This is a fascinating musical document, based on actual people and events that occurred in our colonial history. You won’t believe your ears – or the incredible stories contained herein. The escaping Dunedin prisoner (1875), the pirate of the South Seas ‘Bully Hayes’, the teenage highwayman in Taranaki (1893)… they’re all here. Not to mention Dunedin’s William Larnach, west Auckland’s notorious Don Buck and Hine O Te Rangi (Jean Batten). Also Richard Pearse, “inventor, cellist, recluse”, and Amy Bock, “male impersonator, fraudster, adventuress.” So it’s rogues, rebels and folk heroes, and a truly valuable exercise, bringing all this history together in music. Complete with its own booklet, with original newspaper clippings etc. It’s macabre but engaging, not to mention educational. So much work would have gone into researching this and bringing it back to life, and we should be grateful to folk musician Chris Priestley. He is aided on this recording by the high calibre likes of Nigel Gavin, Jess Hindin, Brendan Power, Claire Robertson, Chris O’Connor and others. Recorded at The Lab with Olly Harmer, this really deserves to be enjoyed by more than folk club regulars.