In October 2018, Ocean Grove musician Andrea Robertson, recorded her third independent album over two sessions with a captive audience in the arts space known as New Hall, Point Lonsdale.
The grassroots project included local creatives from start to finish, including local sound producer and engineer, Nick Huggins, who skilfully captured the audio that day, with Andrea saying the rare experience was “a beautiful, intimate, creative experience for all involved.”
‘Live at New Hall’ is the end result with 18 original songs captured live and echoing with the tones of someone who knows who she is; someone who wishes to share her sound and story, all bundled into a double CD – a suggestion made to Andrea by the late blues legend, Chris Wilson.
“It was actually Chris who helped me arrive at this decision by giving me some wise and valued advice – which happened on numerous occasions throughout my career,” Andrea said.
“This advice feels all the more precious to me now that he is no longer with us.”
The soulful acoustic album will also be released on vinyl and officially launched close to Andrea’s home town on Friday 17 May at Bouchon at Bellarine (Bellarine Estate) with Sarah Carroll as special guest artist, followed by a string of gigs around regional Victoria.
The live recording and double CD was made possible when Andrea was announced as the winner for the 2017 Queenscliff Music Festival Emerging Artist Grant.
Receiving the grant, Andrea thought back to her favourite albums – many of which she realised were recorded live. She was then inspired to capture that same energy in her release, admitting: “There is just a lovely, raw energy about them”.
“I wanted to challenge myself by approaching the next recording in a different way. I’d often thought that I’d love to do a live recording, to try to capture what I/we can do performing live.”
At the recorded performances, Andrea was joined by David Robertson (husband/drummer), Heath Robertson (lead guitar) and Tim Waters (double bass) forming a core four-piece band, along with musicians Matiss Schubert (mandolin/fiddle), Jack Meredith (harmonica) and Carolyn Davis (piano) who feature on select songs. Her daughter also joined Andrea for a song she’d written especially for them to be sung together.
This new release follows on from her debut studio album ‘It’s About Time’ (2014) and sophomore release ‘Remind Myself’ (2017). With this new release, Andrea has proven live is where her talent really shines – capturing the emotion and connection to family behind her lyrics.
“With a live-recording there is no covering up mistakes – you need to be incredibly organised yet able to roll with the punches,” she said.
“The live recording has exceeded my expectations. I can’t wait to share it with music lovers.”
