That's Country is back. So is Ray Columbus. Shane Gilchrist discusses rockabilly, roots and regrettable statements with an enduring New Zealand performer.
Ah, the arrogance of youth. When Ray Columbus, New Zealand's well-preened Mod king, declared on 1960s national television his dislike of country and western music, he clearly didn't envisage a future that would entail him swapping his Beatle boots for buckskin.
Yet a decade or so after that declaration, Columbus was left, right, and centre on That's Country, a music variety show that screened on New Zealand television for seven years, made a household name of various home-grown country music artists and, for a time, was watched by an American audience.
Now, at the age of 70, Columbus is about to take That's Country on the road for a 12-date national tour that begins in Invercargill and includes a concert at Dunedin's Regent Theatre on Saturday, March 3.
The shows will feature stars from the television series, including Suzanne Prentice, Jade Hurley, Tony Williams, Maree Humphries and Dennis Marsh, as well as members of the original That's Country band, Brian Ringrose (guitar), Paddy Long (pedal steel), Gary Sammons (bass) and Doug Petrie (drums).
Columbus, speaking from his home near Matakana, north of Auckland, says the shows are in part a tribute to Murray Wood, the original music director of the That's Country series.
Wood, who had been heavily involved in the initial plans to tour the show, died when the CTV building collapsed during the Christchurch earthquake on February 22 last year.
"Suzanne Prentice and I had been talking to Murray just the day before and we were so excited about the tour, which was originally planned for June [last year]. When we heard he'd died we were devastated.
"I'm working on a tribute to Murray and other country music stars who have died in the last year. It's an old spiritual song that Johnny Cash did called Ain't No Grave [Gonna Hold My Body Down]. It's both challenging and thrilling to do that."
Columbus says both time and distance have been no obstacle to those involved in the show. Having decided on a repertoire, the co-producer sent recordings of material to singers and band members alike.
"We've been rehearsing in our own wee spaces so when we get together in Invercargill on March 1, we will all know exactly what we're doing."
Though damage from the Christchurch earthquake means the James Hay Theatre, within the Christchurch Town Hall, doesn't feature on the tour itinerary (the Aurora Centre does), it is worth noting the venue was sole home to That's Country. From there, the show aired for seven years, beginning in 1976 and winding up in 1983.
"It was the number one show every Saturday night for years," Columbus recalls.
"The founder of the Grand Ole Opry, Roy Acuff, asked me once, 'How does a little place like Christchurch, New Zealand, put out the best country music television show in the world?'. I said, 'We've got the culture, the musicians and the fans'."
That's Country, which also aired on a United States network three times a week for a year, was an important stepping stone for many New Zealand performers, including Prentice, John Hore (now Grenell), Patsy Riggir, Jody Vaughan and the Topp Twins.
"There were so many people making country music as well as new stars coming through. When the show stopped, the scene went into the doldrums for a while. The country music clubs were so strong that they have kept the music going, but without a television show to support it, the music nearly died.
"The tour is a celebration of what used to be - but, also, what is still there. The new country performers I saw at the New Zealand Country Music Awards [not to be confused with Gore's Gold Guitar Awards or the Apra and Rianz song and album categories] last year was staggeringly good. I was a judge.
"In Lyttelton, there is this whole alt-country thing going on, too, which is really exciting," Columbus enthuses, referring to artists such as The Eastern, The Unfaithful Ways and Delaney Davidson.
How did New Zealand's king of the Mods come to front a country music television show?
By the mid-1970s, Columbus had established a television presence through a variety of different shows, including the series Columbus Discovers. Topics ranged from Christmas to brass bands to country music, the latter's popularity prompting an industry request for a longer-running series.
"I said the country music clubs would never allow Ray the Mod to host such a series, because when I was an arrogant young pop star I once said on Studio One that I hated country and western. That black-and-white clip still pops up. But I was just a kid blurting things out."
In fact, Columbus had (and still has) a long-held love for country-tinged music. After all, there are plenty of harmonic and structural similarities among country, pop, folk and rock music; the differences have more to do with instrumentation and delivery.
"I toured with the Rolling Stones and Roy Orbison in 1965 [Ray Columbus and the Invaders played more than 50 shows on that 30-day tour of New Zealand and Australia] ... and when I read Keith Richards' autobiography recently I was thrilled to learn he had the same musical instincts.
"I'd started with rockabilly so I never felt bad about hosting That's Country. It was more about convincing the country and western clubs that I was sincere about it.
"I'm grateful for my Mod heritage and the hits the Invaders had with She's A Mod and Till We Kissed ... but it was time to move on," Columbus says.
"Before That's Country went to air I wanted all the artists - big or small - to be on stage at the start and finish and that we would play all sub-species of country music, including rhythm and blues, gospel, western and rockabilly. The series became so big. It went through the roof."
The owner of a lifestyle block, Columbus believes that justifies the tag "country boy". Real estate notwithstanding, Columbus prefers singing "lower and slower" these days.
"I'm loving going back to my roots and doing rockabilly music. I'm very happy to be doing it now. It has kept me alive the last few years.
"I've been hankering to get back on stage - as long as I don't make a fool of myself.
"I felt a bit like that after I did the Band Together show [in Christchurch] for the earthquake victims; that's when I decided I wouldn't do 'Rocking retro Ray' any more. I can't do justice to it. That's why I'm so happy to do That's Country again. I'll be working with all my old friends."
Indeed, friendship has offered a refrain as lasting as any good tune.
"Just yesterday I spoke to Peter Posa on the phone. He can't tour with us but he'll be at the Hamilton show as a guest and I want him to wave to the audience, because he's brilliant. Suzanne Prentice, the star of our tour, has been a friend of mine for years."
Ray Columbus
• Ray Columbus and the Invaders became the first New Zealand band to have an international number one hit with She's A Mod. Released in Australia in October, 1964, it reportedly sold 20,000 copies in less than three weeks and stayed at the top of the charts for eight weeks in Australia.
• Inducted into the NZ Music Hall of Fame in 2009, the Invaders' swansong hit Till We Kissed won the 1965 Loxene Gold Disc, the first New Zealand music award and the forerunner to today's Tuis.
• Columbus went on to host That's Country from 1976 to 1983.
• More recently, he was manager of Christchurch-based pop-rock band Zed.
See them, hear them
That's Country performs the following shows in the South:
• Civic Theatre, Invercargill, Friday, March 2
• Regent Theatre, Dunedin, Saturday, March 3
• Theatre Royal, Timaru, Sunday, March 4
