Bob McNeill

Bob McNeill is a New Zealand musician.  His songs have been covered by artists in NZ, Australia, the UK and USA.  New Zealand Musician magazine compared his songwriting to Bruce Springsteen and Mark Knopfler; the Dominion Post likened him to Jackson Brown, James Taylor, Luka Bloom and Dougie Ma­cLean.  His latest album, released in June 2024, is Lost Stars, an extended release on CD and download featuring new recordings and rarities.  He toured the album in July 2024 with his band Even the Lost.

McNeill made most of his mistakes in other people's bands before releasing a series of solo albums in the 2000s, two of which won Best Folk Album at the New Zealand Music Awards ("the Tuis").  His collaboration with Orcadian fiddler Kenny Ritch, Ben the Hoose, resulted in the album The Little Cascade, which also won a Tui.  In 2010 he released the retrospective Me and Mary Ann, and moved on to non-music projects.  People thought he'd died.

McNeill's songs visit people who've seen things, up close.  They sway on the horizon, sometime after the moment of decision, like the shellshocked divorcee escaping a fire in Jesusita, the washed-up musician playing bars in the Valley in San Fernando, or the disillusioned immigrant crossing back over in Where you can't see the border.  

Bob started Project Feijoa when he finally persuaded Emily Roughton to help him make an album of the Spanish-tinged songs he'd started writing while in California in 2009.  He knew he was going to need someone in a dress for this kind of work, and on the fiddle, well, she bangs it out.  He met Rob Henderson, well kempt but playing in a ceilidh band, and offered him a meal and a way out, provided he was prepared to play Spanish American Kiwi folk rock n'roll.  It turned out he'd have done anything.  

Bob and Rob also play together in 90s revival folk rock band Even the Lost.

For more information about Bob, visit www.bobmcneill.net