Highway of Legends

When New Zealand country music icon and entrepreneur Gray Bartlett put together the ambitious Highway of Legends tour he could hardly have imagined the huge success it would become.

What followed was the most successful tour of its type in New Zealand music history, with sellout performances nationwide and a platinum-selling CD.

Award-winning biographer Dianne Haworth went on tour to learn about a unique group of musicians who sing about the simple things in life with gut-wrenching passion and emotion. Along the way, country music legends Patsy Riggir, the Hamilton County Bluegrass Band, Gray Bartlett, Jodi Vaughan, Brendan Dugan, Kimball Brisco Johnson and MC Martin Crump told her their stories.

The amazing life stories of Jodi Vaughan and Kimball Brisco Johnson are revealed for the first time, Patsy Riggir talks frankly about her nervous breakdown, Hamilton County’s Colleen Trenwith shares her anguish over the murder of her brother Robin Bain and his family, and Martin Crump opens up on the emotional rollercoaster of life as one of Barry Crump’s abandoned sons.

Highway of Legends provides an absorbing insight into the accolades, sweet successes and bitter disappointments of New Zealand’s legends of country music.

Dianne Haworth is an award-winning journalist and bestselling author of Tears in the Wind: The Lance O’Sullivan story, Father and Son: The Bob Kerridge story and co-author of Freda Stark: Her extraordinary story. Dianne grew up in the Waikato and Wellington and spent several years travelling before returning to Auckland and a career in journalism.