Kenny White, The Hatch Studio, Lindridge, Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire, 23/05/2013

New York born and based singer/songwriter Kenny White seems to relish his regular visits to the beautiful Worcestershire countryside. Tonight was the second and final night of a short residency at The Hatch, the rural recording studio owned by guitarist Ben Salmon. 

White has performed at The Hatch before, I first encountered his music there back in June 2010, and he has made a more recent visit to the nearby Tarc Gallery and Restaurant at nearby Stanford Bridge. Both shows are reviewed elsewhere on this site.

On both his previous visits White was supported by locally based singer/songwriter/guitarist Deborah Rose (nee Hodgson) but tonight’s performance was different with White playing two full sets and being joined periodically by various friends, Rose on vocals, Julia Nuti on viola and Remi Harris on guitar. The change of format made for a pleasant and effective change with the friends adding an extra dimension to songs that had already received an airing at White’s previous shows.

A fairly late recruit to the solo singer/songwriter ranks White spent many years as a session pianist before taking the plunge to concentrate on his own material. He’s since delivered two EPs and three full length albums, all featuring quality song writing and strong performances. Piano remains White’s first instrument but he also accompanies himself on guitar and harmonica in Dylan-esque fashion. Hard to categorise his music embraces several American genres including folk, jazz and rock.

He began tonight’s performance seated at an electric piano for the song “Until You Learn (To Give Your Heart Away)”. White’s songs are a beguiling mix of hard won, hard boiled street wisdom and a surprisingly tender vulnerability. He’s a sharp and clever lyricist who is able to move adroitly between cynical humour and genuine pathos. His singing voice, a kind of stylised New York drawl is perfectly suited to his material and serves it well in the manner of a Randy Newman or a Bob Dylan. None are classically “good” vocalists but their singing voices are a perfect fit for their own songs. And so it proved for “Until You Learn ” with Nuti’s viola providing excellent punctuation and adding a suitably melancholy edge to White’s reflective lyrics.

For “Last Drop” White switched on a beat box to simulate the chatter of “portable Sony’s” on a New York night bus. White is also a great observer of humanity at large and its collective foibles and this was a sharply drawn portrait of a less than glamorous side of his native city. Nuti again provided sensitive accompaniment but the musical highlight was an exuberant piano solo, White is   an excellent technician, particularly on his first and preferred instrument.

Many of White’s songs contain repeated phrases, one such “list” song being “Out Of My Element” , a chronicle of post relationship disorientation that manages to be clever, funny and sad all at once. Perhaps appropriately it was performed solo by White at the piano.

White switched to guitar for “Call Me When You’re On Your Way”, a song that tackled a serious subject (his widowed mother’s Alzheimers) in an amusing and engaging fashion. Another guitar song, “Might As Well Leave” addressed a failing relationship in typically world weary fashion.

Remaining on guitar White called Deborah Rose to the stage to sing “From Boulder To Birmingham”, a song written by Bill Danoff and Emmylou Harris and originally performed by the latter. Rose’s soulful, subtly blues inflected vocal was substantially different to the pure, folk tinged tones she deploys on her own material. Here was evidence of her growing versatility and maturity as a singer and interpreter of tunes. White added backing vocals and extra texture also came from Nuti’s viola. 

Back at the piano White treated us to the dark humour of “But Never Like This”, written in the aftermath of 9/11 before introducing Remi Harris who provided tasteful guitar accompaniment to the excellent “What Good Would That Do Me Now”, White’s inspired attempt to write a song in the style of the jazz standards of the 1940’s.

To close the first half White and Harris gave us the often uproarious “She’s Coming On Saturday”, a tale of a mismatched couple with some great one liners and a good example of White’s often mordant wit. It’s something that also finds it’s way into White’s between tunes patter, his repartee is frequently almost as entertaining as the songs themselves.

One of the things that I like about White is that he sings songs from the point of view of his own age, he’s no longer a young man and doesn’t try to adopt the persona of one for either song writing or performance. It’s a surprisingly rare quality. Thus the opening song of the second set “Carry You Home”, sung by White at the piano is a polysyllabic rant lampooning many modern mores and having an undisguised pop at contemporary American youth. With its verbose outpourings the song could be said to be White’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues” but the verbal dexterity isn’t a million miles away from modern rap, ironically something one senses White probably despises.

By way of contrast the succinct lyric of “Last Night” is the model of economy. Its fourteen lines make it a sonnet but it also possesses the wisdom and simplicity of a haiku. Again sung by White at the piano the song was given extra poignancy by the viola playing of Nuti, the notes coming unexpectedly from the back of the room giving a remarkable “stereo” effect. Still playing, the young Italian advanced slowly through the audience to join White on the rudimentary “stage”. This was haunting and remarkably effective, an extraordinary piece of musical theatre in such a small and intimate space.

White moved to guitar and harmonica for “Letter From X Ray”, a poignant song sung from the point of view of a combatant on the front line. Originally written for a Mel Gibson film about Vietnam it still has a contemporary resonance; think Iraq, Afghanistan etc.

“Who’s Gonna Be The One” was another guitar tune, a kind of twisted love song that managed to throw in a name-check for jazz hero John Coltrane which was absolutely fine by me.

A return to the piano for White to execute the sharp social observation of “Five Girls” before the return Of Deborah Rose to sing “Love Has No Pride”, written by Libby Titus and Eric Kaz. Again this was an illustration of the more soulful side of Deborah Rose. Meanwhile the ever informative White revealed that Titus is the former partner of the late Levon Helm of The Band and is now married to Donald Fagen of Steely Dan.

White completed his set at the piano with two of his best loved compositions, the engagingly rambling “In My Recurring Dream” and “Symphony In Sixteen Bars”, the latter a tribute to his late father and the title track of his 2004 album. Tonight “Symphony” was presented in shortened form, still moving but more economical.

A small but attentive audience gave him a great reception and he chose to encore on guitar with “Tender Ghosts Of Autumn” with Nuti’s sombre viola adding to the pathos of the lyrics.

This still wasn’t enough for the audience so White bowed out on a lighter note with “Sing High”, a hugely funny take on the blatant commercialism of the music business that contained a thinly veiled pop at James Blunt and his ilk. It’s rather ironic that given the nature of its targets this tune is probably White’s “biggest hit”.

Despite the unseasonably chilly May weather this had been a typically heart warming evening in the company of Kenny White, the different format and the contributions of the various friends helping to put a new twist on the music.

White is a substantial talent and in many ways it’s surprising that he’s not better known. As a lyricist he’s worthy of comparison with Paul Simon and Tom Waits plus the previously mentioned Newman, Dylan and Fagen. On the other hand, and rather selfishly,  I’m really rather glad that he’s still something of a “cult artist” because it gives listeners the opportunity to enjoy his highly personal performances in intimate settings such as this.   

       

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