ARTIST: Billy TK
Billy TK Still Master Today Veteran Strikes Progressive Chord
Billy TK is a Kiwi cultural icon, an intense and exciting guitarist who melded contemporary blues-rock with flowing progressive Pacific rhythms when many Maori musicians were still considered part of the showband heritage.
He has a strong collection of original songs, often covered by other musicians, but the only albums he's released have been with Human Instinct and a rare release with his post-Instinct unit Te Whare Mana (Powerhouse) only available in the UK and Germany.
At its height Powerhouse played alongside Split Enz and supported John Mayall, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee, UB40, Joe Satriani and the Neville Brothers.
In April 1996 Billy was invited to perform a "walk on" with his hero Carlos Santana at an Auckland concert. He expected to trade a few licks but was surprised when Santana encouraging him to take all the solos on his version of Bob Marley's Exodus.
In recent years he's worked with several bands including Dunedin-based Flying Nun band King Loser, who he recorded an album with. He also recorded with hip hop artist DLT...
