In the company of Patsy Cline — with Margot Sampson

Songs come and go and I've listened to a lot of them over the years — as you have. I've loved and continue to love many of them and there are several that I go to regularly, just to be taken to a certain time and place.

There's one song though that consistently sits at the top of my "favourite" list and nothing — so far — has been able to bump it off.

That song is Crazy — written by Willie Nelson, sung by many, owned by Patsy Cline.

Willie was a $50 a week song-writer in Nashville when he wrote Crazy and Funny How Time Slips Away around the same time. The singers he wrote it for didn't really take to it but Patsy finally recorded it successfully and it became an instant hit.

Margot Sampson is a Nova Scotian singer who toured for several years in a musical revue called "A Closer Walk With Patsy Cline." As she says in her profile, "I was fortunate enough to be one of only a few people who have received the 'stamp of approval' from Patsy Cline's husband, Charlie Dick after singing for him (and a frighteningly large audition panel!) which led to a number of opportunities performing as the legendary country/pop singer over a span of 16 or so years in theatres throughout Canada."

She no longer does that show but this weekend, she was performing at Neptune's Studio Theatre with a group of superior musicians and the songs of Patsy Cline made up the second half of her repertoire. During the first half, she paid tribute to a number of singers who influenced her from the time she was a small girl, singing into her hairbrush/microphone when she was alone in her family's living room. She sang Gene MacLellan, Anne Murray, Joni Mitchell, Carole King, Jennifer Warnes and José Feliciano.

Margot

Margot is a warm and likable performer with a powerful and melodic voice and it was fun to sit and relax listening to some familiar songs and enjoying the work of the experienced musicians who backed her up. She knew that most of her audience had come for the Patsy Cline numbers but she carried us along through the first half with some personal background, a few self-deprecating anecdotes, her childhood reminiscences. And some good songs, of course.

I enjoyed them all, some a little more than others. One of the most unpopular personal opinions I've ever shared publicly is that I'm not really a fan of Joni Mitchell. I know that she's a genius and her music and poetry are beyond compare and I accept that all the accolades she receives are definitely warranted. Her music is just not to my taste. (I don't like her as person either but that's a whole other story!)

I admire Joni's visual art and she once described herself as a "painter derailed by circumstance" so maybe my preference is natural.

I've always enjoyed the Neptune Studio Theatre. It's intimate and if you're sitting near the front, you're practically indistinguishable from what's happening on-stage.

But today, as soon as we were leaving, work crews were moving in to gut the place, rebuild it and rename it. I won't be using the new name any more than I use the new name of the Halifax Metro Centre — which I don't. It will always be the Metro Centre to me just as it will always be Neptune Studio Theatre. (This is a clue I've given you anyway.)

Honestly, I'm beginning to wonder if the day will come when we'll be travelling in Europe, meeting people from other countries and they'll say to us, "And where are you people from?" It may be that we'll have to say, "We're from Scotiabank Canada."