Gig review: Newton Faulkner, Liquid Room, Edinburgh

SURREY singer-songwriter and indefatigable champion of the risky white-man-wearing-dreadlocks look, Newton Faulkner has built a loyal following around a base of largely quite featherweight roots-pop balladry, with his recent third album Write It On Your Skin hitting No 1 in this country.

Newton Faulkner

Liquid Room

Star rating: * * *

To experience him at his best, however, the live stage is the place to do it.

Through a good value show of nearly two hours’ length, the lone Faulkner kept the packed-out audience entertained with just a selection of acoustic guitars and some cheerfully ingratiating banter. For example, when someone in the crowd hollered a request for Let’s Get Together he mooned back “there are other people here, it might get weird”. More rewarding were the involuntary and full-voiced singalongs that greeted signature tracks like Dream Catch Me and Pick Up Your Broken Heart.

The most resonant aspect of the show, in fact, was what was going on beneath the surface, namely Faulkner’s skilful and dexterous acoustic guitar playing, which was accentuated by his rhythmic drumming on the body of the instrument during songs including covers of Massive Attack’s Teardrop and Stevie Wonder’s Superstition, and a guitar duet with friend Ryan Keen on Reflections, which created a sound redolent of Nick Drake. “I don’t see why the combination of a man and an acoustic guitar on a Monday night completely rules out jumping,” he hinted during the raucous closing stages of the new record’s title track, and an artist and audience who were all too willing to put a smile on each others’ faces were once more immersed in their mutual love-in.