Deans said she, Flip Grater, Andrew Keoghan with Ben King of Golden Horse and the Unfaithful Ways, along with Barry Saunders from the Warratahs, were excited about their trip south for the one-off concert, but more importantly, it felt like they were contributing to helping Cantabrians.
"Being up here in Auckland, I felt pretty powerless and unable to do anything to help," Deans said.
"I've been talking to my family and I was going to go down to help out, but my dad said they had to leave the house for a couple of days and my step-mum said there's not really anything you can do and it's, as she delightfully put it, just one more poo in the estuary," she says, laughing.
Deans' parents moved from Wellington to Christchurch when she was almost 2 years old and the Garden City was "ingrained in me and in my psyche", she said.
"I'm terrified of how I will feel when I actually get down there and I cannot grasp how people are feeling in Christchurch at the moment."
The vocalist-guitarist will bring her band, bass player Richard Pickard and drummer Joe McCallum, who hail from Christchurch themselves, to perform in Arrowtown.
They will play the whole of Deans' debut solo album, Modern Fables, a collection of "intimate, slightly folky, country-tinged pop", and a couple of extra tunes, she said.
The artist jammed with Anika Moa and Anna Coddington for the second time in six months this week.
More informal sessions were in the pipeline and an album was a possibility.
"It's very early days yet, but regardless, we're really good friends and enjoy each other's company," she said.
The last time Deans was in Queenstown was about two years ago, with Moa.
Deans and Coddington are Wakatipu-bound in mid-May as part of their 16-date national tour, but the one-off Arrowtown concert at the end of the annual Motatapu off-road event was something special.
"People should come down and send the good vibes out to Christchurch . . . we all need to be there for each other right now."
Christchurch Artists for Christchurch, a free earthquake appeal concert, will be held near the Motatapu finish line, on Butler's Green, in Arrowtown, tomorrow, from 4pm to 8pm.
All donations will go towards the Red Cross earthquake appeal.
