We continue the occasional series wherein Winston expounds on things that currently make him happy. And this week he's very happy. New radio, a new CD, and new gigs. What more can a devoted Tauranga music-lover ask for?

157) A gig – really soon! As I mentioned last week, I've just returned from Wellington. The Tauranga musician I heard mentioned most frequently in the capital? Oscar Laven, multi-horn-blowing son of Tauranga musical royalty Robbie Laven and Marion Arts.

By complete coincidence Oscar is on tour with the Gypsy-jazz band Black Spider Stomp.

They're playing at Imbibe this Friday night, February 19. They're a five-piece: Oscar on horns, Scott Maynard on double bass, Adrian Jensen rhythm guitar and Sam Thurston and James Quick on lead guitars. Sam is from Tauranga. They've recently released a third CD which contains Parisian waltzes. Check it out at blackspiderstomp.bandcamp.com. I have a previous one which contains mucho very impressive Django-style playing.

Fun fact: the two lead guitarists spend half of each year touring Europe with a full-on punk band, but expect absolutely no cross-over with their pure Gypsy jazz. Perhaps – as a wise man suggested – the common factor between their punk and Gypsy jazz is the lack of compromise.

Oscar Laven.

158) A gig – next week! Actually, it's much more than a gig, it's a festival! Yes, it's time for the Aongatete Folk Festival, getting stronger and bigger every year. It happens at 156 Work Rd, towards Katikati, on Friday, February 26 and Saturday, February 27. There's a charmingly amateur feel to the event. The website is a bit out of date and short of detail but the combination of blackboard concerts – Friday night and in the gaps on Saturday – and some really good invited guests makes for a pleasant weekend. Headlining this year is the legendary Gumboot Tango, comprising not only folk expert and musicologist Mike Harding (on guitar, harmonica) but two members of New Zealand's most famous folk family, the Muggeridges (in this case Janet on mandolin and Steve on guitar), along with drummer Wayne Morris. They celebrate the great and the obscure in Kiwi song and are really worth seeing.

There's also the splendid duo Whakakura, marrying Allana Goldsmith's jazz-inflected vocals with the acoustic guitar of Ed Taylor (Akoustic Express) and Auckland slide guitarist Peter Parnham with a bag of Americana, country, and old time blues. A weekend's admission costs $30 and there are different prices for camping or a single day. You can find details at www.aongatete.co.nz

159) The same gig – and a CD! Also appearing at the Folk Festival will be Diazapam, Legal Tender, Neumegen & Sanders, and My Pennyworth Band, the latter being the hosts of the festival (it's Paul Hoggard and Penny Rowsell's orchard). My Pennyworth also has a new album out called ‘Passages in Time', which is their fourth, and a collection of original songs which includes some prestigious special guests. Gimme a week to live with it then expect a review here shortly.

160) Americana Radio hits town! In what seems a perfect match with the festival, a new radio station has just arrived in town. Paradise, 105.4FM, kicked off last weekend and promises Americana, blues, country and folk. I'll be heading in to meet the team (including director John Stephens, an American with an enviable Stetson hat) any day now and will have a full report, but this is exciting news for Tauranga and – one hopes – Tauranga musicians working in those genres, especially as the station has a range from Waihi to Te Puke.

This is finally a real community station, broadcasting with yer actual live DJs, including a local breakfast show and even the venerable Andy Craw presenting folk music on Saturday mornings. Most impressively, each night the station boasts the talents of famously laconic Border Music show host Chris (Shady) O'Shea. That show on Wellington's Radio Active has become a cult favourite worldwide – damn fine to hear him here!

watusi@thesun.co.nz