It’s been fun. Especially good in the old capital. Dunedin is a place I wrote most of my best songs in. The ODT preview for the show was a really pleasant surprise. The show itself was huge fun. I think I managed to pay the heating bill…

Thanks to all who came out at night in Dunedin last week. Thanks to those who shared on social or told to your friends about the gig. Thanks also to Lee Vandervis and all the others who wrote on their timelines such kind words.

Thanks also to the ODT who wrote this.

“Luke Hurley was once a fixture in Dunedin, busking in its streets and playing its halls, but after leaving in 1992, he’s hardly been back. That’s about to change.

What have you been doing since leaving Dunedin?

Since moving to Auckland in the ’90s I have been practising, writing and recording. I’ve been releasing the odd album. Much of the time that has involved getting nowhere, but then discovering a new way of approaching it all. But I’ve never understood the art of marketing.

It’s possible to have the work ready to share but it isn’t easy to find a way to share it effectively, unless you play like crazy wherever you can, from on a bus to at a Tedx Auckland event; which I have done and was fun, by the way. The Tedx event was quite literally 15 minutes of fame (and is still up on YouTube).

But a turning point for me was in 2007, in Dublin, when this amazing man gave me the best advice ever. “Just play,” he said. `”Play like a bastard.”

From then on, it made sense to forget the remote and futile goal of making the grade, whatever that means, by surrendering to something way greater. Just playing and growing by accident rather than by design. It’s the blues approach and I am an old blues man, qualified with dues paid many times over.

The music industry has changed a lot. No-one buys CDs any more, for a start.

As a result, I invested in playing live. It works. The live presence is vital, the rest is virtual. Literally.

That’s why my new album is called one take one voice one guitar. There are no gimmicks, just organic music from a certified music nut.

It’s not available yet. It has taken ages so far and may take ages yet, but I’m in no hurry.”

The read the full story see here. New approaches from an old identity