Rough Town

With Emily Roughton and Tim Chia pumping out aural ecstasy on fiddles, Adam Ogle inserting a feverish, frantic groove on banjo, mandolin, and bodhran, and the inimitable Caleb Chia icing the cake with his smooth guitar rhythms, Rough Town are rapidly amassing an enthusiastic following, and invoking a possessive and patriotic pride within the NZ trad scene. Described as ‘the next celtic supergroup’, they’ve defined the first of New Zealand trad discos, closing out the 2021 Auckland Folk Festival with less of a bang, and more of a supersonic explosion.

Grasping the universal elements of dance music with both hands, and encouraging their audiences to bridge the gap between Irish dancing, ceili dancing, and club dancing, Rough Town is a continuation of the modern Trad Disco movement, drawing inspiration from iconic bands from the traditional Irish and Celtic music scene.