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The winner of the Tui Aotearoa Music Award for 2022 Te Kaipuoro Taketake Toa Best Folk Artist is Troy Kingi.
His latest album Black Sea Golden Ladder is a collaboration between himself and award-winning singer/songwriter/producer Delaney Davidson.
Kingi also won the APRA Silver Scroll award just a few weeks ago for ‘All Your Ships Have Sailed.’
With the 2022 Auckland Folk Festival cancelled due to the Omicron Covid-19 surge, the folk award was announced live on today’s Music 101.
“This is a very nice surprise,” Kingi said.
“I think at the heart of folk music is kind of cutting out the bullshit,” he said.
“It says it as it is. I feel like I kind of hide a lot behind metaphors and all this tomfoolery, and working with Delaney on this, he told me to cut that out and tell him exactly what I was trying to say.”
Davidson, alongside Jol Mulholland, won 2021's Te Kaiwhakaputa Toa Best Producer Tui for the same album.
“It’s definitely an honour, I didn’t expect this, so it’s bloody awesome.”
Black Sea Golden Ladder consists of free-form compositions set to ten original poems documenting the life cycle of humankind. Kingi has also collaborated with Hi Mama Productions to produce a thought-provoking visual representation of the album that explores an existential life experience.
Troy Kingi Photo: supplied
There were a diverse range of talented finalists up for 2022’s Te Kaipuoro Taketake Toa | Best Folk Artist. Miles Calder, Kingi and We Mavericks were the finalists.
Miles Calder
Wellington-based Calder and his former band moved between sounds of understated folk-rock and swirling psychedelia, taking inspiration from early '70s Lennon as much as contemporaries like Kevin Morby or Father John Misty.
Released in March 2021 as a solo album, Autopilot Life is a lyrically self-reflective album that wanders through different stages of living an unexamined life.
Calder ran a 10-show album tour around Aotearoa for Autopilot Life, consisting of dynamic live shows with a psyche-tinged atmosphere and guitar solos to complement his impressive vocals.
Troy Kingi
Multi-award winning Kingi (Te Arawa, Ngāpuhi, Te Whānau-ā-Apanui) rose to fame early on in his career with his first two albums Guitar Party at Uncles Bach and Shake That Skinny Ass All the Way to Zygertron. His dive into folk music is part of his aspirational 10 10 10 series – a challenge to produce 10 albums, in 10 different genres, over 10 years.
This latest album Black Sea Golden Ladder is a collaboration between himself and award-winning singer/songwriter/producer Delaney Davidson. Davidson, alongside Jol Mulholland, won 2021’s Te Kaiwhakaputa Toa | Best Producer Tūī for the same album.
Black Sea Golden Ladder consists of free-form compositions set to ten original poems documenting the life cycle of humankind. Kingi has also collaborated with Hi Mama Productions to produce a thought-provoking visual representation of the album that explores an existential life experience.
We Mavericks
We Mavericks is made up of duo Lindsay Martin and Victoria Vigenser, from New South Wales and New Zealand respectively.
The pair has been nominated for their latest album Grief’s a Gardener, a collection of connecting and grounding original songs.
Martin and Vigenser first met at Wellington Folk Festival. Originally Martin offered to help Vigenser record a few of her songs, but the friendship quickly turned into a collaboration and led to their first album The Gap.
The duo has previously been nominated for the 2021 Australian Folk Music Awards "Artists of the Year, Best Duo/ Group/Ensemble", “Best Folk Artist 2020” in the Aotearoa Music Awards and recipients of the 2020 Troubadour Foundation Award.
Recorded Music NZ Kaiwhakahaere o Ngā Tohu Puoro o Aotearoa Sarah Owen said: “It’s always exciting to announce the finalists for the first Tūī of the year, and 2022 is no exception.
“As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact our music industry, it’s heartening to see musicians continuing to hone their skills and craft standout hopunga puoro.
“It’s unfortunate to see the 2022 Auckland Folk Festival cancelled due to these restrictions, but we wish them well and hope to see them again in 2023.”
The Tūī for Best Folk Artist 2022 is for recordings released in the 12 months to 30 September 2021. The Folk category was first introduced to the Awards in 1984.
Recent previous winners of the Tūī for Best Folk Artist
2013 – Great North – Halves
2014 – Tattletale Saints – How Red Is the Blood
2015 – Great North – Up In Smoke
2016 – Holly Arrowsmith – For The Weary Traveller
2017 – Guy Wishart – West By North
2018 – Albi & The Wolves – One Eye Open
2019 – The Frank Burkitt Band – Raconteur
2020 – Mel Parsons – Glass Heart
2021 - Tattletale Saints – Dancing Under The Dogwoods
Finalists’ websites
About Recorded Music New Zealand: Recorded Music NZ is a non-profit industry representation and licensing organisation for recording artists and their labels. It divides its services into three main areas. The Member Services team delivers projects including the Aotearoa Music Awards, the weekly Official NZ Top40 Charts and the Music Grants programme. Recorded Music NZ’s licensing division administers broadcast and public performance licensing either directly or through its joint initiative with APRA called OneMusic. The Pro-Music team is dedicated to protecting and promoting the interests of artists and labels across the New Zealand recording industry.