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Menu Hors d’oeuvre: Andrea Ferguson Main Course: John Brightman, Mike Steele, Karl Svarc, Steve Jackson Sam Harrison, The Shantymen with Steve Lealand Dessert: Pot-pourri
It seems fairly quiet on this damp August evening but although Andrea appears a little tired – who doesn’t? – she’s looking happy and relaxed, which is always a good sign, and with a healthy selection of the crème de la crème of Lincoln’s musicians mulling in and around the pub, the evening is full of promise. So after some animated conversation and a couple of fags out on the patio, we pile back into the bar to let Andrea get us off to a flying start with a long-standing entry on her set list, the bouncy Indigo Girl’s number, “Closer To Fine”. Andrea follows up with her own beautiful “Passing Through” before rounding off with her usual lovely rendition of John Prine’s “Angel From Montgomery”. Guitar maestro John Brightman has been busy moving house and so forth recently and hasn’t been able to come down here for quite a long while. However, he’s made the 35 mile round trip to be with us tonight and it’s a real pleasure to see him back in the fold. John begins with a brand new composition, “Lady Emily”, which is actually still work in progress. He follows up with his first airing here of Harry Sacksioni’s “Uitgespeeld” before finishing of with a more familiar Sacksioni tune, “Blos”. Welcome back, John! Popular local chanteur Mike Steele brushes off a few technical gremlins to treat us to an excellent version of Robert Earl Keen’s “I Wonder Where My Baby Is Tonight”. Mike continues with Butch Hancock’s sing-along “She Never Spoke Spanish To Me” before he encourages even more audience participation with John Fogerty’s upbeat “Proud Mary”. Andrea has often joyously borrowed Karl’s “baby guitar” in the past and tonight she gets the opportunity to repay the compliment as Karl conjures a breathtakingly beautiful sound out of Andrea’s guitar as he blesses us with a sublime performance of his own “Let Our Love Be” and the gorgeous, poetic “Solace”. Strumming Steve Jackson is up next on his guitar autographed by Gene Parsons to treat us to a cracking bottleneck version of Huddie Leadbetter’s “Midnight Special”. Steve then switches to his strummer in G for another John Fogerty tune, “Bad Moon Rising”, featuring a magical performance on spoons by Steve Allen. Finally Steve takes us to the break with his own “I Lost My Hat”. After we have been well fed and watered by our ever cordial hosts, Sam gets us back on track with a fine performance of a medley of songs consisting of “Folsom Prison Blues/Who Do You Love?/Should I Stay Or Should I Go?/Not Fade Away/Won’t Get Fooled Again”. The evergreen Shantymen open with a rousing “Can You Dance The Polka?”. Steve Allen then performs his party piece, “Barley Mow”, which is a favourite of landlord Pete before the boys finish off with another rousing shanty, “Santy Anna”, with Steve Lealand providing a driving beat playing his laptop with drumsticks. When Andrea announces that Karl and friends are going to close the evening, you just know that you’re going to enjoy it. Recently, Andrea has expressed a desire to get back into a band, be it hers or not, and anyone who has had the pleasure of seeing her performing with Blazing Saddles or Urban Myth will know just what a mouth-watering prospect that is. For those of you who have never had the privilege, there’s a little taste of what you might be able to expect as Andrea gives her best impression of a gyrating rock queen as she and Karl punch out “Rock Me Baby”, ably accompanied by Steve Allen on bodrhan and Peter Spiers on mouth harp. You will seldom have the opportunity to catch Peter performing in public but he’s renowned as a talented professional photographer who can always be spotted at the local music fests capturing the artists and the experience on camera in between exhibiting his artwork. Karl invites Steve Jackson on his strummer in G and Steve Lealand on laptop to join in the inevitable “Knocking On Heaven’s Door” before Steve leads the pack into a terrific sing-along “Roll In My Sweet Baby’s Arms”. Finally John joins in on vocals as our fun-loving ensemble bring the curtain down on a fabulous evening of high quality entertainment with “Mama Don’t”. As our darling landlady Tracy would put it, just how awesome was that? |
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