Old World is a collection of twelve songs and instrumentals recorded at the Surgery in Wellington, NZ, September 2013. Channelling a darker sound than usual the band takes their talents into new territory with pedal steel sounding guitars, banjo and more attention to sculpturing the overall sound to suit individual songs.
The album gets a great review from Elsewhere magazine’s Graham Reid (in our reviews section) and you can hear some of the tracks at https://soundcloud.com/paddy-burgin/tracks and it’s available via https://itunes.apple.com/gw/album/old-world/id736713290
Feature song of the disc is Old World, a tribute to the Pike River miners who lost their lives in a mining accident in 2010. Other songs celebrate South Island rivers, the life of sheep rustler James McKenzie, an estuary resident longing to be a migrating godwit and the Django Unchained sounding instrumental, Say My Name. In other words, the usual eclectic Paddy Burgin song subjects.
While Paddy plays guitars. slide guitars, banjo, accordian, uke etc the rest of the band consists of Tom and Joe Callwood on bass and guitars, Bruce McNaught on percusssion, Holly Beals and Jessie Moss on backing vocals. Engineers and mixing duties fell to Surgery boss, Dr Lee Prebble and the disc was mastered my Mike Gibson.
Guests include Richard Klein fiddin’ his way through the one cover on the album: the 400 year old Wind and Rain, and Murray Costello playing bass on the country hurtin’ song, Little Favours.
The album features photos taken from the Burgin family slide album, and includes late nineteen fifties shots of harvesting, shearing, and the McKenzie Country.
Here are some photos taken during the recording session.
The Wooden Box Band 