David Keenan, Naomi Keyte @ The Gov, Adelaide 24/1/2024
David Keenan is a singer songwriter hailing from Dundalk, Ireland. After busking the streets of Liverpool, David moved back to Ireland and released his first album, A Beginners Guide to Bravery in 2020. He has since released two more albums, What Then? (2021) and Crude (2022). This is David’s first tour of Australia and is playing in solo mode.
First on stage was Naomi Keyte, presenting songs from her forthcoming album. Songs of loss, love and challenges life throws at us. She started with Circles and while been on stage alone with only a guitar, she captivated the whole room. The Gov can be a hard place to play as a soloist, especially as a support act, but she won the room over from the start. Greenhill, written in covid, and is about living with friends in lock down and the world getting very small as lock down drags on.
Naomi openly announces her respect and influences come from ladies such as Gillian Welch and Emmylou Harris. She even played two songs she wrote, called Gillian and Emmylou to show her appreciation of the ladies. With David Keenan watching in the wings, she dedicated her final song Travelling Woman, to David. “Yes, I know he is a man, but well, the song fits him”
Hopefully the album gets released soon as these songs need to be shared with the world.
David Keenan is not well known in Australia. The young man has released three albums on independent labels and has not had any “hits” in Australia. The show got moved from The Gov’s main room to the Front Bar due to small ticket sales, but the Front Bar was probably the right place for him, giving the show a nice atmospheric setting.
David told us early “I am going to let the music do the talking. I don’t want to talk shite between the songs” As it turned out he did “talk shite” between songs and we were lucky he did so, giving us stories of his life and how the songs came about. Leading into The Friary David said “I love The Gov. I am converted and I have the badge to prove it” There is a passion in his vocals and guitar playing that he held all evening. Boy Leaves Home was played to the comment “Seems appropriate”.
There were two microphones on stage, one to change the tone of his voice, which he used during Bless the Mad One. A sting of “older” songs (and I mean old as in 2018 and 2020) had the faithful calling out songs for him to play. And play them he did. James Dean (from a dream he had), Unholy Ghosts, The Groundskeeper, Lawrence of Arcadia and El Paso (“no not the Texas El Paso, but a town in Ireland” kept fans in the audience happy.
As the show wound to the finale, he stated “I am not going to do the whole walk off and walk on thing”. On Michael Street from the last album, Crude, was a thing of pure beauty and he told the audience “Mad Bridge it is, is not Mad Bridget, as many people interpret the song. “So, if your name is Bridget, don’t take offence”
Before Love in a Snug, David complimented The Gov as a vibrant place on a Wednesday night. “You have me in here, karaoke in the other room and a ukelele festival happening outside” he laughed. David had the crowd singing along with “Rain rain go away, come back another day” during the outro of the song.
With a thank you and “I hope to come back one day to Adelaide. Next time I’ll bring subtitles” he was gone.
Music is not always about just going to see artists you know and like. Sometimes it can be as rewarding checking out artist and bands you don’t know. Tonight was one of those nights. Three weeks ago, I hadn’t heard of David Keenan, now he is on my playlist.
As he makes his way around Australia, travelling in his van, “which has a diesel addiction, so please help by buying some merch”, check out dates for when he plays near you. You won’t be disappointed.
Live Review By Geoff Jenke