Open Mic night at the Grey Horse (21 May 14)

I stopped writing about the Grey Horse Open Mic (GHOM) nights because they were becoming more routine than special. Then my diary stopped working in their favour and I missed a few weeks so when I did manage to get back there, after a meeting nearby, then it was a special evening again.

I got there around 9pm as usual but unusually I brought some people with me. One of them intrigued me as he was friends with many of the GHOM regulars on Facebook (as am I) but he lives in the distant South of the Borough so I was surprised at this.

We had been at the previous meeting together and carried on our discussions in the pub until the distraction of the good music became too much.

Catherine Paver surprised us, as she usually does, this time by starting with an unaccompanied version of a Bob Dylan song about death before hitting the more familiar Western trail.

Moth did what Moth do. There music is sufficiently different to add a new colour to the evening and also sufficiently approachable for that to be a comfortable colour.

Many of the artists were familiar to me but I do not think that I had seen Gemima Puddleduck Gallier before. I'm glad that I did this time though.

It was good to hear Maria Ahearn again too as she does not always put herself on the bill.

And Kieran Anderson always ends the evening well and gets the bar, including me, singing along to a Bluesy number.

Also as always the music was helped by the companionship and I spent the gaps between the songs talking to a host of people. It was another superb evening.