Canadian musician and poet C R Avery is bringing his Fightin’ Words and a Girl Named Mercy tour to Artworks Theatre on Wednesday 9 August.
Inspired as a child by Bob Dylan’s music and his father’s country collection, Avery is an international poet known for his “story-based music” and harmonica and piano playing. He has shared stages with Tom Waits, Ani DiFranco, Utah Phillips and Sage Francis.
Avery’s scenarios include post-war Paris after midnight to the rhythm of freewheeling jazz, a San Francisco coffee house filled with the Beat Generation of the mid-50s and a smoky Greenwich Village folk club during its heyday in the early 60s.
The Ontarian artist is celebrating his new album, the official motion picture soundtrack for his self-directed 2022 film The Bar Without a Neon Sign. He will be joined on tour by Kiwi artists such as Ali Jacs, Ronna Funtelar, Miriam Barr, Ben Brown, Shane Hollands and Ben Stokes.
“With Avery weaving storytelling through every genre of music, moving from piano to guitar to alone at the mic with his harmonica, an hour from C R seems like mere moments have passed, after being in the presence of a master of the art form who has devoted his life to the trade of transforming a room into inspiration and wonder,” says Avery’s record producer George Honesty
The Artworks performance will include the opening acts of Waiheke artist Katy Soljak, Two-Time Tauranga Poetry Slam Champion Ronna Funtelar and president of The New Zealand poetry society Shane Hollands.
Katy is also a songwriter, a poet and a book author. The Song and Poetry Thing founder wrote My First Real Pash and Other Stories, released in 2021 and now available online. Her book It’s a Long Ride to Texas, Baby, released in 2022, is currently being adapted into a movie.
Tickets are available at Artworks’ official website and go from $15 (senior and concession presale) to $30 (adult door sale). The show will start at 7.30pm and will include an interval time at 8:30pm. For more information visit www.artworkstheatre.org.nz. • Silvia Massa
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