On a gloriously hot late-summer Saturday in Gore, Adam McGrath, lead singer, guitarist and songwriter for Lyttelton-based ramblers The Eastern, rests his tattooed forearms atop beaten acoustic guitar, grazes his red beard against beleaguered microphone and launches into a little between-song banter.
Utilising a husky drawl earned from several years spent living, travelling and performing in the United States, McGrath cajoles some stallholders at the Hokonui Moonshiners' Festival into giving him a free bottle of whisky, upon which he throws away the cap, takes a long slug and passes it to his band-mates.
Only five days have passed since the 6.3 magnitude earthquake that rocked Lyttelton and Christchurch. Clearly, this group needs a drink.
Fast-forward a couple of weeks and McGrath is back home, only too aware that the ability to sit on his Lyttelton porch and discuss performances past and pending is a luxury denied to others living in his harbour town or over the Port Hills.
His house, made of "good, solid wood", might have escaped largely unscathed on February 22 but group co-founder Jessie Shanks' home was seriously damaged.
Regardless, McGrath, Shanks and other members of what they call "The Eastern Family" have been busy taking their blend of country stomp and gritty, bluesy folk to the people of Christchurch, playing free concerts "everywhere from parks and people's backyards to tattoo parlours".
"The music we play is very mobile; we can put it your lounge, your garage or the streets; it doesn't matter," McGrath says.
"In a way, it feels like we're not going there to play for people; it's more that people are making us feel good."
The Eastern posse is heading south this weekend, playing at the Glenroy Auditorium tonight as part of the Dunedin Fringe Festival.
Although its show, "No Depression", was originally intended to be a loose presentation of 150 years of New Zealand history via a series of folk songs, the quake ruptured that plan.
"It has changed a little bit. We lost the place in which we were going to rehearse. And we haven't had time to rehearse because we've spent all our time trying to help others get up and running. So we've turned it into a big fundraising show," McGrath says, explaining that proceeds from the concert and sales of a compilation album featuring songs by The Eastern, The Unfaithful Ways, Lindon Puffin and others will be donated to the Red Cross and Project Port Lyttelton.
"It was going to be more of a theatre-type show; now it's going to be a straight singing and playing show. We will do some of the songs we were hoping to do and tell some stories, but it will have less of the original concept. It just wasn't feasible for us.
"Hopefully, people will want to come anyway and help give some money towards Christchurch."
Among the 13 songs on The Eastern's 2010 sophomore album Arrows is the track The Needle's Eye, which features the line "there ain't no master plan".
It's a lyric with particular resonance given many of the band's regular venues, including its favourite haunt, Lyttelton's Wunderbar, are in ruins.
In addition, plans for a new album have been put on hold.
"We were meant to start recording last Monday," McGrath says.
"We were planning to head to the West Coast and do it out there. All the songs were ready. Arrows is coming out in Australia in May so maybe the new album will be out in summer.
"No-one really knows what's going to happen. The people who own the Wunderbar have lost their house. It's all up in the air. We are running on faith at the moment.
"Something will work out. We want to be here [in Christchurch] because that is important to us but we have to balance that with trying to make some money. There are lots of things to think about."
Ever busy performing (in a 2009 article, Vicki Anderson, music writer for The Press, documented the band had played 270 shows in one year), The Eastern has also released three EPs and two albums since McGrath and Shanks met several years ago, not long after both had returned to New Zealand after lengthy stints in the United States.
That would explain McGrath's voice, a gravelly modulation of Kiwi diphthongs and a good-old-boy American accent.
"I moved there, lived there and played music there. I came home and met Jess. She was in a similar position. She'd lived in the States for eight years; we'd both moved there to play music."
Upon his return to New Zealand, McGrath worked in a range of jobs, including primary school caretaker, before running his own gardening and fix-it business.
Then came the day four and a-half years ago when he and Shanks decided to "step off the edge of the world and just play music".
"It just seemed the only decision to take. And it worked. The music and the people we have met along the way have just carried us along. The more we did it, the better it got. More people would come."
On the back of relentless touring, The Eastern has earned a strong following around the country.
Sales of both its albums number in the thousands; at last count, the band had sold more than 3000 copies of Arrows.
Although McGrath is modest about his group's standing ("We play a lot and if you do that, you'll always sell a lot of records. We've given a bunch away, too ..."), it should be noted The Eastern has also supported acclaimed artists Steve Earle, Old Crow Medicine Show and Jayhawks duo Gary Louris and Mark Olson.
"Being a full-time band is hard in New Zealand. It's hard to keep everyone fed and watered, so there is a flexible arrangement.
"We have a big community of people who tour and play on the records with us. We've had a fairly consistent line-up for the past 18 months.
"Me and Jess write the songs and pay the bills, so it's kind of on us, I guess. But everyone is valued."
There are no secrets to The Eastern's music.
It is built on chords that are the cornerstones of country, folk and blues; on top of that structure come fiddle, banjo, acoustic guitar, mandolin, double bass and harmonies set against the key voices of McGrath and Shanks.
"What we are doing is basic. We are simple people. We like it that way. I don't feel like what we are doing is necessarily ground-breaking; I feel we are part of a continuum, part of a long line of music," McGrath explains.
"In terms of the music structure - I've played in punk rock bands and all kinds of stuff - but we choose these instruments because they are mobile and can work in all kinds of settings so you can translate what you want to say in a really simple, organic, heartfelt way.
"But when we come to play, we want to put it down for people. When you come see us, we've got to be good," McGrath says. "And we play so much that it has to be good; if we are going to come back to a town six times in a year, the audience is going to want it to be good, or at least consistent, every time.
"That is something we pride ourselves on. It is about being respectful to your audience and caring about them. It is about what I would expect when I go to see a band," McGrath emphasises.
"We like to keep things spontaneous. We never write a set-list; we just react to the audience."
Indeed. The burly McGrath, who looks more like a Dublin dock worker than a tuneful troubadour, has turned bouncer and confronted the occasional obnoxious pub-goer.
He recalls frog-marching one particularly annoying audience member off the premises for the sin of requesting Duelling Banjos.
"He was a bit of a drunkard ... this guy was definitely pushing the boundaries a little."
Yet that goes against the grain. McGrath's natural rapport with an audience provides an inclusive window. In Gore, he invited two women on stage to play tambourine, then a man to play harmonica, gestures that helped build a celebratory atmosphere.
"It doesn't work unless the audience is with us. It's not a one-sided thing. We need the audience. We want to bring them in and be in it together," McGrath says, before he alights on music's prime purpose: "It feels good."
See them
The Eastern performs at the Glenroy Auditorium, Dunedin, tonight. It will be joined by Lyttelton acts The Unfaithful Ways, Delaney Davidson and Ben Brown and Dunedin performer Bill Morris. Proceeds from the concert (which starts at 7.30pm) and sales of a compilation album featuring songs by The Eastern, The Unfaithful Ways, Lindon Puffin and others will be donated to the Red Cross and Project Port Lyttelton.
