Joe Harvey-Whyte
The Lexington, 3 September 2026
I was back in more familiar territory at The Lexington last night to see the lovely Lily Seabird, who was over in London to promote her new album Lightspheres On Their Way. Apparently this was her first time playing on these shores with a band, and what a brilliant way to see her for the first time as it was a truly electrifying show.
After the confusion of the Geese show and feeling a bit out of place it felt good to be going to The Lexington with its warm and intimate atmosphere. Plus looking at the audience I was truly back among my people and the whole vibe was friendly and relaxed.
There was supposed to be two support acts tonight but by the time I got to the venue only one was on the set times pinned on the wall: Joe Harvey-Whyte. I had heard the name before because he had recently supported Wednesday on their recent UK tour but didn't really know anything about him.
When he turned up on stage looking like he could be in a 70s rock band, with his long hair and denim jacket and sat behind a rather snazzy looking pedal steel, I assumed he was American but it turns out he's actually from London, and wow, was he good.
He began playing the pedal steel but ran it through dozens of different effects pedals creating strange and droning sounds that were completely soothing to my soul. It sometimes reminded me of Ry Cooder's work on the Paris, Texas soundtrack but with atmospheric sounds added in creating a really effective soundscape.
After the first song he talked about how he loved nature and would go out to enjoy all the sounds during which he had taken to making lots of field recordings which he then used in his songs. He demonstrated this by this time taking up an acoustic guitar and finger picking a folky instrumental but again using pedals to create ambient sounds with little flourishes of things like birds chirping and other sounds from nature. It was truly magical.
He returned to the pedal steel for the final number, again using the twangy and weeping sounds of the traditional country instrument and adding all these different sounds and effects for a beautiful transportive soundtrack, it was utterly beautiful and I loved every minute of it. It was so refreshing to see such a fantastic support and I really hope I get to see him again.
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