Category Archives: news

14 Albums up now

14 Albums up now

Just letting you know there’s some postings on Bandcamp worth checking out especially Mona Lisa. just type in. lukehurley.bandcamp.com and you can listen to a number of songs you won’t be familiar with . Arnie Van Bussel at Nightshift Studios baked the reels and saved these recordings from oblivion.

Grateful for his help and Jan Billes production of the tracks back in the early 90s. Have a listen and if you like it season your admiration with a donation.

There are 14 albums posted up. Be great if you could listen to them and send us some feedback. Eds Note : You don’t have to be logged in to listen to all songs for free.

Also have to mention I’m playing a gig with Craig Hubber tomorrow in the Queenstown market from 11am to 3pm. Come listen and have a yarn with us. Bring your favorite musical instrument.we could be inclusive. ha ha

Also am playing Tuatara Invers next week but it’s as yet unconfirmed.

Have worked for years on a song called Before The War which is based on a poem by Ardie based on his horrific experience of the Iran Iraq war which cost a million lives in which he lost a lot of his friends.

That song will be released very soon.

There’s a possibility of Basant Madhur turning up to play a spot in our show as he happens to be touring this at the moment  see poster below.

India to Ireland

We lost a great friend Patric Casey who set up a radio station called Hope City FM and who campaigned tirelessly for civil rights. He loved in abject poverty in order to promote the music he loved and the attitudes that make for a family based society as apposed to our current bag it or shaggy it carry on.

Today I met with my old buddy Steve Garden who brought me up to date with the adventures of his Rattle Records label. It now boasts a catalogue of 200 titles and is exclusively dedicated to recording unplugged music unique to this forgotten colonial outpost. He’s the Peter Gabriel of K1W1 music. The breadth and scope of his assembled talent is astonishing. Also on bandcamp for free listening to rattle.

We have some more music to release but need some feedback from you. The best feedback is when you visit Bandcamp and buy something. Prices are going up shortly so why not stock up on the albums you aren’t familiar with and while you are at it visit the website of Rattle Records. You will get a nice surprise. Acoustic music of great originality abounds in God’s own country

Call me if you have a need for live music of the unplugged variety. I will be in QT. Arrowtown, Invercargill, Dunedin and Nelson. Call me 021 0259 2919

In closing please check out www.marklapwood.com if you need pics….he’s vastly experienced in stills and movies so check him out if you have a project that needs great imagery

Over for now
God bless

Luke and the Tacoma

I’m in love with the Mona Lisa

I expect  this finds you in a good space. We all in the same old boat aren’t we? in the  mind forged manacles of media it’s easy to believe we are doomed but another way of seeing it is that this is just another ground hog day and we been through this before many times. A kind of pass the parcel until the four horsemen arrive. Something to look forward to.

But that’s not what you are reading this for is it? No.

You are wanting to know what the latest recordings are and I’ve been remiss by not announcing the long awaited Mona Lisa released not so recently on Bandcamp but totally unheralded. It’s not the original track of ” Im in Love With The Mona Lisa”…this is kinda like  The album I meant to release but better. It’s a Mona lisa sandwich.

Here’s a link to the Mona Lisa which I hope you will download. A Koha would be nice but that’s up to you. You can listen to the whole album and stream or download in the format you prefer.

First and last tracks are different  versions of the song and between them there’s a bunch of recordings you will never have heard. This came about because Arnie at Nightshaft Studios Christchurch  was able to bake some reels from long ago and discover these lost singles recorded long ago.

Jan Bille produced and mastered it using a new mastering system….which he can explain   if you are interested. By the way…if you are looking for a fast efficient and profoundly capable producer I can recommend Jan. Give me a call 021 0259 2919 and I can pass you on. Also I can recommend Alex Sound in Auckland if you want purist acoustic (of which more to relate soon).

There haven’t been many calls of late and I’m counting my fingers waiting for the announcement of a gig*. I will play anywhere  so long as expenses are covered. I live in Auckland. Airfares are cheap if you go standby 0800 737 000.

*Actually doing a mini tour in South Island starting 15th of Feb so more dates soon.

See you at yours soon once you invite me.

One day I will write at length about these songs and the circumstances around the recording thereof. It’s a tale from long ago when life was harder but perhaps less scary.

Talk soon
God bless us and save us!
Luke

Mona Lisa the album

Mona Lisa the album

Mona Lisa the album is back from the lost archives.

Hi good people here’s something both new and old. Jan Bille put some hard yards in to create Mona Lisa the album out of tracks that nicely fit with my little hit from 1986.

Picture is the artist Michael D Clarke who made the cover. Mona Lisa Video link is here or here

To come up with this he had to enlist the support of Nightshifts Arnie Van Bussel who is credited with recording many musical projects coming out of the south. He is still in business and we recommend him to anyone who needs technical assistance resurrecting analogue recordings or making new ones in his famous studio. In this project he helped rescue reels that date back decades. He had to bake them in order to remaster them. His charges are more than reasonable.

The critical response to Mona Lisa has been enthusiastic. There is material here that will be unfamiliar to you like Anthony Jack’s poem put to song ‘The Friend I Had’.  Always loved the poem. Moneywise and Summer Blue are two songs that will be new to many.

Then there’s Gravity that co write with Dave Robb. The tones of the 12 string Ovation are unique. Made with James Wilkerson on bass and Matthew Lawrence on drums.

Since then I preferred to use SB guitars and Godin Guitars.
Hope you enjoy this project and season your admiration with a small donation!

Making music is one thing. Creating albums that are worth a listen is another. For this support is required! Look forward to your feedback. Please call should you need advice with the things within our scope of our activity 021 0259 2919 or happyislesnz@gmail.com

In Queenstown at the minute. Keen to hear from anyone based here. You can listen on Apple or Spotify already. Now on bandcamp too.

Firebird Tonight

Firebird Tonight

In Levin playing at Firebird again . Be there or be square.
The latest idea is a ticket price but with the proviso its Koha if you are broke.
So if you are a povo there’s no disgrace…I’ve been a povo most of my life.

Visit bandcamp.com if you haven’t visited lately. We got a new one called Express Emotion that was recorded by Facundo. Listen below.

He is a music producer and filmmaker who is keen to come back from Costa Rica and travel with me all over this beautiful New Zealand and document the lives of the  wonderful supportive  people who help me…….so one day we are gonna call on ya with a production manager and all the bells and whistles. It will be all about you too.

Thanks to those of you who have given expressemotion a listen and few who have bought it. Very grateful.

Also last month an old instrumental song of mine was released by Strawpeople. It is called Busker. Give that a listen below and support if you want. What do you think?

And if you are in Wellington this weekend come along to Moon Bar for pizza and live music. I’m playing there on Sunday night.

Back in Auckland for November and expect to be playing some more at Scarecrow but will add those dates when confirmed.

Hope to see you all soon.
Luke

Songs as skeleton keys – expressemotion

Songs as skeleton keys – expressemotion

Expressemotion is a bunch of new and previous ideas. The previous you could call skeleton keys. Songs that have been done before but perceived in another way…..added to and sometimes transformed to something else.

A style defining song is like a skeleton key that opens up to or morphs with other songs…..

For instance these songs: Reha, Ghandis Rag, Ghandis Ghost, and The Sound
all derive from the skeleton key of Ghandis Rag first released in 1986 on Make Room.

It’s a style that keeps giving.

expressemotionExpressemotion is a new album I released this week. It was recorded live back in 2014 and has 5 tracks on it you won’t get anywhere else plus some of your favourites.

Getting Closer, Nobody is Good, Walk in the Light, Direct from the Cosmos and American Express are all new releases.

Yes and some of the other songs you have heard before but every time they get played they are somehow different. It’s like that story where “no man steps in the same river twice”. Because the stream is flowing and each time we go through we are different also.

Anyways I make no apology for repeats and its not due to a lack of ideas especially in light of the fact there’s so much material in a holding pattern.

In conclusion please note the song about getting closer to the light. This is also a song called everything is already ok. It explores life after death…..something that fascinates me greatly. I believe in spirit and in a creator and in love from which we were made. We have an operating system of freewill and that’s the best and worst of everything worth dying for.

By the way two other gigs of note. FIREBIRD Levin 19th and The Moon Bar Newtown 22nd. Be there or be square and please take care…there are cameras everywhere

The photo is Mt Taranaki from the air full version is here.

God bless