An intimate evening of soaring melodies and storytelling.
Colette Rivers returns with their brand new (2nd) album ‘The Backyard Wonder’, bringing her signature mix of indie-folk, haunting harmonies, and lyrical depth to The Bakehouse in Featherston.
Expect a night of raw, heartfelt music with full-band arrangements, stripped-back acoustic moments, and tales that echo from the backyard to the soul.
Cozy indoor venue | Limited capacity
Tickets:
https://www.undertheradar.co.nz/gig/97886/Colette-Rivers--The-Backyard-Wonder-Album-Launch.utr
Tickets also available on door from 6pm
Indie-Folk Artist Colette Rivers and her band will be performing her intimate new album, The Backyard Wonder.
More Info:
Independent artist Colette Rivers is releasing her second full-length album, The Backyard Wonder, an intimate exploration of healing, change, and the quiet beauty of ordinary moments.
This album holds special meaning for Rivers: after being diagnosed with cancer in July 2023, her planned sophomore release had to take a back seat to recovery. But when the cancer returned in early 2025, she felt compelled to finish and release the album, not just as a legacy project, also as a celebration after hard times, with a focus on how “you can find the wonder in life, even in your backyard.”
A lifelong creative, Rivers records, mixes, and produces in her home studio in Masterton, and plays every instrument heard on The Backyard Wonder. Her debut album, Memory Lake (2020), was shaped by early years spent in the US, and her move to Taupō at age 11; this was followed by a nationwide tour. Now based in the Wairarapa and working as a secondary school drama teacher, Rivers continues to move between solo performance and full band sets, while staying rooted in the acoustic traditions that define her sound.
With her right arm partially paralysed following recent treatment, Rivers has gathered a group of close friends to help bring the songs of The Backyard Wonder to life (especially its intricate fingerpicking parts) for a run of live shows. She’ll be touring the Wellington and Wairarapa regions from August through October, finishing with a set at the Wellington Folk Festival.
Opening for Rivers are artists:
Phil Masters
Phil Lively-Masters is an experienced, well travelled singer songwriter who specialises in writing the sort of Sun Kissed West Coast Laurel Canyon Americana that made Neil Young, Stephen Stills and the Byrds famous. With a powerful, honey soaked voice that has won praise and support slots from legendary American country rock pioneers like The Jayhawks and original cosmic cowboy Steve Young, Phil has 20 years worth of road worn original songs to pull on, including tracks from the critically acclaimed CANYON RYDE album 'Free To Be' and some choice country rock covers to weave a spell on any listener.
Saali Marks
A singer, songwriter, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, Saali Marks hails originally from the South Island, but has made Wairarapa his home for the last 20 years, where he lives on a farm with his family and teaches music at Kuranui College.
Saali has played in numerous bands over the years, in a wide range of styles from proto-punk to psychedelic dub, covers, originals and fully improvised music with no discernible genre, on
stages throughout Aotearoa since 1991. Currently he fronts the Wellington ska band Battleska
Galactica.
Throughout and alongside it all Saali has indulged his love for songwriting and solo performing, developing a unique style, rooted in folk and blues, and inspired by greats from
across the decades. A skilled guitarist, Saali rarely plays straight ahead chords, and an education in jazz has informed his ear for harmony, the beauty of dissonance, tension and
resolution, with unconventional song structures, alternate tunings and intriguing melodies.
Although not adverse to penning the odd love song, most of Saali’s lyrics tend to focus on other aspects of the human condition, from religion and politics to our relationships with the
environment and our own minds.
Find more about Colette and take a listen here:
Website:
https://coletteriversmusic.com
Spotify:
https://spoti.fi/37SgZLz
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/coletteriversmusic/
Itunes/applemusic:
https://music.apple.com/nz/artist/colette-rivers/1481741974
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/coletteriversmusic/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8fiv1sq4OGuY7ICXJC4xZg/videos
Also check out other Entertainment events in Kahutara, Music events in Kahutara, Arts events in Kahutara.
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