THE affable, acoustic-based music of Andy White was never going to have a profound effect on people's lives, and his songs are more apt to elicit a wry smile than a spiritual revelation. The Northern Irish troubadour played Dublin's Temple Bar Music Centre last Sunday night, and, judging from the size of the crowd, it would appear that Dubliners remain largely immune to Andy's easy-strumming charms.
White has a new album, Teenage, on Cooking Vinyl Records, and it's a tribute to the man's tenacity that he can still keep on trucking right through six albums and five different record labels. His touring band, The Spiritual Supermarket, comprises guitarist Thomas Walsh, bassist Robert Malone and drummer John Boyle, and they provide a workmanlike, somewhat uninspired backing
Acoustic Guitar sets the tone - and the intent, White's half-singing, half-talking Belfast burr hovering somewhere between Bob Dylan and Gallagher & Lyle. It's Gonna Be Like This All The Time dashes any hopes that Andy White is gonna provide anything more than mild, musical distraction, and Get Back Home fails to get any further than the middle of the road.
It doesn't get any better, although Last Day Of Summer delivers a small ray of sunshine, and when Liam O Maonlai joins White on stage to help sing a couple of tunes, we're right back in the silly singalong season. A pedestrian cover of Alanis Morissette's Hand In My Pocket offers some musical small change, but you'd think that after all these years on the road, Andy White could have come across some more enduring treasures.
