Still honing his craft

Shane Gilchrist shares a cuppa and a few cackles with enduring Kiwi songsmith Dave Dobbyn.

Smack-bang in the middle of Dave Dobbyn's publishing debut, The Songbook, resides a photo that is worth, if not a thousand words, at least a few hundred.

Here, the songwriter of small frame but big songs, hemmed in by speaker stacks and on a stage no bigger than your average kitchen floor, is letting rip in a London club.

Among the audience are some clearly drunk and clearly happy.

Some stand with eyes closed or arms raised, singing, shouting or, in the case of the couple in the middle, having a good old pash.

Many are wearing identification standard to the young New Zealander abroad: T-shirts bear Maori motifs, the North and South Island or outlines of our national bird; oh, and is that a rugby shirt?

Fashion aside, the 300 or so souls are also linked in the embrace of the sing-along.

Far from home, they are transported back nonetheless.

Dobbyn is good at this, has been for some time.

Since 1976, when he was invited to join some of his Sacred Heart College mates in a band called Th' Dudes, he has moved us by way of his heart-on-the-sleeve love songs (Loyal, Beside You, Language, Devil You Know, Whaling), his state-of-the-nation addresses (Welcome Home, Outlook for Thursday), his celebration of place (Lap Of The Gods, Shaky Isles), even his youthful crowing (Be Mine Tonight).

Like the best of his music, the 53-year-old (he celebrated his latest birthday on January 3) endures.

A key reason for this is Dobbyn still enjoys honing his craft, the process of curling lyrics around the framework of chords and then watching to see if an audience will breathe further life into them, perhaps translating his words and melodies into their own private worlds.

How do I know this?

He told me so.

A few weeks back, Dobbyn was in Central Otago on a rapid-fire series of appearances to promote the release of his debut book, The Songbook, in which he describes the inspiration behind 39 of his tunes.

Published in conjunction with Beside You, a retrospective CD and DVD package, The Songbook took a year to produce.

There was plenty to explain, Dobbyn says as he waits for a coffee (trim flat white, by the way) at Alexandra's Shaky Bridge Cafe, where more than a few mid-morning diners look up, spot the diminutive figure in black leather jacket, with his close-cropped hair and elf-like ears, and mouth the invariable, "is that . . . ?"

Dobbyn, strategically tucked around a corner, seems unaware of the curious stares, but later acknowledges approaches from one and all, posing for photos and signing a few autographs to a common conversational refrain:

"My brother/sister/friend is a big fan . . ."

Dobbyn is keen to make it clear the release of The Songbook and the Beside You collection should not be regarded as a full-stop to a career that has spanned more than three decades, featured multi-platinum sales, more awards for songwriting than any other New Zealander, the bestowment of Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) as well as a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA).

More like a dot, dot, dot then?

Dobbyn agrees with this suggestion, smiling as he enjoys a roll-your-own cigarette.

"It's good to have a clean slate, to have it out there.

"I can now move on . . .

"It's a continuing process for me.

"I've already got a bunch of songs ready for the next one.

"It's about putting challenges in front of you."