Last week one of my music heroes, Johnny Winter, died on 16^th July at the age of 70.  Almost a year ago to the day JJ Cale died on 26^th July at the age of 74, another legend in the music world. My all time music hero remains as John Martyn who went to the great gig in the sky in 2009 at the age of 60. Their musical legacy lives on however, not only in my own personal music collection but frequently we hear their songs covered at our Open Mic sessions at the Navy Club and at the Navigation in Gnosall by many of our local musicians. I have been lucky enough to have seen both Johnny Winter and John Martyn on several occasions and even hitchhiked from Stirling to Brighton (and back) to see John Martyn, a round trip of just over 1,000 miles.....he would have been 24 at the time and I was still in my teens. Every Tuesday I can take a 3 minute walk to the Royal Naval Association in Bellmans Yard in Newport to enjoy the up and coming talent who regularly support Open Mic. Eight out of the nine performers at this week’s Open Mic session were still in their late teens or early twenties and what a wealth of outstanding young talent appeared on a very hot and sticky July night.

John Minor was first on this week and rapidly gaining confidence playing a couple of instrumentals on electric guitar. I suspect Oasis is one of his favourite bands but the older members of the audience had their feet tapping to Slade’s “C’mon Feel the Noize”.

Zak Christie left his mark on several hundred festival goers at his recent appearance at NEWfest14. A more intimate venue on Tuesday night provided an ideal opportunity to play a couple of tracks from his forthcoming EP entitled “Stay Close to Me”.  A couple of lesser known songs by George Ezra preceded a wonderful version of the Beatles “Blackbird”. Beautiful vocals and fingerpicking guitar from this talented young man.

It’s been a year or more since Dylan Evans has been heard at Open Mic but his opener by Glen Hansard, “Leave”, reminded us what great young talent we have on our doorstep. Joined on stage by 17 year old Harriet Sutton-Green and once again choosing some great covers from Kaiser Chiefs and Nina Nesbitt’s “Noserings and Shoestrings”, newcomer Harriet held us spellbound.

Dan Walton first appeared at the Navy with his band Blue Tuesdays and still only in their teens surprised us all by playing songs from more than 40 years ago by The Who, Cream, Hendrix and Blind Faith. This week Dan played and sang on his own opening with “I’m One” from the 1973 album Quadrophenia, back to the sixties with “Waterloo Sunset” and back further still to 1957 and Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away”.

Claire Shaw’s version of Darius Rucker’s “Wagon Wheel” had everyone’s feet tapping and once again a good choice of lesser known songs and some of her own material made for a splendid set.  

Acoustic duo, Left on Hold, featured Dylan Evans once again but this time on ukulele and Tom Miles on guitar. Another cover I haven’t heard done before was Foster the People’s “Pumped up Kicks” followed by a Blink 182 number. Tom continued on his own singing “Superman”, the theme tune from Scrubs and Ed Sheeran’s “I See Fire” from The Hobbit soundtrack. Joined by Joe Rose singing Take That’s “Back for Good” the various mixes of Dylan, Harriet, Tom and Joe worked really well. All of them I believe are involved with the Musical Theatre Production Company but were on their way out the door before I could glean further information...I am sure they will be back before too long however. 

A fine evening of acoustic music was brought to a close by accomplished veteran of the evening, Pete Nihill, paying tribute to his friend Martyn Davis and oh, what transport of delight, 3 songs by John Martyn!  

So, lots of newcomers, lots of new songs and bags of talent keeping music LIVE!! 

See you next week.