Opening the evening, Louise Hatch was a new name to me but I loved her set of mostly self written songs that had a very personal touch. Backed by Laurence O on guitar and backing vocal, and aforementioned Rob Bartlitz providing bass, her songs were performed with a passion and drive that reminded several people of Elkie Brooks.

The stand outs included “Turning Pages”, “A Flag On Every Hill” and the touching “December Man”, about trying to make an emotional link with somebody who’s proving too much like hard work. Louise has a congenital hearing loss, which means she wears hearing aids and has to be very sensitive to frequencies. Last night she was very fortunate to have an excellent sound engineer and we were all grateful for that. The sound was spot on throughout.

It was a terrific evening of music, in a warm welcoming atmosphere as both artists are worth exploring if you haven’t come across them before. Linda’s album is available through her website, or Talking Elephant, and Louise is in the process of recording an album that I think will be worth keeping an eye out for.

Tony Birch

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