20 June 2024 - 0 Comments

Part archive, time capsule, and storybook, Shine On captures the evolution of a man and his music. Covering four decades, Shine On is a collection of original songs, recording Nigel Marshall's early life in Naenae, Te Whanganui-a-Tara, onto his time in Ruatoria, Tolaga Bay, West Auckland, and Gisborne.

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“This has been a fantastic opportunity to recraft these old songs," said Marshall. "A lot of the creativity, instead of the writing new songs, has gone into the recording of them." Marshall collaborated with an ensemble of Wellington musicians giving the album a unified jazz feel to the album, connecting songs written decades apart.

The album is a musical time capsule featuring songs dating back to Marshall's time in Ruatoria. The earliest gem Tūī, penned around 1980 is about the encroaching forestry industry and the damage it posed to the East Coast environment.

The album was recorded in Maurice Priestley’s PriMau Productions recording studio in Newtown, Wellington. Priestley, who played on and recorded early versions of some of the songs when he operated Capture Recording Studio in Gisborne in the ‘80s, suggested the project to record Marshall’s previously unrecorded songs.

Priestley used his contacts in the music scene to bring together an impressive ensemble of musicians, including pianist Don Franks, horn player Oscar Lavën, bass player Peter Gregory, cajon player Sean O’Connor, drummers Nic Deighton and Tim Robinson, strings arranger-player Cath Haley, and backing vocalists Sarah Grant and Susan Ngawati, Nigel's wife.

The most recent song on the album, Hand of God, also talks about the overwhelming effects of cyclones in Aotearoa. The songs are as relevant today as they were when they were written, with forestry causing much of the damage from cyclones Hale and Gabrielle on the East Coast, by what the insurance companies call “An Act of God”.

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