Simeon proves that romance is alive and well

Performer’s Night featuring Simeon Packard – 16th November 2012

Thanks to Simon for this week’s review:

I used to dread being the MC on a quiet night, struggling to fill the play list, digging into your back catalogue to make ends meet.  After the full house when Ann Duggan played the Red Lion it was inevitable that the following session would be a quiet one.  Combine that with the advent of Children in Need and at one point we thought it would be the quietest on record, but not quite and of course it didn’t matter a jot.
What a lovely night it was, demonstrating the very best relaxed spirit of the folk club with great music, audience banter and friendly heckling.  The atmosphere was so good even Geoff broke his long musical silence and once again brought us the comic genius of Ernie.  Pete, Paul and yours truly (I’m not called Mary either!) took our turns playing through to the break and it was probably one of the few times a folk club rounded off the first half with a Prince song.
The second half opened with Simeon Packard’s feature set and what a feature it was.  Simeon is an accomplished performer of John Denver and similar seventies romantic balladeers but it is only occasionally that he graces us with the guitar playing and voice of the Great American Songbook.  It really was a joy to hear a whole set of those classic songs performed in such a relaxed and competent style.  It was perfectly in keeping with the mood of the whole evening, soft jazzy chords and honeyed vocals.  After Simeon, we had another chance to hear Paul who broke with recent tradition and didn’t perform a Dougie song but gave us a great rendition of Carole King’s “You’ve Got a Friend”!  The evening was rounded off by Barrie and Ed in classic form with a short set including an interesting instrumental version of Greensleeves.  A great end to the night.