Kokomo

Festival favourites Kokomo return to the Bay of Islands Festival this year after a year of extensive touring.

The band has performed at such prestigious events as the Coromandel Blues & Roots Festival, The National Jazz Festival, and the Rotorua National Blues Festival, and Kokomo are happy to finally make it back to Northland.

To do justice to the music Kokomo will be playing with their full six-piece line-up and all are looking forward to a wild weekend where they can present their exciting new material. 

KOKOMO – IN THE WELL

It seems like the world is full of albums featuring people singing Bob Dylan songs. Just last year there was Bryan Ferry’s Dylanesque and the soundtrack of the film I’m Not There amongst others. But – until now – no one in New Zealand has produced an album of Bob songs.

That has changed with the release of In The Well from Bay of Plenty band Kokomo

Over the past decade Kokomo has established a significant presence on the New Zealand music scene with dynamic live shows and distinctive original songs informed with a deep sense of early blues and other roots musics. 

Now, after five albums of songs from singer Derek Jacombs, Kokomo take a sidestep with a collection of the songs of Bob Dylan, being released by Jayrem Records to celebrate the legendary songwriter’s birthday on May 24th.

This has been a long-planned labour of love for the hard-working band. Recording started more than two years ago and the band have released a live album and full-length concert DVD (both called Kokomo À Gogo) in the meantime.

“You’ve got to get it right, if they’re Dylan songs,” says singer Derek Jacombs. “No one care if you bugger up your own stuff, but this is Bob and there are a million Dylan fans waiting to criticise you.”

Derek is an active member of the worldwide Dylan community and a confirmed Bobhead, having first seen him live way back in 1978 when, as an impressionable schoolboy in England he sneaked out of boarding school, took a train to London, and queued for 18 hours to get tickets. 

On In The Well Kokomo brings its unique sound to 12 Bob Dylan songs, from 1965’s “Queen Jane Approximately” to the Oscar-winning “Things Have Changed” (2000), shedding new light on the familiar and rediscovering obscure gems.

The inventive rearrangements bring fresh life to the songs – witness the playful country blues of “Absolutely Sweet Marie” and New Orleans swagger of “Takes a Lot to Laugh, Takes a Train to Cry”, or the sensitive jazzy take on “Tryin’ To Get To Heaven” - allowing singer Derek Jacombs to take centre stage, sounding effortlessly authentic across the range of styles and digging deep inside the songs to make them his own.

And for the band that’s the whole point of the album. It doesn’t sound like Bob Dylan songs, it sounds like a whole bunch of new Kokomo songs. They just happen to have been written by Bob Dylan.

For more information about the band:
www.kokomo.co.nz

ph: (07) 577 0969