26 Dec 2015

Stomping Grounds: Mel Parsons

From RNZ Music, 3:05 pm on 26 December 2015

In Stomping Grounds West Coaster Mel Parsons offers us a guided tour of her hometown of Westport.

She might have grown up on the West Coast, but Mel Parsons and her family know better than to call themselves 'coasters'. Her mum, Janet, has been told they can take the title after they've lived there for 40 years (they've got a couple to go), but her dad Derek says "Your Grandaddy has to be born here" - setting everyone back significantly.

Regardless, Westport is where Mel spent the first 18 years of her life - driving down windy coastal roads, making friends, setting underwater swimming records at Buller High School and, of course, setting the foundations for a music career that would see her travel far beyond that first, wild backyard.

For episode one of Stomping Grounds, Mel Parsons takes Melody Thomas and Hannah Herchenbach back to Westport for a closer look at the people and places that inform her life and music.

Related content

Music details

Artist: Mel Parsons
Song: Non Communicado, First Sign of Trouble, Don't Wait, Another City, Friend, Driving Man, Far North Coast
Composer:
Album: Drylands
Label: Cape Road

Get the RNZ app

for easy access to all your favourite programmes