MEET THE AUTHOR - GARTH CARTWRIGHT
Born in Auckland, New Zealand, Garth grew up in the working class suburb
of Mt Roskill, a place he describes as 'a total palookaville, nothing but
housing, schools, factories for when you finish school and rugby clubs where
you were expected to spend all weekend. No library, cinema, music venue, nothing
. . . a total desert.' Garth initially chased dreams of being a professional
skateboarder ('pipe dreams'), briefly sang in a punk band ('dire even by punk
standards') and trained as a boxer ('I sparred with David Tua who went on
to unsuccessfully challenge Lennox Lewis for the heavyweight title. But I've
got to emphasise that I was never ever a pro'. Not even a gifted amateur').
By the age of 17 Garth had taken to hitchhiking around New Zealand ('people
see Lord Of The Rings and say how beautiful NZ must be. Not where I grew up.
So I got on the road to see what was out there') and selling freelance stories
on music, art, literature, sport, the people and communities he met on the
road. Championing the works of such painters as Tony Fomison, Philip Clairmont,
Fatu Feu'u, Chris Booth and challenging the art establishment who traditionally
lorded the pompous and vacuous, Garth was subject to verbal and physical attacks.
He stood his ground, was awarded a Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council grant then
won two Qantas Journalism Awards - Best Junior Feature Writer and Best Sports
Writer (on skateboarding rather than rugby).
These awards allowed Garth to hit the international highway: landing in Los
Angeles he bought a rusty Buick Skylark for $600 and headed off for New Orleans
in search of veteran blues men, folk artists and wild times. 25,000 miles
later and after an extended sojourn in Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and Cuba
he settled in San Francisco's Haight Ashbury district for the winter. Engaging
with the local underground (this was the time of Gulf War 1), Garth experienced
a different America to that which ruled it before concluding there's only
so much USA anyone needs in a life and hightailed it to London. Work experience
on building sites (including The New British Library - 'I always knew I'd
write a book for the building'), factories, warehouses, restaurants, bars
and market research firms gave him an insight to the British class system
and provided funds for the exploration of Europe and Asia.
In 1996 Garth won the Guardian's Best Music Writing award with a feature on
Brixton blues man Errol Linton. He subsequently could be found writing for
The Guardian, Time Out, The Independent On Sunday, Daily
Telegraph, The Times, Uncut, Folk Roots, Songlines,
BBC Radio 3's website, Country Music International, Blues In Britain
and countless other publications in the UK and internationally. He has also
compiled and written sleeve notes for several CDs, largely on Union Square
Music. These include Country Outlaws; Johnny Cash Man In Black, Townes
Van Zandt The Very Best Of, Hank Williams Hillbilly Legend,
Acoustic Africa, Café Italia, The Incredible Music Of The
Gypsies.In 2000 he wrote a World Music Guide for Tower Records and in
2001 'A Little Bit Special': Censorship And Romania's Gypsy Musicians,
a human rights report commissioned by Denmark's Freemuse. In 2004
he wrote the introduction for Roots: The Gipsy Kings & Their Journey,
an acclaimed photo anthology by Lucien Clergue.
When not travelling Garth lives in a tower block in South East London, a place
he describes as 'impoverished and inspirational'. He is currently at work
on More Miles Than Money: Journeys Into American Music, a book that
begins at the 2004 Burning Man Festival in the Nevada Desert and heads off
through San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Joshua Tree, Tucson, Grand
Canyon, the Navajo Nation, Monument Valley, New Mexico, Texas, Tennessee,
Mississippi and Chicago's South Side blues bars. Garth describes his professional
status as "vagabond" and claims to cook a mean Macedonian casserole.
Read an interview with Garth and ask some of your own questions here
Read some of Garth's articles here
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