Christine Collister showed just what a consummate professional she is, when she made a welcome return to Chequer Mead after several years away (it was also Acoustic Sussex' first time at the venue since the Folk South East concerts finished in 2004).

Building an immediate rapport with the small but appreciative audience, Christine gave an exceptional performance of songs as diverse as Cole Porter's "I've Got You Under My Skin" and U2's "Only to Be With You".  An excellent songwriter herself ("Always There" was a delight), Christine takes pleasure in presenting to her audience some of the best songs on the planet, such as Sarah McLachlan's "Full of Grace", Tom Waits' "Broken Bicycles" and Emmylou Harris' "Boulder to Birmingham".  

Whilst mostly accompanied by her own guitar, the sheer quality of Christine's voice shone through especially in three accappella numbers - the opening "Low-ish Time", Paul Simon's "Quiet" and, for an encore, the beautiful Christine McVie song, "Songbird".

As a re-interpreter of songs, Christine has few equals.  Don MacLean's "Vincent" and Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" took on a whole new meanings.  Another real stand-out was her as-yet unreleased version of Sandy Denny's "Who Knows Where the Time Goes", during which Christine's vocal performance was truly astounding.  

The girl can 'rock' too, as shown on the up-tempo "Lost and Found" and the bluesy "Kicking in My Stall" (which you can hear her perform live on Radio 2's Paul Jones show on Election Night, 5 May).  And the audience joined in with gusto on the Tom Waits' song "Dirt in the Ground".

A Christine Collister performance is hard to classify.  She has that rare gift of being equally at home with songs that might be considered folk, soul, country or blues.  But who cares about the label? This was music of the highest quality and a rare treat for the East Grinstead audience.  It's just a shame a few more people didn't turn out on the night.

Martin