The Ronnie Greer blues band
Ardhowen Theatre, Enniskillen
The G8 Blues? More like a G7 chord or two, as guitarist Ronnie Greer quipped at the theatre by the banks of the Erne last night just a couple of days before the world leaders descend on Lough Erne resort at the other side of Enniskillen for the G8 summit. Tax, trade and transparency were certainly well and truly off the agenda and in their place, JJ Cale, Keb Mo and Bob Dylan songs were pressed into action as the Greer band powered ahead. Greer, a Belfast blues institution who extraordinarily waited until he was 62 to record his debut studio album A Lifetime With The Blues just released, suffers from asthma and confessed he hadn’t been feeling too well. But it didn’t show. With BBC Radio Ulster jazz broadcaster Linley Hamilton on trumpet, Anthony Toner on rhythm guitar, Scott Flanigan on keyboards (who Greer plays a weekly residency with at Berts Jazz Bar in Belfast), Alan Hunter on bass guitar, Colm Fitzpatrick on drums and singer Ken Haddock joining to soulful effect especially on an excellent rendering of Van Morrison’s ‘Tupelo Honey’ the band seamlessly brought the blues “close enough for jazz” as Morrison himself put it on Born To Sing: No Plan B. With some strong rhythm from Toner on JJ Cale’s ‘Sensitive Kind’ and an equally accomplished vocal on Dylan’s ‘Blind Willie McTell’ Hamilton and Flanigan also delivered a sensitive reading of ‘Tenderly’ in one of the more pared down jazz settings. Overall Greer steered a path from Muddy Waters to Steely Dan with some ease and displayed the wit and wisdom of a natural bluesman blessed with an open approach and an ear for a chunky riff. Stephen Graham    
Ronnie Greer above