Together, long-time collaborators and partners Griffen and Warner are a force to be reckoned with. Melding together their formidable individual talents as songwriters and performers, the pair will be performing the heart-wrenching material off Bernie Griffen and The Thin Men’s critically-acclaimed album, Salvation, along with the captivating poetry of Kirsten Warner.
with The Thin Men
Thursday 3rd November:
Picton – Le Café
Friday 4th November:
Mapua – The Playhouse Theatre
Saturday 5th November:
Blackball – The Blackball Hilton
Friday 11th November:
Barrytown – The Barrytown Settler’s Hall
Saturday 12th November:
Christchurch – Blue Smoke
Thursday 17th November:
Invercargill – House Concert**
Friday 18th November:
Wanaka – Gin & Raspberry
Saturday 19th November:
Gore – House Concert**
Sunday 20th November:
Dunedin – The Edinburgh Folk Club
Thursday 24th November:
Oamaru – The Grain Store
Friday 25th November:
Queenstown – The Sherwood Hotel
Thursday 1st December:
Wellington – The Third Eye
w/ The Thin Men
Friday 2nd December:
Whanganui – Whanganui Musician’s Club
w/ The Thin Men
Saturday 3rd December:
Raumati – The Raumati Social Club
w/ The Thin Men
Monday 5th December:
Auckland – The Devonport Folk Club at The Bunker
w/ The Thin Men
Tickets will be available soon from UnderTheRadar.co.nz
– Further North Island dates to follow –
“Far from being a songbird or accomplished crooner, he seeks and achieves a wounded grace in his singing as he explores the darker societal corners like a tired and battle-scarred narrator. His is a unique voice on the New Zealand cultural landscape and one that should be widely acknowledged as such.”
“The band around him on his new album Salvation is a list of luminaries.”
– Concert FM
“Some songs roll along with the dramatic fury of Neil Young at his most raggedly electric, while other sound like they’re conducted on a lonely country porch.”
– Rip It Up
In the video, director Tom Levesque takes the song on the cinematic journey of a dishevelled drifter who drags a coffin across the Hauraki Plains towards a brutal conclusion.
Bios:
Kirsten Warner, armed with a guitar or sometimes a pen, is an established writer, poet, journalist and musician. She has written, edited or contributed to over ten non-fiction books and her novel has just been accepted for publication.
In 2008, she won the Landfall Essay Competition. In 2013, she was shortlisted in theCathay Pacific Travel Media Awards (“Best Magazine Travel Story”) for her piece, Bali’s Bright Shining Lie, a personal and creative exploration about visiting an orphanage in Bali. She chaired the Auckland branch of the New Zealand Society of Authors.
Kirsten joins Bernie in Bernie Griffen and The Thin Men on acoustic guitar and vocals.
Kirsten Warner online:
Official Website
Bernie Griffen is a story-teller: penning songs about characters real and imagined, existing in a world of criminals and saints, dusty feet and wounded hearts. Radio New Zealand’s Trevor Reekie described Bernie as “a national treasure”.
Once known as “grandfather of punk”, in 2009 the big-voiced, charismatic figure started to emerge as a notable singer-songwriter going on to form the band Bernie Griffen and The Grifters, which attracted a strong cult following, then Bernie Griffen and The Thin Men, opening for major international acts such as Emmylou Harris, Justin Townes Earle, Kitty, Daisy and Lewis, Little Band of Gold andEilen Jewell…
A powerful voice full of soul, humour and sadness, he draws influence from American folk, blues, from the country-rock of Gram Parsons and The Grateful Dead, the mournful wails of Neil Young and outlaw country singers like Johnny Cash. Griffen is a well-travelled performer who sings his heart-felt and unique brand of psychedelic-folk music with passion and driving delivery.
