Darryl Baser

Hi all, this is my last column for the Otago Daily Times after 14 years as a music columnist.

Dunedin rock three-piece Honeybone play a final farewell show on Thursday before setting sail for Melbourne.

Well, all but one of the major end-of-one-year, start-of-another music festivals have come and gone, leaving the music industry to continue chugging along, like Thomas the Tank Engine, in a business-as-usual fashion.

One of the many end-of-year music festivals is the Kaikoura Roots Festival, which is returning after a five-year hiatus on Saturday and Sunday, January 14-15.

Wellington band The Golden Awesome have played internationally, and have been around for a couple of years.

South Island musicians are represented strongly in the Best Folk Album category of this year's Tui awards, with acts from Westland, Canterbury and Otago all in the line-up.

True and dedicated fans of "the Dunedin Sound" will have tickets in their clammy palms in anticipation of seeing The Clean at Sammy's tomorrow night, to help celebrate Flying Nun's 30th birthday.

Former Dunedin musician Shayne P. Carter has been one of record label Flying Nun's brightest stars.

The good news is Midnight Youth are touring their new album across New Zealand. Bad news, Dunedinites will have to travel to Christchurch to see them as there is no Dunedin show on the calendar.