Mike Harding is a well-known[1] New Zealand folk musician born in 16 July 1952,[2] now living in New Plymouth, Taranaki.[1]
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Growing up in Eketahuna, Harding practised his music in "the streets, markets and clubs of Auckland in the early 1980s", before he describes himself as having spent a "Time on the Road" decade all over New Zealand and parts of Australia and Britain.[3] In 1998 he created his tenth recording, "Past to the Present", described by Radio New Zealand as a "20 track exploration of NZ from north to south, its people and places, past and present."[1] and his first record available on CD. In 2008, he followed it by "Here we have a land", with a selection of New Zealand folk songs and his own original creations.[3]
Mike Harding has played at the Auckland Folk Festival several times, especially in the 1990s,[4] was a top performer at the Marlborough Folk Society's concerts in Blenheim,[5] as well as playing at other music festivals like New Plymouth's "TSB Bank Festival of Lights".[6] Since about 1995, Mike Harding also plays on and off as guitarist of the Gumboot Tango band, appearing regularly at events like the Taranaki International Arts Festival.[7]
In 1992 he also wrote "When the Pakeha Sings of Home", a source guide to the folk and popular songs of New Zealand, described as important in raising the profile of a little-studied part of New Zealand popular music history.[8][9]