I heard a Rumer

We watched the Hootenanny last night in our now regular ritual of welcoming in the New Year. Jools introduced Rumer to the microphone and I felt a bit worried. Another woman singer who I'd heard of but had never heard. Would she be any good or would she be a member of that all too frequent band of women singers nowadays who sing all the right notes and far too many more besides? I should have trusted Jools' judgement, she was great. She sang all the right notes, only the right notes, in the right order and sang them beautifully.

I don't know who's really to blame for this trend in recent years to sing five notes when one will do but Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey must take their share of it. Why do they do it? Are they trying to show off some sort of vocal dexterity by singing so many notes? Or are they so rubbish that they think that if they sing five instead of one that at least one of them will be the right one? Whatever, it sounds crap to me and it's one of the many reasons I don't watch stuff like X Factor. It may be fine if you're on a Swiss hillside trying to communicate with someone in the next valley but leave that to Frank Ifield. Remember, Less is More.

Anyway, she may have looked as though she takes fashion tips from Liza Minnelli but what an absolutely belting voice Rumer has. I also enjoyed Plan B who I've not really listened to before so I'll be making a trip down The High Road to HMV in the near future.

On Thursday night we went to the ballet. I haven't anything to add to what Glenda has to say about it, so read about it here.