Phil Garland


When Phil Garland – often hailed as the godfather of New Zealand folk music – died on 15 March 2017, you could almost hear the angels saying, “Move over, everyone, make way for the big man and his Gibson Hummingbird 12-string. Give him a really big hand – he deserves it.”

Garland was a kingpin in the home grown folk music scene for half a century, as singer-songwriter and as folklorist and collector of precious heritage material: poetry, songs, stories and yarns from our colonial past. He was acknowledged as the foremost authority on local folkloric heritage, and it is testament to his musical ability, his broad-based knowledge, his perseverance, and commanding stage presence that he was able earn a lifelong living in this musical field that is arguably as fringe to mainstream music as poetry is to populist literature.

Phil Garland - The Stable Lad
Phil Garland Bush Orchestra
Photo credit: Trevor Ruffell, Kiwi Pacific Records
The Canterbury Crutchings Bush and Ceilidh Band - Phil Garland, second from right
Photo credit: Phil Garland collection
Phil Garland
Phil Garland in 1964: a studio portait for the Plainsman nightclub, Christchurch
Photo credit: Phil Garland collection
The Playboys. Clockwise from top left: Graeme Miller, John O'Neill, Kevin O'Neill and Brian Ringrose, Dave Miller, Phil Garland
Phil Garland singing with the Saints at Caledonian Hall, Christchurch, 1961
Photo credit: Phil Garland collection
An advertisement for the Folk Centre, Christchurch. Among the performers are Phil Garland and Rosa Shiels.
Photo credit: Phil Garland collection
Phil Garland in Perth, 1990
Phil Garland - A Sense Of Place
Phil Garland sings Peter Cape's Taumarunui (On The Main Trunk Line)
The July 1968 Country & folk spectacular with Hamilton County Blue Grass Band, Band of Hope Jug Band, John Hayday, Frank Fyfe, Phil Garland, Jae Renaut, Christine Smith and Beale Street String Stretchers at Christchurch's Theatre Royal
Phil Garland - Farewell To The Gold (on the Hudson & Halls show)
Phil Garland, 2012
Phil Garland, age 16, with his first guitar, 1959
Photo credit: Phil Garland collection 
Phil Garland - Wind In The Tussock
The Phil Garland Songbook
Christine Smith and Phil Garland at The Gore Folk Club
The Playboys, 1962, with Diane Jacobs aka Dinah Lee. From left: Graeme Miller, Mark Graham, Brian Ringrose, Dave Martin, Phil Garland, and Diane Jacobs
Photo credit: Phil Garland collection
Phil Garland receives his 2014 Queen's Service Medal from Governor-General Jerry Mateparae (whose brother Sam Mateparae was an early New Zealand rock'n'roller). 
Phil Garland as jug blower extraordinaire with The Band of Hope Jug Band, 1967
Photo credit: Phil Garland collection
Trivia:

To mark the first anniversary of Phil Garland's death, in March 2018 Kiwi-Pacific digitised 13 of his albums and made them available via Spotify and iTunes.

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