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Nick Krieg.
 Nick Krieg may not yet be a household name on par with the John Butlers, Xavier Rudds or Caruses of this nation, but his rootsy music has scored the Port Lincoln native a berth on the WOMADelaide bill.
"I'm not really known, but that's not to say I haven't been doing it for a while," he chuckles. "I've been in and out of bands for 15 or 20 years I suppose, and with the solo thing I've been doing it over the last ten years or so - more out of necessity because sometimes it's not possible to find people to work with."
I suggest that his location is possibly working against him in terms of having a diverse pool of musical talent. "Well, Lincoln's my current base and it's my hometown, but I've worked in Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane, Sydney a little bit, Singapore - so I've done quite a bit of work over the years, but to date nothing's reached as great fruition as this latest opportunity."
Said opportunity came about courtesy of his home-recorded (and spoonerismally-titled) album 'Cupid Stunt'.
"It's like a backyard job," he explains. "I just pressed 500 copies because I figured I could probably flog a few off here in Lincoln: people had been coming up at gigs and saying 'do you have a CD? You should record that,' so I thought 'bugger it, I'll record a heap of tunes and make a disc,' and then thought I'd send a few off to recording companies and the like, and I saw WOMAD's address and though 'oh yeah, I'll do that'. Then about three or four months later they called, and I actually had to call them back two days later just to check that I wasn't dreaming," he laughs.
While the disc is more a "good quality demo" than a proper album, Krieg is rightly proud of the material thereon. "What's on the CD is stuff that I've written fairly recently. About three years ago I playing lap-steel guitar, which I find a really useful compositional tool, and that resulted in quite a lot of tunes.
"The person who inspired to me to start doing this was a guy called Harry Manx: I was watching ABC one night 'Live At The Basement' came on and there he was, and I thought 'who-ho, there's a big sound from one instrument!'' So I whacked in a video, taped the show and spent the next couple of days modifying a guitar that I had, and then the next couple of months basically teaching myself that style that he plays. And it's quite coincidental that that style [blues/roots] is quite popular at this point in time - it's just a coincidence. Anyway, I don't really view Harry Manx's style as having much to do with that Jack Johnson/Ben Harper kinda vibe."
When conversation turns to his hopes for the day, he's modest about his aspirations. "I'm really hoping there's be some people there on the day, but I should be right," he muses. "I mean, with the solo thing you've really just got to rely on yourself and at the end of the day, that's what I've decided that I'll do."
Andrew P Street
 | Nick Krieg performs on Sat 11 March |
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