When a top class musical act comes to a small town like Ludlow, it’s worth making the most of it, and I went to see Paul Ryan and Kenny Clayton twice this weekend when they appeared at the Ego Bar on Saturday night and the Charlton Arms over lunch on Sunday.

Paul Ryan is the best British singer of the great American Songbook of the 30s, 40s & 50s that I’ve ever heard. His timing, the tuning and timbre of his voice (honed by a steady intake of unfiltered Senior Service) would stand comparison with any of the great crooners (Frank, Bing, Dino or Bennett). But he’s not just a Sinatra tribute act. Performing in a double-breasted suit, ex-Chicago c.1932, with dark hair swept back and a scarlet silk brow-mopper, Paul has the air of a musical ‘Don’. With features perhaps best described as ‘well caroused-in’, he brings a cartload of personal baggage and life experience to his delivery of some of the great songs of the last century, with his own distinctive interpretation of the clever, sophisticated lyrics of Jerome Kern, Ira Gershwin or Lorenz Hart which no X-Factor teenage wannabe could dream of achieving.

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