Jackie Bristow
Raised in Gore, now raising hell (on stage), Jackie
Bristow is back home with a new album in her back pocket. Shane
Gilchrist spoke to the revitalised songbird on the eve of her
national tour.
Jackie Bristow, the Gore girl who has grown into a
globetrotting woman, was on the line from a hair salon in
Auckland a few days ago.
She was having her locks dyed. She hoped the colour would
come out right. Certainly, there was little room for remedy.
The following night, a Thursday, heralded the opening gig of
a two-week "Saints and Sinners" national tour with fellow
country singers Tami Neilson and Lauren Thomson.
Having honed their harmonies, the trio plan to swap songs and
stories in a format Bristow describes as
"writers-in-the-round".
The series of intimate acoustic shows comes to the South the
week after next.
Later in the month, Bristow and the Blue Moons, a collection
of Australian musicians, will headline the Hokonui
Moonshiners' Festival.
She's looking forward to the February 27 event in her home
town, where she has been living with her parents since
Christmas following a hectic 2009 which culminated in a tour
to Japan and the completion of her third album,
Freedom, in Australia.
Freedom takes its name from a new-found independence.
Tami Neilson
Though her previous album, 2007's
Crazy Love, was
released on Craving Records, Bristow chose to go it alone on
her latest.
Thus she has discovered freedom has its flipside - hard work,
in the form of organising album artwork, distribution and
promotion.
"I'm in touch with everyone," she explains, adding the album
will be released in New Zealand in a fortnight, followed by
successive rollouts in Japan and Australia and the US,
pending distribution deals.
"Freedom is aptly titled. It's elation, really, at
being independent ... when other people are investing money,
they are calling the shots. It was really nice to choose the
players, the band."
Bristow produced Freedom with Australian industry veteran
Mark Punch, who flew to Austin for initial recording sessions
involving "some killer players", including J.
J Johnson, John Mayer's drummer, Jeff Young, a keyboardist
who tours with Steely Dan and Jackson Browne, and backing
vocalist Mahalia Barnes, Jimmy Barnes' daughter.
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