Working hard on new material, and a pleasing review
Just a brief note to say that Rob and I have been spending time working on new material. Rob has been very busy on new Asturian tunes - muneiras mainly. I've been working on a new song about the murky morality of so called honour killling - which concludes that there is no such thing.
However, just browsing www.spiralearth.com this afternoon, I came across a very generous and pleasing review of our EP, 'Only for Three Months'. The url is
Cambridge Folk Club, 29th May 2009
We were honoured by another terrific night at the Cambridge Folk Club. We shared the bill with the extremely talented Richard Brown and Carl Hogsden, and the Marina Florance band. Marina played with four others and delivered a very beautiful, entertaining and upbeat session.
Watford Folk Club, The Pump House, Watford, 1st May 2009
What can I say! This was an incredibly welcoming and friendly club. Carrie had liaised with Rob over a full gig for us - and, despite being from a neighbouring town we were a new act for them.
6th April 2009 Waltham Abbey Folk Club and other bits and pieces
In line with our interest of visiting new clubs, Rob and I attended a singer’s night at the Waltham Abbey Folk Club. Jan Ayres, who runs this very friendly club, very kindly allowed us to double up and do a couple of numbers each round in what was a very talented room of singers and players. Resident duo Blue Harbour performed some excellent bluesy material, and there was some great fiddle music, excellent accordion playing and some very funny banter all night.
Dartford Folk Club, April 28th 2009
This was a voyage of discovery outside our normal 'catchment'. We had long wanted to visit Dartford Folk Club and contacted them to see if we could do a singers spot. It was a long way to go to play a couple of numbers - but it was a good night out.
Home from work, quick munch of a sarnie or two and off round the M25. We arrived in good time to hear a Welsh band Bare Bones, who were very good. Then we did the Breton sea shanty, Three Matelots, followed by The Flower of Magherally. We played well, but tuning was a slight issue, and then the main act, Harvey Andrews, came on.
Late March 2009, St Albans and a little bit of news !
We have a wee while now before our next commitment, so we decided to spend a Saturday looking at some new material. We are working on two songs in particular. The first is one that has its origins in Broadstairs last year. In our ‘downtime’ there, Rob and I investigated the second hand bookshops in the town. I’m afraid I can’t recall the name of the shop now but there is one in Broadstairs which is quite amazing, with books of all sorts and about anything and everything, loosely available throughout a very sizeable two storey building.
18th March 2009 Baldock and Letchworth Folk Club
The night after Bury St Edmonds, Rob and I were back on our travels with friends Tam Lin, to play The Headgate Theatre in Colchester and support Alan Prosser from The Oysterband – nice fella, and another wonderful guitarist .
13th March 2009 The Milkmaid Folk Club, Bury St Edmunds
I told you we were busy and so it was home from work early, soggy Morrisons sarnie snaffled in the car, a hell for leather drive across to Bury St Edmonds, three times round the one way system and into the club for a sound check just in time. Rob and I just love visiting new clubs. The previous night had been the intimate atmosphere of a front parlour, with the audience right up close and playing acoustically; tonight was totally different – a large room, c80-90 in the audience and a real pukka p.a. system, with a quality sound technician helping us out.
12th March 2009 Redbourn Folk Club
The start of the busy season! Of course, with our friends at Tam Lin, we get a lot of bookings around the time of St Patrick’s Day. With our own bookings, it means that Rob and I have a couple of weeks with 3 nights each week playing – just like proper pros eh!
Jan Strapp at Redbourn Folk Club, gave us the chance to support George Papavgeris, at the new venue for the club, The Hollybush pub in Redbourn. I think the club used to be there some years ago, and they have now gone back. This is a very intimate club in an outhouse from the pub – so it is cosy and not affected by pub noise.
8th February 2009 Readifolk, Reading Folk Club
As we have said elsewhere in this blog, Reading Folk Club has been incredibly generous to us over the years. They were the first to give us any sizeable slot on a folk evening, the first to give us a ‘full booking’ and the first to give us a second full booking.
