Dusty Lands @ AKL Bluegrass Club

Dusty Lands is an acoustic folk quartet based in Whangārei. Blending American folk with their unique Northland campfire style, Dusty Lands invites you to join them at their first ever performance for an evening of luscious harmonies, soulful songwriting, banjos, mandolins and resonators.

Mother and daughter Val and Leah Land make up two-thirds of the trio Harmony Couch. From their roots in the Hokianga they have been singing ’round the fire as long as they can remember – hymns, kapa haka waiata, folk, pop and more. The last ten years have seen them performing slots at folk clubs, ceilidhs, Irish pub sessions, Pop-up Folk and the Auckland Folk Festival.

They are joined onstage by tug boat captain and one of the greatest songwriters to emerge from Northland, Gary Smyth who is currently working on his debut album inspired by artists like Gregory Alan Isakov and Mandolin Orange. Rounding out the quartet is his (distant)

cousin, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Dusty Burnell. Winner of the Tui folk award twice as a member of both T-Bone and The Frank Burkitt band, Dusty is a familiar face on stages throughout Aotearoa.