Singers’ Night 3rd March
Eighteen performers from all points of the compass ignored the threat of snow and ice, and navigated to The Feathers to take part in this week’s Singers’ Night.
By far the largest contingent descended from the North (ish), with Penni, Glyn, Alex and Mat arriving from Denbigh. From Rhyl came Richard, Geoff and Tom Goodall. Tom and Lynda came over from Rhos on Sea, but the Long Distance Award this week went jointly to Colin Campbell and Mike Whittaker from Llandudno.
Sailing in from a South-Easterly direction was Ron from Wrexham, and from the West, Tim rolled down into the valley from darkest Clawddnewydd.
East…? Hmmm, okay. Well that would be Joe. He was actually the only person arriving from that direction. And on foot too! So I guess he gets this week’s Short Distance Award! 🙂
Others within walking distance included Harry, John Ryder, John Bass and Your’s Whatsit… Ya’know… Truly!
It was good to see Harry Robertson back at the club after a notable absence swanning around Europe with the lovely Mari celebrating their Golden Wedding AnniversHarry. Golden did you say? Yes… Golden! Well all I can say is: they must have been child brides!
And so it was that the Tom, Dick and Harry Band opened the evening with “Dimming of the Day” and “The Sound of the Speed of Loneliness” Harry and Richard taking lead vocals respectively, with Tom Degney’s omnipresence on mandolin and dobro, and John Rowell providing the most satisfying bass line throughout.
So many other great performances followed. Joe was “Crying on the Rain” (Everleys). John Ryder responded with “Cry me a River” (Ella Fitzgerald ) and Lynda insisted she was “No Stranger to the Rain” (Keith Whitley) although we know better!
Colin Campbell gave us the Eagles and Elvis and I doffed my cap to Cohen and Lennon.
Geoff sang John Denver’s “And You Say That The Battle Is Over” (written by Dave Mallett) and Glyn gave us “Gypsy Rover” (Leo Maguire).
Having already accompanied others variously on mandolin, dobro and guitar, Tom Degney flew solo to cut us a fine slice of bluegrass on his banjo.
Penni Neale took us up to the ‘beer break’ with a reminder that the Winter will soon be done by singing Gershwin’s “Summertime” followed by a beautiful rendition of Kristina Olson’s tear-jerker “Truth of a Woman”. Better in my humble opinion than the original.
The second half of the evening was opened by Alex who is fast becoming a regular at the club. We’ve heard her perform two or three times now, only on this occasion she was accompanied by her fella Matt on mandolin. Alex’s set included the lively Emilíana Torrini song “Big Jumps”.
Tim went diversely instrumental with “The Chicken” (Jaco Pastorius) on solo bass guitar before getting us all tapping our feet to a jaunty tune on his border pipes.
Mike Whittaker came up trumps again with two of his new compositions “My Old Man” and “In a Dream”.
Another fine song-writer is Tom Goodall and it was great to see him back at the club performing the powerful and poignant “How to Kill a Man Who Want’s to Die”. Then he ended his set with a great cover of Springsteen’s “Drive All Night”.
Then it was back to Tom. Richard, Harry and John Bass to finish the evening with a fab four song finale set comprising “My Old Friend the Blues”, “Walking Cane”, “True Love Ways” and “Drift Away”.
I really don’t know what we are doing to deserve such fabulous entertainment on our Singers’ Nights. But we must be doing something right, because you have to admit, you’d need to walk one hell of a long mile to hear so much talent, in such convivial surroundings, and all for a mere one pound fifty!
…Let’s do it all again next week folks!
Footnote:
The raffle this week saw a bottle of wine as the first prize and a double CD set as the second prize. There can be no denying, however, that it was the booby prize that brought the most pleasure …as you can see from the pictures above, sent in by the winner of the “Teddy Bear Fried Egg Mould”, Tim Eastwood.
How lovely to see the fun side of this feature being taken in the spirit that was intended 🙂
