22 Oct 2016

The Mixtape: Mel Parsons

From RNZ Music, 5:00 pm on 22 October 2016

Singer-songwriter Mel Parsons makes a mixtape of favourites and talks about her roots in the shearing sheds of Westport.

Mel Parsons

Mel Parsons Photo: Hannah Herchenbach

Mel Parsons on tour with Sons Of A Bitch

Mel Parsons, Amelia Dunbar from Sons Of A Bitch, and Horse Truck. Photo: Mel Parsons

Mel Parsons is feeling a little dishevelled, on the morning we record her mixtape. It was her first night sleeping on the 'pimped out' horsetruck she's sharing for the next few weeks with comedy duo Sons Of A Bitch, and her "driver and social liaison officer" father.

It's a big truck, and there has already been a close call with the sides of a bridge near Blenheim on the way up. They got off the ferry in the wee hours of the morning, parked under an overpass in Wellington, where the wind whistled through the float, keeping them awake for the rest of the night. Luckily no one is snoring.

It seems a fitting way to travel for a woman brought up in shearing sheds, stomping down the freshly shorn wool. It's that familiar smell of lanolin mixed with sheep poo that brings back memories every time she performs one of these gigs with Sons Of A Bitch in woolsheds.

Her entrance song for the gigs on this North Island tour is Dire Straits, 'Walk Of Life' - it's a song she associates with her youth, the tape was stuck in the farm truck stereo. It's also the song kicking off this mixtape.

Related:
  • Stomping Grounds: Mel Parsons
  • NZ Live - Mel Parsons
  • Music Details

    Artist: Mel Parsons
    Song: Another City
    Comp: Parsons
    Album: Drylands
    Label: Cape Road

    Artist: Dire Straits
    Song: Walk of Life
    Comp: Knopfler
    Album: Brothers in Arms
    Label: Warner

    Artist: William Crighton
    Song:  2000 Clicks
    Comp: Crighton
    Album: William Crighton
    Label: ABC

    Artist: Anna Coddington
    Song: Release Me
    Comp: Coddington
    Album: Luck  /Time
    Label: Loop

    Artist: Feist
    Song: How Come You Never Go There
    Comp: Feist
    Album: Metals
    Label: Polydor

    Artist: Jordi Lane
    Song: Black Diamond
    Comp: Lane
    Album: Glasselland
    Label: Blood Thinner

    Artist: Liz Stringer
    Song: Anyone
    Comp: Stringer
    Album: All the Bridges
    Label: Vitamin Records

    Artist: Hugo
    Song: 99 Problems
    Comp: Carter, Henderson, Marrow, Rubin
    Album: Old Tyme Religion
    Label: Roc Nation

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