar and bass instrumental written while in a tiny bach on the shores of New Zealand's largest lake, Lake Taupo. Because the lake and surrounding area host many volcanoes (some still smokin') there are many floating chunks of volcanic pumice on the water. 

Floating Stone

This rather spooky old song may date back four hundred or so years.There are many versions of it in different cultures. I first heard this version on an old Mike Seeger LP he made in the early sixties, accompanied only by his autoharp. It's also been recorded by the Grateful Dead, among many others.  Richard Klein plays the fiddle here,...and I fill in on guitar and banjo. The usual suspects also appear,...the Callwood brothers, Bruce McNaught, Jessie Moss and Holly Beals.
Available at https://itunes.apple.com/nz/album/old-world/id736713290
  

Wind And Rain

Channelling the thoughts of a migrating godwits on the Manawatu River estuary can lead the mind into strange places. These birds fly almost non stop all the way from Alaska to an area know for many human migrations as well. Like the birds, we try to fit into our surroundings without getting bogged down in the estuary mud.  Warning: THERE ARE UKES ON THIS TRACK This track is available at https://itunes.apple.com/nz/album/old-world/id736713290

Step By Step

A sample of the sound of a mahogany rope bound weissenborn made by Burgin Guitars, New Zealand - the workshop that's made guitars for David Lindley, Henry Kaiser, Danny Spitz  and hundreds of other players world wide. this was recorded simply in the ktichen with a hand held recorder and no effects etc.

Sample Style Two weissenborn AZOOM0129.MP3

Sitting with my father by the restless South Island sea looking into the distance I saw him as an old  well-travelled wave who must soon be heading out to the horizon and beyond because of his terminal illness.  I started the song on the boat ride home the next day and finished it at his bedside.  this track is from my latest album "Old World" currently available at  itunes.apple.com/nz/album/old-world/id736713290

The Wave

A solo instrumental played on a weissenborn acoustic lap steel guitar. Accompanied by some percussion from Bruce McNaught on cajon and cymbal.  Named after an old fishing boat in the seaside town of Kaikoura.  Available on I tunes too. Played on the same model guitar we made for David Lindley, a style one sapele weissenborn. 

Aroha 2

Recorded as part of the "My Sweet Town" project at Troy Kelly's studio in downtown Wellington. In the band is Justin Clarke, Tom Callwood and Bruce McNaught. The studio grand piano is also utilised, in part to replicate the bells of the carillon that towers over our part of Wellington, and the tomb of the unknown soldier beneath it.  Available at http://www.amplifier.co.nz/release/38699/my-sweet-town.html 

The Big Parade

A slide instrumental whose title comes from a narrow part of the Saskatchewan River in Canada.  
On bass is Tom Callwood and percussion is played by Bruce McNaught. Track eight from the CD Gentle Landings. I am playing a Weissenborn style guitar that I made. 

Swift Current

Paddy Burgin lives in New Zealand making  guitars for a living but often finds himself sitting in the workshop composing songs at the workbench. Many of these songs have wound up on CDs by his band, Paddy Burgin and the Wooden Box Band, or other groups that he plays in. For more info you could see me at www.paddyburginmusic.com or download his music at https://itunes.apple.com/nz/album/old-world/id736713290
The Wooden Box Band comprises members of Little Bushman, Nudge, Jessie James and the Outlaws and the Dunstan Rangers and together these musicians have a unique take on New Zealand urban folk. 
Using double bass, keyboards, percussion and guitars they create an organic sounding  electric and acoustic background for  Paddy's songs and instrumentals about the places and people of these small islands. 
  

paddy burgin

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