The 64-year-old singer, songwriter and guitarist has been travelling, writing, recording and performing his acoustic folk songs for more than 27 years.
He plays tomorrow night at the Auckland Folk Music Festival, where afterwards he will wait to hear whether his name is read out as winner of the Tui for New Zealand's best folk music album.
When the Otago Daily Times visited Curtis this week at his home in the hills above the historic Cardrona township, he was in the midst of "polishing off a song".
Effervescent and twinkly-eyed, Curtis, like most storytellers, is ready with a yarn and good with a quip but quickly downplays any suggestions he is deserving of an award.
"I'm not holding my breath - It's only the opinion of 10 judges," he says, laughing.
Despite his modest jocularity, after talking to Curtis for an hour or more over a cup of coffee, one senses that this light-hearted musical storyteller deserves a wider audience.
He later admits - but only when pressed on the subject - that to win a Tui would be a "crowning achievement".
Curtis is a seminal figure among New Zealand's close-knit folk music fraternity.
Curtis has organised the Cardrona Valley folk music festival for the past 34 years and travels regularly to other such festivals around the country.
He returns to his homeland of England every two years to tour and perform at various British folk music festivals, usually combining the trip with a mountain-climbing stopover in the Himalayas.
Curtis released his 10th album, Sea to Summit, in June last year and it is this collection of songs which has earned him his most recent Tui nomination.
He was nominated for a New Zealand Music Award in 1990 for his album The Daisy Patch and has also had songs on compilation albums which have been up for gongs.
"We [folk musicians] used to get to go to the awards ceremony with all the other New Zealand artists. I remember that year I got to hang out with Neil Finn, Dave Dobbyn and all those characters," he said.
The Daisy Patch missed out on the Tui and Curtis is reluctant - when pressed - to rate his chances of bringing a gong back to Cardrona.
He says the style of Sea to Summit is very different from that of the other two folk-album finalists - the Hamilton County Bluegrass Band and Dunedin trio Delgirl.
"We're talking quite different styles - a bluegrass album, my quiet acoustic guitar songs and Delgirl's soft-rock sound."
He says he hasn't listened to the other finalists' albums.
"I'm sure they are very good. But the judges have already made up their minds by the time we arrive in Auckland to play," he says.
Curtis' debut 1982 album, Gin and Raspberry, is recognised by the New Zealand Recording Industry Association as the best-selling New Zealand folk music album.
"It's a shame they didn't have Tuis back then. It would have won for sure," Curtis quips.
Despite the sales figures, Curtis says the royalties from his albums "have never amounted to a great deal".
He says he is not a prolific songwriter and has written about 64 songs, "same as my age", registered with the Australasian Performing Right Association.
"It averages out so that I've released an album every four years."
Curtis emigrated to New Zealand in 1964 with his wife, Kay.
The couple will celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary this year and have raised three sons, Glenn, Ross and Brian at their Cardrona homestead, which is also named "Gin and Raspberry".
Curtis explains the alcoholic concoction was the favoured drink of Cardrona gold miners once they'd struck a find.
The Curtises came to Wanaka in 1976 for a two-week stay to manage a youth hostel in the town.
Like many visitors, they fell in love with the place and stayed.
Mr Curtis moved to Cardrona Valley after being offered a job running the local school bus.
The couple retired from their school bus run last year and have held various contracts for postal delivery services in Wanaka and maintenance of the Cardrona hall.
Curtis' songs are personal stories, with many resonating with a nostalgia for the way things were.
They tell of former acquaintances, family friends, places remembered or visited, embracing a simpler time and exuding a sense of history and place.
He says he will perform his favourite songs from Sea to Summit tomorrow night.
These include a tribute to Sir Edmund Hillary, written shortly after the great climber's death last year.
"It was one of those songs which I sat down and wrote almost immediately - which is very rare for me.
"I gathered all of the newspaper articles and tributes I could find. This helped to inspire me and also piece together the stories of his life.
Curtis said he saw a newspaper headline which read "Sir Ed, Hero, God, Man".
"That was it there. It became the title of my song and also helped to shape the tune, giving me three distinct verses."
The song is the type of folk tribute which, if it was written for an Australian such as Sir Don Bradman, would become a national treasure.
Curtis says the tune has been picked up for an album of New Zealand children's songs which will go out to schools around the country.
"I had been planning to write a song about [Sir Ed] for years.
"It would be nice to have others hear it and for it to gain recognition," he says.
• Discography:
- 1982: Gin and Raspberry
- 1986: Back from the Hills
- 1990: The Daisy Patch
- 1994: Save the Wilderness
- 1998: Below the High Country
- 2000: Let's sing a Kiwi Song (Children's album)
- 2002: Beyond a Climber's Moon
- 2004: Otago, My Home (DVD)
- 2008: Sea to Summit
