Don McGlashan, Mutton Birds main man, Arts Laureate, international face of Aotearoa songcraft and more recently first time New Zealand Album Chart topper with his latest album Bright November Morning, is set to embark on a 18-date tour of his homeland across August, September & October. The Take It To The Bridge Tour will showcase McGlashan’s extensive songbook in hand-picked intimate venues throughout the country.
Why Take It To The Bridge you ask? We’ll let Don answer that.
“Two reasons that I wanted to call this tour the Take It To The Bridge Tour:
1. I love bridges. Making it possible to get, physically, across major obstacles: rivers, ravines, swamps – seems to me one of the most remarkable things humans can do. It’s no wonder that bridges get used as metaphors for healing, co-operation, reconciliation – all those other good things that humans can do, when we put our minds to it.
2. I once saw James Brown at the Red Parrot Disco & Club in New York. It was a three blanket night – meaning that he broke down from over-emotion three times in the course of the evening, and each time, he had to have a blanket thrown over his shoulders and be lead off stage. I felt very privileged, but I was later told that he did that most nights. He also shouted at his band to “Take it to the bridge!” a lot. And every time he did that, that’s exactly what they’d do.”
Don will be accompanied on tour by Anita Clark on violin, keys & backing vocals. Anita, as Motte, will also open for Don at all shows.
Don McGlashan’s Take It To The Bridge Tour will transport him to places he’s never played before, including Tairua and Glenorchy. It’ll transport you too. Don’t miss it.
Don McGlashan – Take It To The Bridge Tour
All tickets can be purchased via – www.donmcglashan.com
26.08.23 Waiheke Island Artworks Theatre
31.08.23 Whangarei OneOneSix
01.09.23 Matakana Memorial Hall
02.09.23 Auckland Q Theatre
08.09.23 Tairua Tairua Community Hall
09.09.23 Hamilton Meteor
14.09.23 Mt Maunganui Totara St
15.09.23 Gisborne Dome Cinema
16.09.23 Napier Paisley Stage
21.09.23 New Plymouth 4th Wall Theatre
22.09.23 Palmerston North Globe Theatre
23.09.23 Whanganui The Gonville Town Hall
28.09.23 Lyttleton Loons
29.09.23 Karamea Karamea Pulse Energy Centre
30.09.23 Barrytown Hall
01.10.23 Golden Bay Mussel Inn
06.10.23 Dunedin Hanover Hall
07.10.23 Glenorchy The Headwaters Eco Lodge
About Don McGlashan: McGlashan, who these days splits his time between Auckland and Vancouver, is best known as the co-founder and frontman of the iconic and internationally acclaimed The Mutton Birds. Living in London in the ’90s and signed to Virgin Records UK, The Mutton Birds forged an international audience. Their records were acclaimed; Q Magazine in the UK described them as coming “from the same cerebral power-pop mother lode as Big Star and early REM”, and legendary US publication Trouser Press said they made “sparkling guitar pop records” that combined “the dramatics of moody Australians like the Go-Betweens and the Triffids with the pure pop craft of Split Enz and Crowded House”. Their album Envy Of Angels made the UK Sunday Times’ Ten Best Albums Of The Year list in 1996.
Before The Mutton Birds, Don was the drumming singer for seminal and hugely influential early ‘80s Auckland post-punk outfit Blam Blam Blam and then half of the equally popular acoustic theatre-music duo The Front Lawn.
Since The Mutton Birds, Don has made four solo albums, Warm Hand (2006), Marvellous Year (2009), Lucky Stars (2015), and Bright November Morning (2022), the latter of which was his first NZ No. 1 album in a four decade career with top ten albums in each decade.
McGlashan has five entries in APRA’s 100 Best Ever NZ Songs and has won numerous awards, including two APRA Silver Scrolls, for “Anchor Me” in 1994 and for “Bathe In The River” in 2006. “Bathe In The River” – sung by Hollie Smith, and recently translated into Te Reo – has become one of the biggest NZ singles of all time. He has scored over a dozen feature films and five TV series, including Jane Campion’s An Angel At My Table, and most recently has been collaborating again with his old Front Lawn friend Harry Sinclair on Kiri & Lou, the hit NZ kids series featuring Flight Of The Conchords’ Jemaine Clement, that’s now seen around the world and translated into ten languages.
Released in 2022, Bright November Morning, McGlashan’s fourth solo album and first #1, is an essential addition to his remarkable output. It has all the glittering McGlashan touches in place: from the detail-perfect narratives of local life (the neighbours looking in when we take the curtains down, swimming and seeing Russian container ships on the horizon) to the strummy melodicism with detours into something noisier, and on to those welcome and welcoming choruses. The album was recorded in Lyttelton, Auckland and Vancouver, and is full of inspired playing from Shayne P Carter (Straitjacket Fits, Dimmer), Chris O’Connor (SJD, Phoenix Foundation) and James Duncan (SJD, Dimmer).
Highlighted by the poignant singles “Now’s The Place“, “Go Back In” and “All The Goodbyes In The World“, Bright November Morning marked a new stage in the artist’s generous and humane songbook. Join Don McGlashan and Anita Clark as they traverse Aotearoa sharing these songs and other favourites from Don’s storied and ever-developing career.
“Bright November Morning does feel like a new dawn for .. the great storyteller of New Zealand music” – Russell Baillie, NZ Listener
“It’s a marvel…Being able to articulate the complex relationship between people and place, fear and beauty, freedom and risk, memory and hope in a few deft lines over a freshly minted melody – that is really something. A sort of magic, really…” – Grant Smithies, Your Weekend / Stuff
“perfect blend of passion, emotion and sheer gloriousness” – James Belfield, Waiheke Weekender
“Don McGlashan finally gets his Bright November Morning, but a few months later than planned. Fortunately, good things are worth waiting for….one can’t help but feel both comforted and uneasy in equal measure…And, that sums up this record (which should be listened to in its entirety) in a nutshell” – Marty Duda – 13th Floor
“features all the hallmarks of Classic Don: insightful storytelling, contemplation, and melody up the wazoo…As predicted, it’s an instant classic… someone get this man a knighthood!” – Flying Out
“A full feast of tunes from one of our finest musical storytellers” – Chris Cudby – undertheradar
“Bright November Morning is a stunning paean to everyday life, beautifully arranged, and beautifully played by The Others” – muzic.net.nz
