Don McGlashan has been weaving his stories for the last four decades, with three solo albums – Warm Hand (2006), Marvellous Year (2009), and Lucky Stars (2015). His soaring gospel song ‘Bathe In The River’ (APRA Silver Scroll winner 2006) sung by Hollie Smith, has become one of the biggest New Zealand singles of all time and has recently had a resurgence via the te reo Māori version, ‘Kōrukutia’, released earlier in 2021.
McGlashan first stepped into the limelight as drummer and lead singer in the 80’s agit-punk outfit Blam Blam Blam, which produced a string of Top 20 singles and a well-loved album Luxury Length. Don’s hit song ‘Don’t Fight It, Marsha, It’s Bigger Than Both Of Us’ won Song Of The Year in the 1982 NZ Recording Industry Awards.
Next, McGlashan co-founded the acoustic duo, The Front Lawn, with Harry Sinclair. Combining theatre, songs and much humour, they found fans the world over, and their 1987 album Songs From The Front Lawn was the soundtrack for a generation of young Kiwis getting lost around Europe in their Kombi vans.
McGlashan’s place in the Great Aotearoa Songbook further solidified as, fronting The Mutton Birds, he created a string of now iconic Kiwi anthems including ‘Anchor Me’ (APRA Silver Scroll winner 1994), ‘Dominion Road’ (1992) and their inspired cover of The Formyula’s ‘Nature’ (1992).