Art Beat with Rosalie Crawford

I caught up with the Tattletale Saints as they crossed the Cook Strait on their way north. Currently on tour with Nashville duo 10 String Symphony, this Auckland two-piece reflect back on the last time they visited Tauranga.

'We played a fantastic show at the Arts Festival last year,” says Vanessa, of Tattletale Saints.

Tattletale Saints is coming to Tauranga this Friday night, to play at Baycourt.

'We decided we'd like to bring symphony back with us, so that's a full band with four of us. After this NZ tour is finished we'll be releasing ‘How Red Is the Blood' in the US and touring the USA with them on a 50-plus date tour, which is very exciting.”

Winners of the 2014 NZ Music Award for Folk Album of the Year, and very popular at the Tauranga Arts Festival, Tattletale Saints are a New Zealand-based duo described as a 'masterful blend of Americana fused with jazz, soul and pop” and made up of Cy Winstanley (voice/guitar/harmonica) and Vanessa McGowan (voice/double bass).

Band Tattletale Saints, is touring NZ and USA with 10 String Symphony.

Their coming together with 10 String Symphony for a NZ/USA tour is exciting. January 2013 saw Tattletale Saints travel to Nashville to record their debut album ‘How Red Is the Blood' with Grammy Award-winning producer Tim O'Brien. While there, the duo cemented their friendship with 10 String Symphony through many a late night pickin' party; and a plan to tour together was born.

10 String Symphony and Tattletale Saints on tour.

Plus, 10 String Symphony are skilled instrumentalists described as having 'virtuoso improvisation, mesmerising acoustic innovation and a love of great songs”.

Christian Sedelmyer (formerly of the Farewell Drifters), and Rachel Baiman (formerly of Belfry Fellows), met in Nashville, and realised a mutual love for the range and depth of the five-string fiddle. Their desire to see just how far a two-fiddle, two-vocals instrumentation could take them is the inspiration for the 10 String Symphony project.

Band 10 String Symphony, is touring NZ and USA with Tattletale Saints.

The combination of both instrumental and vocal duos brings a rich harmonic soundscape of virtuosic improvisation and old-time rhythms across a range of instruments, including double bass, guitar, fiddles, banjo and mandolin.

Audiences will enjoy sets from each duo, as well as the uniting of all four world-class musicians in a full band line-up.

SunLive has a double pass to the Friday, February 21 gig to give away. Enter at SunLive under the competitions section, simply by telling us where the Tattletale Saints are playing in Tauranga.

Entries must be received by 4pm, Friday, February 21.