The country road is taking Bevan Gardiner everywhere but home.
The Dunedin born and bred, legally blind musician is two-thirds of the way through an Australia and New Zealand tour as the star of a John Denver tribute band that is getting rapturous reviews.
Tonight, the 26-year-old will perform in Ashburton.
On Sunday, he will briefly be in Dunedin, performing at the Regent Theatre, and then it is on to Oamaru and Invercargill before heading for the North Island.
By the time Gardiner does get home, less than a week before his first child is due to be born, he will have been on the road for nine weeks and performed in 42 towns and cities.
Home is where it all began: in Pine Hill, Dunedin, during the early 1990s.
His family was not particularly musical, but his father had an old guitar gathering dust in the garage, the strings of which a 5-year-old Gardiner enjoyed plucking.
His parents organised guitar lessons, which continued for 12 years.
It was not long before his music teacher began asking him to sing, too.
''I don't know why, but Bernard encouraged me to sing along,'' Gardiner recalls.
''I was very shy at that stage, so I wasn't very keen on it.''
John Denver entered Gardiner's life via an audio cassette.
When the family went on holidays in Central Otago, Gardiner's father liked to play a recording of a live concert performed by the country music singer.
Denver was one of the best-selling artists of the 1970s, primarily using acoustic guitar to accompany his songs about relationships, music and nature.
His signature hits included Rocky Mountain High, Annie's Song, Sunshine on my Shoulders and Take Me Home, Country Roads.
Denver died in 1997, aged 53, when the plane he was flying crashed.
Listening to that cassette was a revelation for Gardiner.
''The excitement of the crowd, because it was a live show. And John's larger-than-life personality on the stage, and the things he sang about; they just really spoke to me,'' Gardiner says.
''He was certainly my first musical inspiration.''
Gardiner was born with sight.
He also had Leber's congenital amaurosis, a rare inherited eye disease that progressively robbed him of his vision.
By his late teens, he was legally blind.
''I always accepted it. I never knew anything different,'' he says.
''My parents had a great attitude and that was really important. I grew up believing that, within reason, I could do whatever I wanted.''
In 2008, he began studying for a bachelor of music degree at the University of Otago, majoring in drumming.
His musical tastes were broad, but he had maintained a special interest in John Denver.
So much so that in 2006, he was invited to Denver's adopted home town of Aspen, Colorado, to perform with Denver's band at a memorial concert.
An article on his trip, which appeared in the Otago Daily Times, caught the eye of Dunedin entertainment promoter Dennis Brown.
He had been looking to form a Denver tribute band and asked Gardiner to send him a demo tape.
The first tour was in 2008.
The concept was redeveloped and taken on the road again to open, first for Scottish country singer Isla Grant, and then last year, as the opening act for US country star Charley Pride.
Pride complimented Gardiner on his ability to sound like Denver.
''It was to give people a taste of what we wanted to do,'' Gardiner says.
''The reaction was always good. So we've put it on the road, and the response has been great.''
Take me home - The music and life of John Denver mixes Gardiner's performances of Denver's music, accompanied by a live band, with large-screen archival video footage exploring Denver's life.
On August 31, on the last night of the Australian leg of the tour, Gardiner entertained more than 1500 people in a packed State Theatre, in Sydney.
Gardiner is not the only southerner in the tribute band, which includes musicians and crew from three countries.
The band includes vocalist Georgie Daniell, lead guitarist James Davy and Dobro guitarist Read Hudson, all of Dunedin.
The ''snowballing energy'' as the band and audiences respond to each other's enthusiasm has been a highlight of the tour so far, Gardiner says.
But being away from family, including his pregnant partner, is not easy.
''It's tough not being there to support her.''
Gardiner is looking forward to being home for a decent stretch from the end of this month.
The country road, however, is likely to take him away again sooner or later.
''Denver died in 1997. So coming up to 2017, I think they are in the negotiation stage of doing something further abroad [than New Zealand and Australia] to mark that 20-year anniversary.''
