Darren Watson
Biography Darren Watson
Darren Watson
is a New Zealand singer, guitarist and songwriter known for his soulful blend of blues, roots and sharp-edged songwriting. After early success with Chicago Smoke Shop in the late '80s, he built a respected solo career, most recently with powerful and original acoustic blues albums like Too Many Millionaires (2018), and the Tui-nominated Getting Sober for the End of the World (2020).
Whanganui and the Hutt Valley are a long way from the Mississippi Delta, but they both have rivers, and stories. Singer, songwriter and guitarist Darren Watson grew up in these places and caught on to the blues as a teenager in the early 1980s, after seeing Muddy Waters in the movie The Last Waltz.
Watson was already performing blues and rock in high-school bands, but something in Muddy’s performance and guitar playing inspired the budding bassist (and trumpeter) to take up the electric guitar and develop his singing style. Buying records was out of the question for the teenage Darren and his mate Terry Casey, so in those pre-internet days they hit the Wellington Public Library blues section and took home supplies of Muddy, and the three Kings – BB, Freddie and Albert – stuffed tightly into green canvas library record bags.
