Art Beat with Rosalie Crawford

Going to hear Delaney Davidson and Marlon Williams play on Valentine's Day created a musically-themed slightly comedic dilemma for those celebrating their relationships – with the show titled ‘Sad but True'.

The mild humour around this continued, with the genius delivery of song introductions like: 'In keeping with the valentine's theme, here's another lovely murder ballad for you”, before driving their guitars into ‘Knoxville Girl'.

Duo Delaney Davidson and Marlon Williams, are taking their show ‘Sad but True' in Arts on Tour show running this year.

The seriousness and intensity with which they approach their music is mildly mocked by themselves, but of course these two are quite simply brilliant; or as one of the audience stated: 'Fan-bloody-tastic”.

Swinging through gospel bluegrass ‘I don't want your rambling letters', to more folksy ballads, blues and country, Davidson's deep bass voice reminds one of Johnny Cash's distinctive tone. Coupled with William's extraordinary tenor, this combination is an extraordinary musical match.

They seem bemused by their song title choices for Valentine's Day, when appearing in Tauranga before a full house.

Asked how they originally came to form their duo, Delaney says: 'We met each other when we both turned up to play the same gig. They'd double-booked us by accident”.

This was about three years ago, and they've collaborated with writing and performing since then, mostly based out of Lyttleton.

Both are exceptional vocalists and guitarists. Davidson explores the boundaries of what they can do musically, competently using a looping pedal, playing his guitar percussively; and adding harmonica, whistling and voice effects to their music.

Williams soars with harmonies to bring a sense of the ‘Wild, Wild West', coyotes and home on the range.

Back to the mild humour from Davidson: 'This song is a waltz and it's called ‘You're a loser'. Actually I won an award for it, and the card had ‘Congratulations Delaney for your song. You're a loser'”.

So far they've played 12 shows nationwide with 16 to go. They're part of the Arts on Tour show running all year; and this is the first show in the series to come to Tauranga.

Duo Delaney Davidson and Marlon Williams, performing at Tauranga's Baycourt on Valentine's Day.

I understand it's also the first time Baycourt has been a promoter, not just a venue. This duo is outstanding; they were off the grid as far as my own expectations went. And if this is a taste of what's to come with the Arts on Tour, then Tauranga is very fortunate to experience the best of New Zealand talent.