HOW do you make an intimate gig . . . BIG?
Enjoy Mari Wilson in concert and there you have the answer.
The multi-versatile songstress was back in Liverpool for a rare concert to promote her latest album Girl About Town and (as she cheerily announced) 'do a medley' of her 'greatest hit'.
The 'hit' quip sums up London-born Mari very well.
She has a lovely, self-effacing sense of humour.
Mari stressed how good it was playing a city she knows well as she is married to a Scouser from Huyton - film producer Mal Young.
She said with a huge smile 'there's family in tonight.'
And that was the overall 'feel good' theme for a two-set gig where she took the audience on a journey from her chart entry hits of the '80s to the sparkling new album Girl About Town.
Her voice is as good as it always was and her stage presence consistently spot on allowing for banter between songs.
From giving Paul McCartney a shopping bag full of her singles to the joys of performing to those who want to hear her.
Her arrangements on cover versions are superbly put together and as she said in her exclusive Globe interview 'putting your own mark on a song' makes sense - why just reproduce the original?
Listening to her version of Twenty Four Hours to Tulsa the Gene Pitney classic is a revelation.
She sits down and - aided by her faultless four-piece band of top-notch musicians - squeezes every emotion out of the song's strange lyrics.
Keyboard player Richard is also her musical director and they communicate well with real panache.
Mari opened her show with two numbers from her new album: Spellbound and Good News - both songs foot-tapping and catchy.
Other tracks from the album were equally well- received.
Man About Town and Lost on the Dancefloor shows that she knows what makes a pop song.
Mari is certainly a great interpreter of songs.
Gerry Marsden's Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying, Petula Clark's Don't Sleep in the Subway and The Beatles' rocker You Can't Do That are all reimagined with style.
She also praised the wide-aged group audience for their chorus-singing participation.
Mari is a performer who cares about her craft and it shows in her commitment to putting in something for every taste.
Her 1985 hit Just What I Always Wanted raised the roof in the acoustically-perfect Music Room.
The diverse concert encompassed her 45-year career and closed with a beautiful, tingly Cry Me a River and a rousing version of Barry White's The First, The Last, My Everything.
Mari Wilson has the girl-next-door personality and she adds a genuine warmth in connecting with her fans.
It is a show where past meets the present and there's a soundtrack for the future, too.
Come back soon, Mari, your star shines on.
marilwilson.com New album out now Girl About town
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