RHS ROSEMOOR, TORRINGTON (2009)
'NORTH DEVON JOURNAL' (June, 2009)
ELKIE rocks – end of. How so much vocal power can be unleashed from such a slight frame is an enigma, but, from the moment she takes the microphone, energy arcs across the stage like the national grid.
And here's another thing: how can this legend, with a lung capacity that could eclipse an opera singer, be 64? She looks good, sounds brilliant, and struts her stuff with a stance that is awesome and beguiling.
A set as slick as hers renders age irrelevant, but in introducing 'Pearl's A Singer' she reminded us she had been singing it for 32 years.
Then there was her mellow take on the first million-selling record 'Till The End of Time', recorded
by Perry Como "in 1945, the year I was born."
Years may have flown by but the voice is just as potent and the band is just as hot.
Elkie's songs embrace triumph over adversity, the emotions delivered in a bluesy voice that seems to understand it all.
There was applause for classics Fool If You Think It's Over, Don't Cry Out Loud, and the wonderfully uplifting Lilac Wine.
Then there were the surprises, band member Lee Noble's composition Why with the lyrics laced around the liquid notes of sax player Steve Jones.
The first half closed with Muddy Waters' He Moves Me – a blues number with a nice chunky tempo that exploded into flying lead guitar from Melvin Duffy, with Jones squeezing exquisite blues notes from the sax.
Tore Down blazed away – with Elkie punching the air to the beat like a petite pugilist.
The encore delivered Powerless featuring Elkie and keyboard, with us hanging on her every word, and ended appropriately with the triumphant We've Got Tonight.
We certainly did – and the standing ovation showed it was a night to remember.
