Andy White – How Things Are In Adelaide – Live At The Trinity Sessions – Review

Church of the Trinity, Fri 8 Apr

By this writer’s reckoning, it’s been a tick over seven years since Andy White last played in Adelaide. After gigging here more than 10 times between 2003 and 2009, White has taken a bit of a break from performing in the City of Churches.

It’s not that he hasn’t been busy. Over the course of the last few years White has released two books, numerous albums, EPs and singles and has continued his seemingly relentless intercontinental touring regime.

Understandably, then, it is with a great deal of pleasure and anticipation that the dedicated Trinity crowd receives the Belfast-born troubadour. Joe Man Murphy has provided a most excellent support spot, and now it is time for the main event.

Roger Freeman, who, along with his hard-working crew of volunteers, has done so much to put the Trinity Sessions on the map, introduces White to the stage. The set kicks off with James Joyce’s Grave. This song seems to have been around forever, yet it is a joy to see and hear White playing it again. He is his usual affable and disarming self, saying that his mum is delighted that he is playing in a church, and praising the hot dogs that are on sale. Another well-known number that goes back even further, 1986’s Religious Persuasion, comes next. The acoustics, as is usual for this venue, are superb; White seems incredibly pleased with the sound quality.

The set moves into newer territory with a selection of songs from How Things Are, his latest album. Separation Street and You Got Me At Hello showcase the same level of quality and feeling as the rest of White’s canon. He urges the audience, or choir, if you will, to join him on the chorus of If You Want It. It’s a nice moment.

White switches from his six-string guitar to his Maton Mini 12-string at regular intervals, blows his harmonica and uses the odd pedalboard effect to augment his performance. His stories behind the songs are brief but meaningful; it’s impossible not to be drawn in.

The beauty and poignancy of songs like The Valley Of My Heart and Italian Girls On Mopeds is matched by the pointedness of his recent single Dignity and the lyrically peerless Speechless. Much like Billy Bragg, White is a master of blending the thoughts and feelings emerging from his head and his heart.

After eleven songs that have passed all too quickly, White bids the audience farewell before being coaxed back onto the stage for one more song, the wonderful Last Day Of Summer. It is a fitting end point to what has been a fabulous evening.

This is Andy White in top form; let’s hope it isn’t another seven years before Adelaide once again has the pleasure of his company.

David Robinson

Setlist:

1. James Joyce’s Grave (Out There, 1992)
2. Religious Persuasion (Rave On Andy White, 1986)
3. Separation Street (How Things Are, 2014)
4. You Got Me At Hello (How Things Are, 2014)
5. Vision of You (Rave On Andy White, 1986)
6. The Valley of my Heart (Songwriter, 2009)
7. If You Want It (Songwriter, 2009)
8. Dignity (single, 2015)
9. Italian Girls on Mopeds (Boy 40, 2003)
10. Speechless (Speechless, 2000)
11. Shakespeare Take My Hand (How Things Are, 2014)
12. Last Day of Summer (Speechless, 2000)