It’s that time of year. Our Spotify Wrapped individualised charts have been sent out and Facebook is abuzz, noting the several hundred or thousand listeners and streams each artist attracted.

For example, noted Wellington Bluesman Darren Watson – who only joined Spotify this year – had 5.57K listeners and his songs were streamed 45,000 times.

That seems like quite a lot to me. He also posted his online earnings from January to November. Spotify paid him $29.51. So, I assume he’s not planning to retire on music money any time soon.

Worth noting is that Bandcamp – another online music service – amounted to 90% of his total earnings. And I’d like to suggest one more time that if looking for music, Bandcamp should be your first call because it’s the one place online where musicians are reasonably compensated.

Cracker concerts 

Right. With just the two columns before Christmas I’d like to point to a few musical treats on offer in the Bay of Plenty. Perhaps tickets would make useful Christmas presents? Since I’ve mentioned Darren, let’s continue in a bluesy vein because there are a couple of cracker concerts in early January.

Paul Garner. Photo: supplied

The first is on Wednesday, January 8, at the Jam Factory, Summertime Blues with Paul Garner. Some of you will know Paul. He is the son of Pāpāmoa bluesman Mike Garner and, since settling in London in the early 2000s, has had a stratospheric rise through the UK’s blues scene, fronting his own band and playing and recording with some of the world’s most respected blues legends.

Paul has played guitar for James Harman, Billy Branch, Lazy Lester, John Primer and Little Freddie King and, amazingly, is the first-call guitarist when Muddy Waters’ son Mud Morganfield tours Europe. With them, and with his own band, he has performed at festivals throughout Britain and Europe.

Stunning guitarist 

I’ve watched Paul play for decades, since he was a teenager. He is a simply stunning guitarist. And a helluva nice guy to boot. He comes over each Christmas and usually ends up playing somewhere here, be it the Omokoroa Boat Club or Jack Dustys. This time it’s The Jam Factory with drummer Jeff Baker, Grant Willis on bass and Robbie Lavën on sax. Mike Garner and Joanne Melbourne will kick off the night and join in later. For blues fans I cannot recommend this highly enough; it’s a small venue, I would advise getting tickets early.

Then there’s the Waihī Beach Hotel Blues Festival 2025 on January 12. Canadian Tina Turley is back, along with an impressive line-up of visitors, from Taranaki’s Karen Clarke to Auckland’s Dirty Tones, Fatt Max, Gary Harvey and many more

And a final thing I’d like to squeeze in: next weekend, December 21, at the Mount’s Voodoo Lounge singer/songwriter Frances Ellen is bringing her band as well as improvisational titans Club Meds and DJ Pabtone. Frances’ debut EP, released earlier in the year, was a charming slice of indie folk/pop and Club Meds was a powerhouse at this year’s Loserpalooza. It should be a great gig.

Hear Winston’s latest Playlist: