Auckland Bluegrass Club Wed 9 June 2021 7:30pm

Pete, Holly, Sue

The Skiffy Rivets express is waiting to transport you across the wide open spaces of Americana, along the way stopping at the small towns called Bluegrass, Old-time, and Western Swing.

Sometimes funny, sometimes poignant, and always entertaining, the Skiffy Rivets is a trio that has even caused Kiwi men to join in on choruses.

At the Auckland Bluegrass Club there’ll be floor performers before Pete Parnham, Holly Carrington and Sue Tearne show just what can happen when three people sing together all at once.

This is going to be fun, 

The Skiffy Rivets
Auckland Bluegrass Club
Wed 9 June 2021 7:30 pm Admission $10 cash.
Cityside, 8 Mt Eden Rd, (corner of Burleigh St), Grafton, Auckland 1023

Floor spots first half

Barebones Acoustic Folk Club Sun 1 August 2021 3pm

Sue Tearne (L), Holly Carrington, and Pete Parnham sing about the hazards of something or other.

It’s was well before Covid that Skiffy Rivets last played for Barebones, and they are excited about coming back.

When the Skiffy Rivets play, the good-time energy and vitality is infectious and you can’t help but enjoy yourself.  The zing comes from the trio of Pete Parnham on guitars and vocals together with vocalists Sue Tearne and Holly Carrington who make up the Skiffy Rivets. They only have three voices and a choice of guitars to work with, but thanks to their versatility and their material, a performance is a delightful journey through Americana, folk, bluegrass, and swing, that leaves you wishing it could be extended.

The band’s CD Elbow Room still provides great songs for the performances, jostling alongside new material for a spot on the set list. This is a harmonised performance that is well worth seeing and hearing.

The Skiffy Rivets
The Barebones Acoustic Folk Club
Sunday 1 August 2021 3pm
Auckland Irish Society, Rocky Nook Avenue, Mount Albert, Auckland 1022

Floor singers first half

Skiffy fine print for the Bunker 16 November 2020 8pm

If we look at little manic – well, it was an intense song, we were giving it everything.

You can dress it up in marketing metaphors, hyperbole, and poetic licence all you like, but we have consumer laws in New Zealand so here is the most important terms and disclaimer for the Skiffy concert at the Bunker on 16th November 2020. (Read aloud at high speed in chipmunk voice)


The Skiffy Rivets rely primarily on singing to achieve certain artistic and creative effects. These effects will constitute the entire show period. Entry is at your own risk and purely for your entertainment and no other purpose. Side effects may include, but are not limited to: rhythmic shaking of the limb extremities, issuing of involuntary musical sounds from vocal chords and flashbacks that may last for months in some individuals.

There! Now you are set…

The Devonport Folk Club
The Bunker
Monday 16 November 2020
Two-set concert begins at 8pm
$20 cash

The alert among you may have picked up that this event was deferred from 17 August due that sneaky virus.

Wellington Bluegrass Society 21 November 2020 8pm

Skiffy Rivets with Cathy Dyer on bass, Wellyfest 2019. Photo: thanks to Gerard Hudson, Musichaven Images.

Bluegrass Society founder Andrew Bicknell QSM says he saw us at last year’s Wellington Folk Festival, but the Wellington Bluegrass Society is a busy intersection of acoustic music and it took a year before he could fit us in.

Still, that’s given us time to learn new material – we’ve cleared the shelves for the new season’s fashion. While hardship songs are still here to remind us of stuff we should never forget, flippant songs about being ripped off/jilted/drunk/saved are as trendy as specially ripped jeans.

Meanwhile classic songs about love gone wrong never go out of style, while the range is topped off with a modest specialty line of songs that take the piss.

Much to our delight, Cathy Dyer has agreed to give us a bass boost for as much of the set as we can manage.

All this adds up to one thing – you just gotta be there.

Skiffy Rivets Concert
Wellington Bluegrass Society

54 Richmond Street, Petone
21 November 2020 8pm