Brendan Dugan


Some voices have that intangible quality that makes them instantly recognisable. The velvety rich baritone of Brendan Dugan is one such voice. Most singers can't even think to the low notes he can reach, although his familiar tone evolved a few years after his television debut.

Fresh-faced Brendan Dugan won Studio One - New Faces as a 16-year-old in 1968 and became a star overnight. Within the year he moved from Christchurch to the big smoke of Auckland and was taken under the wing of a New Zealand entertainment veteran.

Brendan Dugan with Sony recording artist Dennis Marsh. The pair began touring a two-man show in 2014.
Gray Bartlett, George Hamilton IV and Brendan Dugan backstage at the Grand Ole Opry, Nashville, in the early 1980s.
Brendan Dugan's 1985 album Dusty Country Road on RCA
Brendan Dugan and Gray Bartlett participate in an impromptu sing at the Nashville ASCAP offices, early 1980s.
Photo credit: Photo by Dorothy Hamm
New Zealand artists at the Tamworth Country Music festival (L-R): Aly Cook, Kevin Greaves, Eddie Low, Brendan Dugan.
Photo credit: Aly Cook Collection
Brendan Dugan in the early 1980s
The cover for 'The Ballad of Robbie Muldoon' single, released on Family in 1975. 
Brendan Dugan, Grand Ole Opry manager Hal Durham, photographer/publicist Dorothy Hamm, Gray Bartlett and George Hamilton IV backstage at the Grand Ole Opry in the early 1980s. 
Photo credit: Photo by Cathy Martindale
A Lou Clauson note to Fullers Entertainment regarding his and Brendan Dugan's engagements and the need to reschedule country singers Ken Lemon and Rusty Greaves at Drury's Jolly Farmer
Photo credit: Phil Warren collection
Gray Bartlett and Brendan Dugan with Fort Worth radio personality Stan Knowles in the early 1980s
Photo credit: Photo by Dorothy Hamm
Brendan Dugan, Aly Cook, Gray Bartlett, 2014.
Brendan Dugan
Brendan Dugan at the Norfolk Island Country Music Festival, 2013
Photo credit: Photo by Ian Fisk
The second of Brendan Dugan's HMV albums, The Ballad Of Brendan Dugan, from 1970
A picture from the Dusty Country Road photoshoot
Brendan Dugan Smoky Mountain Rain (filmed for That's Country in James Hay Theatre Christchurch)
Brendan Dugan's Hands On The Wheel album from 1983
Brendan Dugan - Honky Tonk Heroes (Highway Of Legends)
Brendan Dugan and Val Elliott at Rangiora in the late 1960s
Photo credit: Val Elliott collection
Lou Clauson and Brendan Dugan, 1970
Jodi Vaughan and Brendan Dugan perform "If I Needed You"
Gray Bartlett, Jodi Vaughan and Brendan Dugan in the early 2000s
All This Time, released on Festival in 1992
Four Benny award winners and other friends celebrate Eddie Low's 70th birthday, Cambridge, 2015. From left: Gray Bartlett, Brendan Dugan, Dennis Marsh, Eddie Low, Kim Willoughby, and Tom Sharplin; at right are three of Rusty Greaves's 14 children: Michelle, Kevin and Lex.
Photo credit: Gray Bartlett collection
Fort Worth mayor Bob Bolen presents Brendan Dugan and Gray Bartlett with a replica key taken to the moon on a NASA mission. The pair presented the key to the Auckland mayor on their return home. 
Photo credit: Photo by Dorothy Hamm
Brendan Dugan, HMV employee Sally Alexander and radio presenter Warwick Burke at the Christchurch offices of HMV for the launch of Dugan’s debut LP for the company, Can’t Keep You Out Of My Heart
The Brendan On Studio One EP, released hastily by Master after Dugan won his New Faces heat in 1968
Brendan Dugan and Jodi Vaughan's 1982 album Fairweather Friends
Teenaged Brendan Dugan in Laurie Millar’s midget racing car, late 1960s
HMV artists in 1969, including The Avengers, Top Shelf, Simple Image, Quincy Conserve, Yolande Gibson, Steve Allen, Allison Durbin, Brendan Dugan, with producers Howard Gable and Peter Dawkins
A Touch Of Nashville, the final HMV album, released in 1971 and produced by Alan Galbraith
Brendan Dugan, Jodi Vaughan, Suzanne Lynch - New York Wine and Tennessee Shine (filmed for That's Country in James Hay Theatre Christchurch)
Brendan Dugan performing on the Grand Ole Opry, Nashville, in the early 1980s. Gray Bartlett is to his right. 
Photo credit: Photo by Dorothy Hamm
Brendan Dugan - Daytime Friends and Nighttime Lovers (filmed for That's Country in James Hay Theatre Christchurch)
Gray Bartlett and Brendan Dugan perform with Rhapsody in the early 1980s
Photo credit: Jimmy Ellyett collection
Brendan Dugan singing 'Do What You Do Do Well' on Studio One's New Faces, 1968
Guitarist Dave Maybee, Brendan Dugan and drummer Neil Reynolds in 2010
Brendan Dugan's debut album for HMV, released in 1968
Labels:

HMV


Master


Family


Mercury


Sailor-Boy


EMI


Pye


CBS


RCA


BMG


Festival

October 12, 1968: on page 18, The Press announces that "Chch Boy" Brendan Dugan has won the New Faces section of TV's Studio One talent show.

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