Harry Manx @ The Gov, Adelaide 2/3/2026

Harry Manx has been labelled the master of the “Mysticssippi Blues” and after witnessing his superb performance at The Gov, it is immediately clear why. Seated alone on stage with just an acoustic guitar and his signature guitar called a Mohan Veena, a twenty-stringed instrument (though Harry claimed twenty one, one-upping the sitar) that infuses traditional blues with a haunting, Middle Eastern warmth.

The evening began with a bit of dry wit. “It is really nice to be back in…” Harry paused, checking his palm as if reading a cheat sheet, “…err, Adelaide.” With the crowd already chuckling, he launched into Run on for a Long Time, followed by Death Have Mercy. Harry was not only a master with the music; the stories were also interesting and often funny. One does wonder if he blurred reality with fiction though on some of them. “I read my dentist had been charged with selling weed. I had been seeing him for four years and didn’t know he was a dentist. True story. Could have had my teeth fixed” being one of them.

With no set list, Harry played to his whims and also took requests from the audience, playing many of them. “Don’t be like the guy the other night who sang out, “any Bee Gees song””. Johnny Cash’s Long Dark Veil confirmed what was to become a recurring theme, dark songs about death and struggle. He told the story of his mother, who only saw him once, saying, “Very nice music, but did you have to sing about death so much?”. In honour of his mother, he wrote the song Make Way for the Living and played it to us. A request for Tijuana was met with the song being played.

Not afraid to tackle covers, he gave us a great rendition of George Gershwin’s Summertime, and played John Hammond’s Don’t You Forget to Miss Me in tribute of John’s passing the day before. Spoonful was rolled out although Harry commented “not sure that is the way Willie Dixon had in mind”

The show was advertised as two sets but with a “I was going to take a break, but I think I’ll just play on if that is alright with you” the blues continued, sometimes with harmonica, sometimes with just guitar on his lap. Harry gave us a new song from an album coming. “It’s funny” he told us, “I did my first album in ten hours, when I was forty six. This one has been three years in the making”, then he followed it with the song Bring That Thing from his first album.

An amusing tale of meeting Gordon Lightfoot was followed by “some blues roots” in Muddy Water’s I Can’t Be Satisfied. It was a cool evening outside but inside The Gov, the blues were hot. But all good thing eventually come to an end. “Thank you all for being here. This is my final song, Crazy Love”. At the end of the song Harry got up and made to move off stage, looking at the rapturous crowd. He sat back down with a “Thank you for the seated ovation”.

The encore was a gamble that paid off beautifully. Earlier, he had declined a request for Nine Summers Lost, claiming his kids had messed with the guitar’s tuning when he wrote it. “It sounded weird but beautiful, so I used it” Harry said. Luckily, he changed his mind and played the song.

Nine Summers Lost is perhaps the most beautiful, devastating song I have ever heard—a chilling account of nine children dying in a Canadian summer. While most artists choose to leave the crowd on a “high,” Harry left us with a tear in our eye, walking out into the cool autumn evening in a state of quiet reflection.

Harry Manx is a finely tuned machine. His blend of eastern mysticism and Delta blues is a joy to behold, and his anecdotes are worth the ticket price alone. The one hundred-minute set flew by; I could have stayed for another one hundred. Come back soon Harry!

Live Review By Geoff Jenke