If you have discovered us by accident, let me just say that Kokomo is a four-piece New Zealand band , based in the sunny east coast metropolis of Tauranga. We play music that is primarily acoustic, and primarily blues-based. We have released 6 albums - 2 of traditional blues, 4 of primarily original songs.

Where do you start with history?

The official story has the band springing from a performance at the Tauranga National Jazz Festival in 1991, when I was invited to play a solo set of blues and dragged Grant along to join me on the harp. And maybe it's true. I know that we played Dust My Broom and No Way To Get Along together, with me on my old 1930 National guitar, and were received enthusiastically.

I certainly remember us busking shortly afterwards in a shopping courtyard and Roger dropping by to jam on the bass. It felt good. An acoustic blues trio seemed like a good idea at the time so we put it all together formally as a band and, armed with 50 or so blues songs - mostly pre-war stuff, a mixture of Delta and ragtime - we set on the neverending tour that continues today.

The band name? Well, Kokomo Blues, as it was then, came from the Kokomo Arnold song The Old Original Kokomo Blues, (one of the greatest bits of slide guitar I've ever heard) - We've since discovered a number of bands around the world with the same name, but ain't that always the way.....

So we toured relentlessly, playing everywhere from the Kaponga Backgammon Club and Great Barrier Island to Auckland's Aotea Centre and a pile of festivals. That's pretty much how it continues to this day, though we do spend a little less time on the road now.

In 1992 we made our first album, The Old Original Kokomo Blues, very quickly and with no budget. Not ideal circumstances, but I've seen so many bands wait around endlessly to get everything exactly right, only to split up or just end up making endless demos because they're never satisfied with what they've got. Screw that I thought. Record it, release it, and if it's not perfect do another. All the songs were trad blues.

The second album, When In Rome Do RomeTracie De Jong approached us about a writing/recording collaboration and we got to make our "pop" album, Stromboling, with her. Still my favourite because I love her singing. Back on our own, To Be Or What (1996) ,, was a return to blues, but mainly our own songs, including a couple of instruments which gave us the chance to stretch out a bit musically.

Along the way we made a couple of videos, and won the occasional award. We have toured with a number of other people, most frequently Wellington singer, Marg Layton , under the banner "The Downhome Blues Revue". There have also been several radio programs made about our music and the odd TV appearance. Our music has also been used on various soundtracks, from soap operas to gardening shows and surfing videos.

Roger retired from the band at the end of 1998, so he could spend more time with his growing family, (he is now carving out a name for himself as one of New Zealand's finest sculptors) and as a mark of respect for seven years together we changed the band name to just Kokomo. Also the material had for a while been veering away from straight blues towards our own songs (which I'd officially define as "blues-influenced") and having the "Blues" at the end of the name seemed to constrict people's thinking.

Luckily, Nigel Masters, an old friend of the band (we recorded When In Rome Do Rome at his studio The Boatshed in Tauranga and he had toured with us as a keyboard player) was between bands and came on board to play bass. We went back to his studio to record Little Heroes, which was released in July 1999.

At this time Wellington trumpeter, Sonia Trappitt, who had been playing with us live on and off for a number of years, moved to Tauranga to live with Grant (those sexy harmonica-playing lips we figure!). She recorded her first songs with us on Little Heroes and officially joined the band in 2000.

2001 was our 10th anniversary, which we marked by releasing a limited edition (individually signed and numbered, 500 copies only) CD, Blues And Beyond, featuring a few new recordings and a selection of unreleased stuff and remixes from the vaults. It's probably the best overview of the various musical strand we've followed so far.

And that's enough history.