Candi Staton in The Sugar Club, Dublin, on September 4^th 2014

“If you can’t feel it why sing it?” The last words Candi Staton spoke to the crowd seated before her at the Q&A section of tonight’s run of events in The Sugar Club. ‘An Evening with Candi Staton’ is a tantalising prospect, no doubt, and it’s a full house that turns out for this tripartite midweek date with the legendary soul singer.

First up is an early doors screening of the recent ‘Muscle Shoals’ documentary about FAME Studios and the eponymous recording house in which Staton herself laid down tracks. A brief onstage interview follows, and Staton goes back through her musical history and brings us up to date with her new album ‘Life Happens’, which will be available here “in the UK in October”. You can imagine how well that went down, as pantomime groans emanate from the amphitheatre towards a bemused Staton, who good-humouredly backtracks. She’s not the first, and she won’t be the last.

She speaks of her earliest musical influences and of the three radio stations that were available in her house as a child – gospel, country and blues. Tonight, before the disco party that breaks out, all three are accounted for by Staton and her six-piece band, which incidentally includes The Style Council’s Mick Talbot on keys. Staton regales us with one of his morning-after utterances – “I just played with The Who last night”. Over to Candi – “I said, ‘The Who?’”

From the punchy soul of new song I Like Where I’m At, back to the blues of 1969’s Sweet Feeling (“We’re going down to Muscle Shoals right now”) to a cooking I’d Rather Be An Old Man’s Sweetheart (Than a Young Man’s Fool), Staton and her band wind through the genres and charm the crowd. “I don’t call them old men any more. I call them mature” she says in the midsong breakdown of the latter track, a concession to the more seasoned fans in the room.

Tammy Wynette’s Stand By Your Man goes out to them – to all of us, really – with gospel backing vocals, popping bass and a country rock guitar solo. They segue into Ben E. King’s Stand By Me with chief backing singer Xavier Barnett taking lead vocal – for a time, at least. Some likely lad – let’s call him Gareth – approaches Barnett, courts him with dance, then jumps up beside him and lends his vocal. In any normal turn of events this would be a groan-inducing moment, but Gareth is trying to impress a woman and thus the wave of goodwill is in his favour. And he’s not half bad.

“Girls?” proffers Staton. “Girls…beware girls. She’s after your man!” The funk soul of the song of the same name sees the singer stalk the stage issuing warnings to the ladies of the city, ending with a tale of one brazen hussy who tried it with her man. “Maybe you don’t have anybody like that in Dublin.”

The night takes on a completely different hue towards the latter end. It’s not the Muscle Shoals soul that gets this crowd ignited. Nor is it Tammy Wynette, or even Ben E. King. No, it takes The King himself; as In The Ghetto gives way to Suspicious Minds, the mood in the Sugar Club moves from backroom bar to disco club – if that disco club is the venue where your cousin’s wedding reception is being held.

Young Hearts Run Free heralds the floor invasion proper, and Staton introduces the band. The inimitable Xavier doesn’t miss a trick – “Young hearts run free/when Irish eyes are smiling at me.” Irish ladies too. You’ve Got The Love ends the set, nowhere near as raucous as the previous stormer but leaving the bulk of the club on its feet regardless as Staton exits and the band ramp it home.

Drummer Marcus Williams punches out a bass drum beat, leading into the encore’s final disco-funk-gospel hybrid of Hallelujah Anyway. Staton reappears, a prophetic denim jacket donned over her leather dress to let us know that this is the end, exiting for the final time as her backing singers get last shout in this night of musical miscellany. It’s a funk and soul, blues and country littered front half and a dance-heavy back end; the latter a crowd-pleasing disco delight, but the former an infinitely more satisfying experience.