Mimi Gilbert x Ruby Gill at Grainstore Gallery Oamaru

Join us for an intimate one of kind show in Oamaru's own Grainstore Gallery with international touring artists Ruby Gill and Mimi Gilbert on a rare co-headlining tour. This will be a very special seated show, come with bells on!

DOORS 7:30PM

The first time Mimi Gilbert (Aus/US) really got to know Ruby Gill (Aus/South Africa) was on a canoe trip down the Murray River during one 40-degree Australian summer, where they came pretty close to dying. An enormous gum tree fell across the river 10m behind where they floated peacefully downstream - proof that the tree did fall in the forest, and terrifyingly comedic just like life. Mimi and Ruby - small bodied, opinionated, light hearted, torch-carriers of song - have been fast friends ever since.

Ruby is a brilliant songwriter with the ability to furnace sharp edges with their words and soothe aged wounds with their melodies. Mimi got their start toughening their craft as a street performer from age 15 to 23. The pair are now keenly dedicated to songwriting and traveling to share it, with an ability to work and warm almost any room and crack something open with song and story. 

Now the award-winning folk favourites are reuniting for an intimate co-headline tour across Aotearoa this January, flying south for the summer to Mimi’s old stomping ground, and Ruby’s new neighbour, to celebrate their respective new releases coming out this season. This tour is bound to be one not to miss - perhaps the only rare time the two artists get to share stories together and surely sit in occasionally on each other’s performances.

Join the award-winning songbirds for a profound and exciting series of shows in big and small places near you, each bringing their own flawless minimalism and unforgettable lyrical honesty to the table. Both of them would love to leave you a little changed from when you walked in the door x 

More about Mimi Gilbert and Ruby Gill 

For Mimi, this is a return of sorts, coming back for a fourth tour after 2.5 years living in Poneke/Wellington in their earlier career, when they toured and shared bills with the likes of Nadia Reid and Lydia Cole. For Ruby, this is an Aotearoa debut after much request for her to swim across for a show. The combination of Mimi Gilbert and Ruby Gill's magical voices and storytelling is bound to be an incredible tour, packed with caustic truths and intricate musicality.

Ruby Gill is from Mzansi, and has spent the last 8 years bringing even the most stoic Melbourne audiences to tears with her effortless musicality and powerful poetry, fresh off the back of supporting Angie McMahon in Australia at the Forum, whilst also working on her next studio album for release early 2025. First single "Some Kind Of Control", is out now. Her breakthrough single “Your Mum” reached well over 1M streams back in the day, with high-rotation from major radio stations like triple j, who said it “stops you in your tracks and demands multiple listens." And more recently, their Australian Music Prize-nominated album I’m gonna die with this frown on my face received significant global acclaim, including Port Fairy Folk Festival’s Emerging Artist of the Year award, Music Victoria’s Best Folk Work nomination, and The Times’ Breaking Act accolade. 

Mimi Gilbert, just having finished a support tour with Julia Jacklin and Angie McMahon in the USA, is from California and now spends their time between Melbourne, Australia and Los Angeles. Mimi Gilbert recently released single  "Police Checks", the first snippet of what is to come on their Sophomore album release later this year. Their most recent album Grew inside the water took Australian and international radio by storm, with Double J features and community radio support abounding.