HOLLY AND THE BLUEBENDERS are:
Holly Shepheard - vocals
John Thomson - bass & vocals
Brett Neilsen - drums
Graeme Webb - guitar
Holly and the BlueBenders return to play the Nivara Lounge on Sat 21st March. “We got a great reception at the last gig in December” says bass player John Thomson from Kawhia “The Nivara lounge is a venue that’s set up for performance, both for the musicians and the audience and we were made to feel very welcome”
“The band is a long-term association. The rhythm section has played together for 30 years and since Holly has been singing with us (she’s my daughter) there is the pleasure of performing with someone who sings with expression and emotion and is willing to explore the less well-thumbed pages of the blues songbook. We cover a lot of musical ground, as the blues is such a broad church - from a funky to a jazz blues – from a country shuffle to a ballad. We play our own material - the songs by other writers that we do are generally those that are less well known that we have worked on to put our own spin on.”
Those that attended our last gig were warm in their appreciation of what we do – after all, we are not your average blues band – as we say in the BlueBenders – it’s blues bent to fit”
