If he wasn’t tied to that island just south of Wellington and to the driver side of his ute, Aotearoa Music Awards Folk Artist of the Year 2024, Adam MCGRATH would probably crawl into a corner of the cabana somewhere and make a home, his love for the bay and NZ’s oldest music venue being true love pretty much since his first gig there close to 20 years back with his band The Eastern. His desire to always pay homage to the bay of Hawkes is ever present with the giant mural of him on the side of the common room in Hastings causing him a strange pride and shyness all at once. He always feels like he has to earn it, in the same way he plays every night of the close to 150 shows he shows up for year after year, but something about Hawkes Bay makes him dig deeper. Whether because he believes deeply in the music that comes from this northern east coast oasis, whether it be Devils Elbow or Jacob, or that he attaches himself to the spirit that runs deep in cabana’s guv’nor Roy, Gerard who built the common room or the small hall’s Jamie McPhail or to the memory of the great Ian ‘Tex Pistol’ Morris who once described McGrath as NZ’s last true Rock n Roller, he believes always in people or bands doing things for the right reasons, The Bay has always seemed like a haven for such as those. He makes a point showing up most years either with his mongrel country band The Eastern or solo, playing to big crowds and small he always shows up happy to be present and ready to offer up the songs yarns and heart his shows have become synonymous with. Described by RNZ as “…a national treasure”, the Herald as “NZ’s toughest minded songwriter” and influential American roots magazine No Depression as “one of the best modern roots acts, from any country anywhere”, McGrath continues to show up set list free and mine his deep catalogue of song and story for all comers. Things will be no different this August when he plays at Napier’s Cabana hoping for the best and never afraid of the worst.