BLUES by the water was a good start for the Bermuda Folk Club (BFC) as it resumed its monthly shows after moving from Trott Road in Hamilton to the Spanish Point Boat Club. Last weekend’s evening was well attended and even featured a new performer.

Mike Keats opened the show with four blues tunes, including his closing number by Percy Mayfield. With the crowd already warmed up, Mike Cacy kept the mood upbeat with a compilations blues tune.

His version of Troubling Mind wasn’t too shabby as he explained how this piece was originally a jazz piece but because of the lyrical content it was quickly embraced and accepted as a blues song.

Cacy rattled off several cover tunes, inclng A School Girl <$>before finishing up with a Jimmy Reid cover.

Another duo of the BFC alumni were Joe Bento and Kevin Ingham. This pair had enough material to carry the show on their own, but limited their set to three songs.

Known for getting the audience involved in the show has become a trademark for this duo as they performed the Otis Redding classic Sitting On The Dock Of Bay<$>. The audience seemed to be mesmerised by Ingham’s and Bento’s stage presence and forgot to chip in with the chorus! They seemed to go from strength to strength as they quickly launched into Summertime by the Mungo Jerry.

While it is an awkward to compare Jimmy Buffett to the blues, Bento and Ingham pulled off a stellar performance with their delivery of a Buffett classic and closed their swith Peaceful. <$>

The first female performer was none other than Jeanie Flath, who opened with an a cappella song before delivering a short but thoroughly enjoyable set.

It was back-to-back girl power as the artist formerly known as Val Wallace (now known as Val Sherwood) took to the stage. The audience was treated to All or Nothing Girl (Bluer Than YKnow) <$>which is on her debut CD.

The bona fide three huggers present readily identified with No More South Shore, which pointed out the overdevelopment of Southlands. The lines between music genres are becoming increasingly blurred. Sherwood rounded off her set with the inspiratil tune The Other Day.

Making his debut performance at the club was Ted Hankey, who was joined by Mike Keats as they gave an impromptu jam session.

Hankey was a solid solo performance and even crooned, much to the delight of the female revellers. Judging by the applause he received for his performance, one can expect Hankey to make a return performance.

Once again, Keats was doing double duty, both as a performer and master of ceremonies as he dug deep into his repertoire and performed a Muddy Waters tune.

His unplugged performance of ck Fish <$>featuring Tommy Smith was a decent offering as the duo rarely perform together.

In his encore performance, Cacy sang a William Dickson song and was in rare form and more than delivered the goods with a Tom Waits song as his closing song for the night.

Another surprise of the evening was a one-time appearance by Sarah Harries.

The silver-throated songstress from Toronto gave an a cappella rendition of Dance Ifu Want To<$>. Flath also gave an encore performance, which wrapped up a solid two-and-a-half-hour show.

Photo shows Jeanie Flath, who gave a rare encore performance.