A lecturer in contemporary music and technology at the University of Otago, American-born, Dunedin-based multi-instrumentalist John Egenes is never too far from a stringed instrument - or a song.
Why do you do what you do?
Wow, those are big questions. Not sure why I play music, except that I've been doing it since I was very small. Somewhere there's a picture of me with a big ol' Universal accordion, a 120 bass giant of a squeezbox being played by a 6-year-old kid. It was bigger than I was.
That got me started, but it was the guitar, and listening to Johnny Cash records when I was 8 or 9, that really got to me. Back then, to be a musician was to be one of the odd ones.
I'm not talking about being in the school band or orchestra. I'm talking about playing popular music, like folk and country and later, rock and roll.
It's hard to visualise now, but no-one did that back then. In my high school you could count the number of guitar players on one hand.
I'm from the United States, and I was in the thick of it all back in the '60s. Nowadays, pretty much every young person plays, or is familiar with the music scene on some level.
Being a musician, or hanging with musicians, is central to all young people's lives here in the Western world. They're assaulted by it almost every waking hour. Back then, it wasn't that way at all, and if you were in a band, you were part of a very small minority.
What is your earliest memory?
Well, my earliest memory is probably crawling around on the floor when I was a bit less than a year old. But my first musical memories are tied up with my mother and my uncle. She played piano and he played accordion. She was a by-the-numbers player, meaning she read music but didn't improvise.
My uncle didn't read, but he could play the crap out of that accordion. Boogie woogie, jazz, all sorts of standards. He also played them on the piano.
We'd sit around and sing along, and I was enthralled with how much music came out of him.
I definitely took after him in a lot of ways, especially the part about not reading. I've always been a terrible sight reader, but I've been blessed with a great ear.
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
I always wanted to go to Mars (still do), but never really wanted to be an astronaut or work for Nasa. I never did have one profession or life in my mind's eye when I was young. I just was curious, and I wanted to see and experience as much as possible. I'm still that way.
Fortunately for me, you can carry a guitar along with you when you're hitchhiking around the country and riding freight trains and such. I did a lot of that.
Folks that influenced me were science-fiction writers like Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke, Dick, Orwell and Huxley, and other writers like Hesse, Kerouac, Kesey and Vonnegut.
I've been a horse person all my life, so other influences are people you might not have heard of, like Buck Brannaman, the Dorrance brothers, Ray Hunt, Sheila Varian, and saddlemakers like D.E. Walker and Edward Bohlin. There are so many musical influences that I just can't name them ... from Charlie Christian and Joe Venuti to Roy Nichols and Clarence White; from Johnny Cash and Roger Miller to Eliza Gilkyson and Townes van Zandt, and from Kenny Baker and Buddy Emmons to Slim Gaillard and Joe Pass. The list goes on forever.
What is your most embarrassing moment?
I don't know about ‘‘most embarrassing'', but here's a story: I rode my horse, Gizmo, across the United States in 1974, from California to Virginia. The ride took seven months. Gizmo and I were in Arizona, camped in the high desert country there, truly in the middle of nowhere. We were camped at a cattle tank and windmill, so I was able to take a much needed bath. I stripped off my clothes and climbed into the water tank. As I was washing, a young woman came riding up. She was, literally, the rancher's daughter. She wasn't in the least embarrassed about seeing a naked young man taking a bath, but I was mortified and stood in the cold water, trying to figure out a graceful way of exiting the water tank. Gizmo couldn't have cared less.
Property aside, what's the most extravagant thing you've bought?
I must say, I'm not much on extravagance. I do have some very nice instruments that I've managed to acquire over the years, but I'm not a collector. They all get played - used and abused - so they're tools to me.
Back when I was a saddlemaker and doing lots of leatherwork, I once bought a $30,000 sewing machine. But again, it was just a tool. I've never even bought a new car.
Who would play you in the film of your life?
If he were still alive, Jack Elam. Just because I liked him and he wasn't good looking. He always played interesting characters, and he was cool, and I would hope that cred would rub off on me.
What is your guiltiest pleasure?
A cup of coffee, a book, and a table at a little local cafe somewhere. Not exactly a guilty thing for me, because I've done it all my life. It's what keeps me sane (or what passes for sane). Simple pleasures.
What would be your dream job?
Driving a six- or eight-up hitch of draft horses hitched to a Concord stagecoach. There's nothing quite like the feeling of all that power in your hands, holding all those reins and knowing those horses can run away with you and there's nothing you can do about it. I love driving horses.
Who would you invite to your dream dinner party?
Let's see, I'm assuming you mean famous people ... probably Nikola Tesla, Johnny Cash, Django Reinhardt, Katharine Hepburn, Jane Goodall, and maybe an Olympic dressage rider like Jessica Ransehousen. Oh, and probably a cowboy or two who I know. It'd be fun, just trying to make sense of the conversation.
What single thing would improve the quality of your life?
Well, I happen to live in one of the most beautiful places in the world. The people are wonderful, and they let me and my wife in here, and they even let us become citizens of New Zealand. I've been able to experience all sorts of odd and wonderful adventures throughout my life. I've played with some of the best musicians in the world, and I still get to play and record with them. What more could I want? I'm good ... I'd just pass that ‘‘single thing'' along to someone who can use it.
What keeps you awake at night?
Possibilities keep me awake. I get my best ideas in the middle of the night. I'm not saying they're GOOD ideas, but they're my best ones.
That, and old movies. I mean, OLD movies from the '30s and '40s. I love the late night and the early morning. I'm writing this at 2.30 in the morning, by the way, and I'll probably get a couple of hours' sleep and get up at 5.15am, like I always do. Early morning is the best time of day. It's when the world comes alive.
What song would you like played at your funeral?
No song in particular, I reckon. If there were a funeral I'd want folks to have fun, so just a lot of good pickers, and some good two-stepping music. It's what I was brought up on.
• John Egenes hosts a weekly radio show, The Jukebox Highway, on OAR radio 105.4 FM, in Dunedin. Comprising folk, traditional country, Kiwiana, Americana, and other under-the-radar music, it streams live on the web, and people can subscribe and download past shows via podcast. Also, visit: www.facebook.com/JukeboxHighway
