WHEN Flossie Malavialle took to the stage at The Courtyard on Thursday evening, she redefined charm - because what could be more charming than a Frenchwoman speaking fluent English with a strong Geordie accent (she arrived on a teaching exchange and liked it so much she stayed) and an infectious laugh? And that’s before she opened her mouth to sing.

What followed was a set that featured the emotional power of Piaf - La Vie en Rose and Je Ne Regrette Rien - contrasting with equally powerful, but at the other end of the spectrum, rock like Bonnie Rait’s Road’s My Middle Name and Marilyn Middleton’s Wild Women.

And it’s in the song choices and the extraordinary range of material she gives her audience that Flossie really delivers, from the familiar to the less well-known, from mainstream popular numbers to folk classics, opening with the Jackson Browne-penned Peaceful Easy Feeling and ranging through The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, both of which offered the chance for a little audience participation in the choruses, heartbreaking songs like Janis Ian’s Getting Over You and Starrett and Laird’s John Condon, before sending her very happy audience home with Janis Joplin’s Oh Lord, Won’t you Buy me a Mercedes Benz ringing in our ears.

Flossie will be back in the area in September, playing at the Bromyard Folk Festival. For full gig details, visit flossie-malavialle.co.uk