LITTLE GEORGIA

Smith Alternative (Canberra)

7 January 2018

(Live Review)

Reviewer – Benjamin Smith

Sunday afternoon in January, it’s the perfect time to find your way into a bar the size of your living room and settle into the sounds of countrified duo Little Georgia. Combining the fuzzed out riffworks of Justin Carter and the impossibly soulful vocals of Ashleigh Mannix, LG do a folky, bluesy, grimy country thing that on record makes for pretty rootsy listening.

On stage though, the songs really come alive. Much of that life can be attributed to the presence Mannix brings to her performance. She doesn’t say a lot in between numbers but when the music starts she digs deep and finds something that speaks to a depth that betrays her youth. Carter too, who comes across as pretty laid back, manages to wrestle real warmth from the old Fender he plays, and when he trades that for a hollow-bodied semi-acoustic the sound is something magical. It should also be noted that their sense of harmony and the genuine connection between them makes for something exciting to watch.

They play for about two hours and Carter tells folksy stories about their time in Nashville and the experience of cutting their record ‘Bootleg’, released about a year ago, as well as the new one which is currently being mixed. If his humble, aw shucks country boy thing isn’t 100% bona fide then the guy should move to Hollywood because it sure as hell seems real.

In a place like Smith’s Alternative, which is filled to capacity to see Little Georgia play, there is really no place to hide. There is no buffer between the audience and the performer. There is an intimacy to what happens there that very few places can match. Some performers negotiate the challenges of this dynamic better than others. In the case of Little Georgia, Carter and Mannix’s sincerity, the quality of the songs and the intensity in their execution mean that what can sometimes be the undoing of perfectly competent acts becomes an asset, a heightening element of the act.

They’re looking at a release sometime over the next few months, which hopefully means they’ll be out on the road for some time to come yet. If you can find a chance to see one of their shows in a venue that does them justice, do yourself a favour and take it. You’ll be glad you did.

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AMNPLIFY – DB

Dave Bruce

My nickname is “The Amnplifier”. Why? Because around here my focus is on being a conduit for providing greater outcomes that people come here for. My day to day “work” is living in the moment, and I love helping others concentrate on finding their connection to themselves through their experiences.

Why start a music environment? The truth is I love music, I love writing, and I love life. I work with musicians every day, and I feel certain that I will be until they put me in the ground. I have been managing people in businesses of some sort for over thirty five years so along the way I have developed some “wisdom” from my regular and constant “observations”.

Amnplify your experience. That is what we want you to do here, and if you want to let me know why you do, or don’t, shoot me a message on Facebook.

Hope you enjoy yourself here and find something that hits you somewhere.