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	Eddie Low
			A Voice In A Million One of the outstanding attractions of Joe Brown's Country and Western Stage Shows at the beginning of the 70s was Maori ballad singer Eddie Low.  Billed as the "voice in a million", he not only possessed vocal talents, but was master of an impressive variety of musical instruments, including piano, trumpet, flute, most of the brass instruments, guitar, string bass, violin and piano accordion, making him one of New Zealand's most versatile entertainers.  An amazing achievement considering Eddie is only partially sighted.  Eddie was born totally blind on May 14th, 1945, and spent much of his childhood at the Blind Institute in Auckland.  While there he developed his musical talent, becoming a member of the Institute Band and winning a number of talent quests.  When Eddie was 12 he underwent a series of operations which gained him partial sight in his left eye.  For a brief time in the early 60s Eddie joined the Sundowners, and later The Truetones before moving on to become a member of the Quin Tikis showband which toured as part of the annual Miss New Zealand extravaganza and also with Joe Brown's Country and Western Stage Show.  When Eddie decided to go solo, Joe signed him up to his record label.  In 1970 he began releasing songs that he had been singing very successfully on tour, and a vaste amount of material followed as Eddie's career built.  He also started to get work outside of New Zealand, and had a very successful week at the Isa Lei Hotel in Suva, Fiji.  Eddie's reputation was growing overseas and in October 1972 he was invited to Nashville by the Country Music Association of America.

	Whilst in Nashville he took part in the Grand Ole Opry birthday celebrations and received an opportunity to record a single with Chart Records and entered the RCA Studios in Nashville to record.  He returned to Nashville in 1973 and continued to wow the audiences.  He was then invited to tour Canada extensively for six months.In the late 70s Eddie moved to Australia to live, and regularly appeared there on the club scene as well as radio and television.  In 1980 he signed a new recording contract with RCA and between 1980 and 1984 released a further eleven singles for them, along with five albums.
(This background information on Eddie Low is mostly from Bruce Sergent's pages - photo from the Johnny Campbell and The Detours reunion, May 2009)