Playing it by heart (John Hanlon) (LP 2695 - 2697)

John Hanlon  Garden Fresh (Vinyl, Family Label Records, 1974) ***** 

John Hanlon  Higher Trails (Vinyl, Family Label Records, 1975) *****  

John Hanlon  Just Quietly (CD, Family Label Records, 2009) *** 

Genre: NZ music, pop/ rock

Places I remember: the records came from Denton's Records in 246 Queen Street, Auckland - loooong gone!  I bought my first records there when I was a youngun/padowan. Just Quietly is from JB Hi Fi.

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles:  Higher Trails

Gear costume: Damn The Dam, On A Hillside In The Rain (Garden Fresh)

Active compensatory factors: I've written about my admiration for John Hanlon elsewhere on this blog (here frinstance), and I can add he's a lovely guy who returns emails from fans like me!

Garden Fresh was a revelation to me in 1974 - a Kiwi singer songwriter that spoke to me! That was a first. 

As a nation, we watched him on TV during New Faces/ Studio One style Opportunity Knocks/X Factor type programmes and I loved everything he did.

His second and third albums are great - Higher Trails is a little more confident, but I kind of think of these as Vol 1 and 2. His first album (Floating) is quite a tentative debut.

Just Quietly is well named. It's quite introspective and doesn't employ any pop or rock moments. As such it's nice to hear but not the one I come back to if I'm in the mood.

Where do they all belong? The compilation After The Dam Broke gives an excellent overview. He's a national treasure!

Me minus you is such a lonely ride (Peaches and Herb)

1. The Exponents – Like She Said (1994)/ Nameless Girl (1992)
2. Blerta - Dance All Around The World (1972)/ Joy Joy (1972)
3. Dragon – Young Years (1989)/ Rain (1984)
4. John Hanlon - Higher Trails (1975)/ Wind Songs (1975)

Next in the Wozza countdown of the 10 best Nu Zild bands and their two best songs is not a band at all.

John Hanlon is a singer/songwriter (still going strong I believe) who had a real knack for catchy toons in the seventies.

He was interesting because he often wrote songs with a NZ flavour and he was entertaining. His lyrics often seemed to contain NZ content - one lyric was about 'heading out of Auckland'. Quite a revelation, at least to me at the time.

Higher Trails was on the soundtrack of a great little documentary film called Off The Edge about a couple of American skiers/ hang glider pilots who climb/ski Mount Cook (I'm pretty sure it was Mt Cook) and then launch themselves off it.

They glide down to the strains of Higher Trails. Fantastic.