BLUES performers Gary Grainger, Bob Angell and the Tom Killner Band gave the audience night to remember.

Grainger opened with a fine acoustic set, just him, a guitar and the amps, and wowed the crowd with his rendition of Going Up The Country, complete with kazzoo solo and Stevie Guitar Miller's Gangster Of Love.

It takes a brave bluesman to warm a cold Yorkshire audience, however, he does come from Hartlepool.

Then came legendary Rhode Island bluesman and professor of English, Sir Bob Angell. A powerhouse performer, he came on with just a guitar. The crowd, buzzing, took to him instantly.

Masham had probably never seen the like of this 6ft 4in American in their town. Angell had spent a lot of the day holding court and telling stories with locals and tourists.

He played Cigarette Smokin' Women. Other highlights included Natural Boy, Trouble in Mind, Cold Cold Feeling and Dust My Blues, the last number beautifully played on the Junkyard Dog complete with an authentic American glass beer bottleneck slide.

The crowd could not have expected what came next. The Tom Killner Band hit the stage running. One of this country's most talented young guitarists, Killner set the stage alight with his rendition of Freddie King's When a Man Loves A Woman and Whiskey Haze, a song taken from his debut Hard Road album.

He invited Grainger and Angell to join him and his band to cumulate in a great crescendo of blues classics that really got the crowd on their feet. Howlin' Wolf's Killing Floor and BB King's The Thrill is Gone had to be heard to be believed.

Grainger took centre stage on the latter and his slide solo was sublime.

Jo Jackson