Going to see Harry Manx is like having your brain massaged for a solid two hours including a break.
That’s what a full house at the Geomatic Attic, experienced Thursday, Jan. 19.
The Salt Spring Island bluesman played a really, really, really laid back show of original music as he played a variety of unusual instruments.
He began his show with a slow song to set the laid back tone for the night on his signature instrument— the two layered, 20 string east Indian instrument, the Mohan Veena, which had a hypnotic drone. He managed to make all of his other instruments drone in that East Indian style as well as he tapped out the rhythm on a couple electronic drum pads.
He alternated instruments almost every song incorporating a six string banjo, his cigar box guitar on which he had strung a couple bass strings and a couple of other guitars on which he was playing his unique over the fretboard slide. He didn’t say much in between songs other than to crack a few soft spoken jokes about banjos and the difficulty of tuning a Mohan Veena and to chuckle “here’s another cheerful song about death.”
He proved to be an affable host and was every bit the one man band as his fingers fleetly flew over the strings of his odd assortment of instruments.
His second set proved to be more of the same. One of the laid back highlights, Tijuana, not only blended the music of the east and west, but also the south. A lot of the second set included songs he wrote with Kevin Breit, with whom he has recorded three CDs. He switched to yet another guitar— a National Steel guitar, and quipped he always wanted a “shiny’ guitar when he was 13 and finally got one when he was 56. He wound down his night by playing and exotic version of Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m On Fire.”
