Dennis Marsh and the Dennis Marsh Showband

Waikato Times Review
What: Dennis Marsh and the Dennis Marsh Band
Where: Perfume Garden, Hamilton Gardens
When: Sunday 1st March, 2009
Entry: $15
Reviewed by: Karla Akuhata
I have never been a Dennis Marsh fan. In fact I am not even a fan of country music, but I walked away from Sunday's concert with his CD tucked into my handbag and happily humming Seven Spanish Angels.
I will tell people I brought the CD because Marsh reminds me of my grandmother who passed away last December but, if truth be told, I was swept away by the Maori cowboy crooner and wanted to take home a momento of my time with him.
The consummate professional, Dennis had the crowd in the palm of his hand from the moment he bounded out on to the stage to his very last note.
With the rain from the night before all but a memory, the sun was blazing by 4pm and the crowd was ready to be entertained.
They weren't dissappointed.
Dennis started with a medley of Elvis Presley songs that had both me and my two-year-old son tapping along like we were old-time members of the Manurewa Country Club - my grandmother would have been proud.
And even though he is probably at least 50 years younger than the average age of a Dennis Marsh fan, by the time Have a Maori Hangi started my little boy was off his chair twirling about in little off-balanced pirouettes.
And I have to say he looked like he was having so much fun that I was almost tempted to join him.
I can see why even at 58 years old Dennis Marsh has a loyal following, with exuberant energy levels and a singing voice that has hardly aged. An afternoon with Dennis Marsh and the Dennis Marsh Band was an afternoon well spent.
My job for my next free afternoon will be to put the Dennis Marsh CD on to my iPod.