Mike Harding (folk musician)

Mike Harding is a New Zealand folk musician born on 16 July 1952,[1] now living in New Plymouth, Taranaki.

[2] Growing up in Eketāhuna, Harding practised his music in "the streets, markets and clubs of Auckland in the early 1980s", before he describes himself as having spent a "Time on the Road" decade all over New Zealand and parts of Australia and Britain.

[3] In 1998 he created his tenth recording, "Past to the Present", described by Radio New Zealand as a "20 track exploration of NZ from north to south, its people and places, past and present.

[6] Since about 1995, Mike Harding also plays on and off as guitarist of the Gumboot Tango band, appearing regularly at events like the Taranaki International Arts Festival.

[7] In 1992 he also wrote "When the Pakeha Sings of Home", a source guide to the folk and popular songs of European New Zealanders, described as important in raising the profile of a little-studied part of New Zealand popular music history.