IT’S easy to overlook the fact that Worcestershire’s greatest musical export – apart from Edward Elgar, of course – is also a mimic without equal.

Yes, that’s right. For Bewdley-born boogie boy Mike Sanchez is not just king of the keyboard… he can also impressively impersonate any number of early rock ‘n’ roll vocalists and blues shouters.

One moment he’s Slim Harpo with Hip Shake, the next it’s Howling Wolf emerging from the grave with How Many More Years?

And then, with startling abruptness, those pounding ivories announce that Little Richard has just flown in from Macon, Georgia.

The Sanchez Christmas concert is now a tradition at the hall and this gig was packed with set list of festive goodies, eagerly snapped up by faithful fans from his old Kidderminster stamping grounds and elsewhere across the Midlands.

Sanchez loves every moment of it, too. Modest by nature, this doesn’t stop him unashamedly working the crowd. With chameleon speed, he can turn on the naughty schoolboy charm and then suddenly morph into a bulging-eyed bullfrog as he swaps the Severn for the Mississippi.

But whatever he does, the punters love it. He could record a 12-bar version of Baa-Baa Black Sheep and it would still sell like hot cakes.

These days, there is a touch of the Count Basie about him as the repertoire starts to absorb other period influences. He leads his band with undisguised affection and this is particularly the case when he introduces partner Sarah Wynne to the stage for a few numbers.

Ms Wynne – looking amazingly trim despite having given birth last month – soon proved that she is well on the way to becoming a great singer in her own right.

Elsewhere, Tom Bull on the silver strings perfectly captured the overdriven sound of the vintage valve amp, a muzzy and meaty period vamp largely ignored by most modern guitarists.

And all the while, the engine room of a horn section riffs away, like a freight train getting up a head of steam across the southern flatlands of Sanchez’s imagination.

The concert ended with an inspired version of Chuck Berry’s Almost Grown, a fitting tribute to an R&B icon whose legacy lives on… thanks to men such as Mike Sanchez who so tirelessly keep the flame alive.