Well, we did it! We managed to get a hulking PA system, six instruments, three overnight bags, a holdall of cables, coats and post-gig beers into a car with three passengers, including our 6ft 5in pal, Dave. With this ingenuity, pyramids are built

Thus, we set off for Bristol just before lunchtime on a baking hot Saturday with no trains running. Not surprisingly, the M25 was almost a car park. So, it was a slow crawl to the M4 and then off. Smooth running after that up to Membury services where we bought sarnies and fruit for lunch and some ready meals to cook in our Airbnb before the concert. 

We’d chosen an Airbnb because the ‘Budget hotel chains’ seem to have stopped being budget for the moment. So, an Airbnb seven miles from the gig looked the most attractive option.

Having bought the wherewithal for an early evening meal, we set about cooking it around 5:00pm- ish, only to be utterly flummoxed by the Airbnb oven. The entire workings of the damn machine had been reduced to a single, circular, button in the centre of a black panel. So, rather like extras from the early scenes of ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, we had three adult males of the species peering blankly at the lights, jumping at the occasional beeps given off by the oven. Thankfully, it did seem to heat to a decent temperature on its own and we were eventually able to have us a bite to eat before performing.

Just before 6:00pm we set off to the gig. The Redcatch Club is hosted in the Redcatch Community Centre in the Knowle area of Bristol. The venue has a nice, large, space with a low stage for performance.

Hosts Trevor and Sally arrived at 6:30pm and we were able to get the PA system into the venue and set up reasonably quickly. It was a baking hot evening and even the lightest of labours brought beads of sweat to the brow.

Fairly soon after, club members, floor singers and support for the evening, Steve James, arrived and we had chance to chat with them before the evening began.

At 7:45pm prompt, MC Trevor Carter announced the first-floor spots.  We were treated to some original, topical songs, from Nigel, some Ry Cooder and Tim O'Brien from Derek, a Johnny Coppin song from Ian and Jan, and then an excellent support slot from Steve James that ranged from some punchy topical themes to hilarious ditties on guitar and banjolele for the hypochondriac and the miserable.

After a short break, host Trevor delivered his epic poem on How the West was Lost, telling the story of America through the eyes of its first nations.

With a decent sized audience now assembled, we then took to the stage for the first of our two 40-minute sets. Both sets seemed to go very well, with excellent audience participation on the choruses and close attention paid to our quieter pieces. The evening around 10:30pm with Maid of Culmore as an encore. 

Audience members were very kind in terms of their feedback, possibly leading to more club and festival bookings in the Bristol area in 2024. They also bought a decent number of CDs to take home, for which we'd like to say many thanks.

By this time, those cold beers secreted in the fridge back at the Airbnb were calling to us. So, we hastily packed the PA system away, stuffed the guitars back into the car (upside down, pointing into the seat well) and said our goodbyes to Trevor and, Sally before hightailing it home. God, those beers were good, and they certainly sent us all off to our respective beds nice and tired for a good night's kip.

It is sad to report that our visit would be the last event for the Redcatch Club. For various reasons, Trevor and Sally have decided to call it a day and, without others to take it on at the moment, the club will now close. We'd like to take this opportunity to thank them for their kind invitation to us to perform at the Redcatch club and we wish them both all the very best for their future ventures and we wish Trevor well with his writing.

The day had finally arrived. It was time for Na-Mara to start our mini- tour; seven gigs in eight days, ranging from Margate in the east to Redruth in the West.

Our first adventure couldn't have been better as we were returning to the wonderful Cambridge Folk Club where we have lots of friends who have supported us and our music from the outset. 

Knowing the capricious nature of the A1(M) at teatime on a Friday evening, Rob and I, helped on this tour by our great friend Dave Berry, we set off early to get through the worst of the traffic.  Having achieved that, we parked up for a quick sandwich near Cambridge ahead of getting to The Golden Hind pub, home of Cambridge Folk Club.

We were sharing the headliner spot with Sarah Yeo, with the Tennessee Twin kicking the evening off.

It was a hot, sultry, night - a night when even some of the most ardent fans of folk music might feel they wanted to spend it with a cold glass of beer or wine in their gardens. However, as the sound checks for all three acts were processed expertly and efficiently by Calvin and Chris, the room began to fill a little.

During this time, we were able to chat with club organisers Marion and Andy Treby, Robin Mansfield and others before the evening began, catching up on all the club news. Then, Les Ray from the band Red Velvet and presenter of the Strummers and Dreamers folk programme for Cambridge 105 arrived, and it was great to hear all about what red velvet have been up to and how the Strummers and Dreamers show was going. Les has been very helpful to us providing information on how bands are now sending new material to radio show hosts like him.  This advice will help us plan the release of the EP we have both been working on over the spring.

The Tennessee Twin started the evening with an exquisitely delivered trio of their own songs in their America style; sublime harmonies and great guitar playing on a lovely sounding Gibson acoustic. 

Then Sarah Yeo took to the stage. Having travelled to Cambridge on a very hot day all the way from Exeter, one might have expected her to be a little fatigued, but not a bit of it! We were treated to 50 minutes of beautiful vocals, lovely guitar work and heartfelt songs, all delivered with a lighthearted mien. Sarah’s performance, mixing Americana, Country and Western and Folk, was highly polished and very professionally delivered.  She is going to be a star.  She was joined for one song by Tennessee Twin, and the harmonies were wonderful.

We then took to the stage after the break where, as seems to be the law these days, Paul won the raffle and helped himself to a bottle of white wine.

With a sound setup as expertly delivered as it is at Cambridge, it is a pleasure to perform. A good sound system draws a performance from artists. We were highly energised, and the set seemed to go very well. The audience sang along throughout the performance and, after a final set of warm remarks from Robin Mansfield, we performed an encore of Maid of Culmore to finish off the evening.

It was lovely to receive such positive feedback after the show, and we stayed on to chat for quite a while after the performance before an uneventful journey home.

All in all, it was a great, possibly final, returned to Cambridge Folk Club and we would like to thank the club organisers at Cambridge profusely for all that they've done for us over the years.

Rob, Dave and I set off at 5.00pm-ish to head for Na-Mara’s first ever gig at the historic Wurzel Bush Folk Club. This historic club has not long ago celebrated its 50th anniversary and is now being run by Craig Sunderland whom we had the pleasure of meeting before the pandemic at the (sadly now defunct) Great Knight Folk Club in Northampton

Being half term, the M1 was reasonably quiet and so we travelled sedately north towards Rugby. Being in plenty of time, we called in at the Watford Gap services for a sarnie and a much-needed loo stop.

Refreshed in various ways, we then pressed on to central Rugby, to the Rugby West Indian Association clubhouse in Railway Terrace, the home of the Wurzel Bush Folk Club.

The RWIA clubhouse consists of a long room with a bar at one end and a function room at the other. To our surprise, we arrived as the club’s pool team were having a pre-match practice for an away game that night. That league must be pretty competitive because those lads certainly looked like they knew what they were doing.

Not long after we’d carried our gear into the club, Craig and his fellow club organiser arrived and, as the pool players finished off and departed for their match to be replaced by folk club members arriving for the gig, they began setting up an impressive PA system for the evening.

Like the Loughton Folk Club a few nights earlier, the Wurzel Bush Folk Club has a lot of talent amongst its membership. We already knew from our meeting at the Great Knight Folk Club that Craig was a truly excellent performer and he started the night off wonderfully well with a couple of great songs and wonderful guitar work. He was followed by a range of other club regulars who were all very fine musicians too. In the two floor spot series before Rob and I went on, the club was treated to some excellent traditional songs and tunes, as well as some really well delivered Woody Guthrie classics.

Apart from a slight technical difficulty with my Lowden guitar (which I will be investigating the moment I've finished posting this blog) the evening went very well. In the time-honoured way that Wurzel Bush rewards its performers, a very capacious chamber pot (I kid you not) was duly passed around audience members at half-time and I’m pleased to report that those in attendance gave very generously to support our music - for which many thanks are owed.

Interestingly, at half time, Rob and I were approached by a young couple who had travelled to the gig from Leamington Spa, along with their delightful dog, Lola. It turned out that Colin was the grandson of the man for whom our song The Silver Duro was written. Rob and Colin had a long chat about the Basque Children's Association of ’37 and we quickly rejigged the evening’s second half set-list to include Only For Three Months, the sister song to The Silver Duro.

With a brief encore of The Maid of Culmore, the evening ended, and some audience members were kind enough to come and buy a few of our CDs.  As we had earlier managed to park just outside the venue itself, and we are now three-handed for the loading and unloading of our gear, we found ourselves very quickly back on the M1 and on our way home with Dave at the wheel.

Many thanks to Craig and all at Wurzel Bush Folk Club for both the invitation to perform at the club and for giving us the very warmest of welcomes. It was a lovely evening spent with lovely people.

It was a bright sunny afternoon that heralded our first Na-Mara gig for 2023. After a winter spent recording and mixing new tracks in the home studio, we were more than ready to get out and start performing to audiences again. We had a busy programme of gigs ahead of us, seven in eight days coming up soon. So, it was great to be heading out to play for friends we know well at the Loughton Folk Club.

Our dear friend, Dave, has agreed to join us for our 2023 campaign to help share the driving and gear shifting. So it was that Dave and I set out for a mercifully uneventful trip around the M25 to Loughton. We arrived early and waited up for Rob to make his way to the club from central London.

After a quick sarnie in the car, we could see club organisers Gary and Jennifer arriving. We followed them in with our gear, set up quickly and were able to take the chance to catch up on all the club news. Some personal friends of ours that we hadn't seen since before the pandemic were also coming along and, as the upstairs room in the Loughton Club filled up on a glorious sunny evening, it was great to catch up with their news too.

The evening went very well. Loughton Folk Club is blessed with lots of club talent, and we were treated to a bit of music hall, an Irish song, a Cyril Tawney song, some self-penned songs, and a hilarious poem written over the course of the evening.

Our two sets were a mix of new material and some old favourites. The Loughton audience is a great singing audience, and everyone seemed to enjoy joining in with the choruses.

With a lively encore of Compagnons de la Marjolaine the evening came to an end, goodbyes were said, and Dave kindly drove us all back to St Albans.  It had been a good start to the 2023 season, and we were very pleased with it

After an arduous journey to Grimsby and back the previous Sunday, the six miles to perform again at the lovely Redbourn Folk Club were as nothing.

The Redbourn Folk Club is recovering strongly from the aftermath of the COVID lockdown and, after a few months of singers' nights, it is now beginning to book guests again. As such, it was an honour to be amongst the first invitees to perform there on a guest night.

The club room is located in a former schoolhouse, now an annex to a busy village pub. The venue itself is small and, as such, does not require any PA amplification. This allowed Rob, me and our friend Dave to arrive just after 7:30pm and still have plenty of time to chat with MC for the night (and very fine singer) Malcolm Hobbs and be set up ready for 8.00pm.

The club itself may be small but it is mighty in terms of the depth of the talent it has amongst its regulars. Apart from Malcolm, who did two excellent songs, I didn't catch everyone's name except for the fun and clever trio who kicked the night off very well, the wonderfully named ‘Bones of Contention’.

By the time we took to our feet to perform, the room was choc-a-bloc full. The floor singers had done a great job warming the audience up ready to sing and, with a very chorus-rich set, we were able to build on that in our two forty-minute sets. The whole audience proved receptive and responsive to our music and sang their hearts out all night. It was a pure joy to perform for them.

Many thanks to Malcolm and Jenny for inviting us once again to perform at the club and we wish Redbourn Folk Club all the very best as it returns to full strength in the coming months

After our planned gig for June 2020 having been cancelled during the COVID lockdown, it was nice to finally be able to travel again to the excellent Grimsby Folk Club.

Clearly a journey from St Albans to Grimsby is not something to take lightly. So, we set off just after lunch time on a gloriously sunny Sunday afternoon. Given we were also intending to use what effectively amounts to a new PA system, we built in some extra time for setup and a decent sound check before the gig.

Thankfully, the clubroom at The Spider’s Web pub wasn't being used that afternoon and, with the help of friendly bar staff, we were able to get in around 5:00pm and do our desired sound check before club organisers Mary and Mike arrived.

Unfortunately, with various folk events happening around the north that weekend, audience numbers for the evening were on the small side. However, those who were there seemed to really enjoy our two sets.  They sang along with our choruses and were very generous in both their feedback and purchase of CDs after the gig. Furthermore, I’m pleased to report that the new PA system performed very well.

It was certainly a long hard drive home from Grimsby after the gig. Presumably, in helping us avoid the almost inevitable Sunday night road closures on the A1, the Satnav directed us down a parallel route, the A16. With very little dual carriageway before reaching Peterborough, it was a ‘proper’ drive.  Thankfully, traffic was light with it being a Sunday night, and we made it home just before 2.00am.

Many thanks to Sue for her excellent MC-ing and to Matt Jones for his excellent floor spots throughout the evening.  Similarly, many thanks to Mary, Mike and all at Grimsby Folk Club for their warm welcome.  We wish them all the very best for the future.

We began our ‘mini-series’ of autumn gigs with this return to Brunel University. Organised as a community outreach project by concert performer and university lecturer, Dr Sam Cave, Brunel University supports an excellent lunchtime series of concerts throughout much of the academic year.

Twice postponed for reasons of COVID and illness, it was great to finally be able to contribute again to the lunchtime series and to meet up with Sam and hear all about the experimental guitar and mandolin music work in which he is involved.

One luxury of a lunchtime gig is the chance for a quick rehearsal, which we had before making the short journey over to Uxbridge to set up. Ready by midday with the concert beginning at 1:10pm, we had plenty of time to have a light and leisurely sandwich lunch with Sam and two good friends who’d travelled from St Albans to see us play.

The concert series has clearly recovered well after the COVID lockdown, and we were pleased to see an audience of around 30 people for our 40 minutes set. Rob had put together a nicely varied programme for us to perform, with the concert itself being billed as part of the ‘Celebration of Voice’ element of the larger concert series.

After a well-received performance, it was nice to stay and chat to audience members. A predominantly classical concert series, it was great to hear how much audience members had enjoyed our music.

Having said our goodbyes, we headed home, arriving in good time for an afternoon 'cuppa'.

Many thanks to Sam Cave for both his continuing interest in our music and his invitation for us to perform once more at Brunel University. Thanks also go to Phil for filming and recording the concert for the concert series’ related YouTube channel.  Finally, thanks to Karen and Jessica from the Arts Administration team at the University for making our and our friends’ visit onto campus so straightforward.

With Rob feeling unwell on the morning of our long-awaited return to Hadleigh Folk and Acoustic Nights, it was clear that there would not be time for the club to make any alternative arrangements.  As such, I would need to do this 45 minute set solo.  So, I called organiser Simon Haines, explained the situation and began busying myself rearranging the planned set list. With no tune sets possible and fewer instrumental breaks within songs, I amended the set accordingly.

It was a scorching hot day and, with Friday traffic always a risk, I decided to leave home just after lunch and get close to Hadleigh on the Suffolk-Essex border, with plenty of time to spare.  Rather than travel M25 - A12, I decided to drive south of Cambridge, round Bury St Edmunds and park up in the little town of Lavenham.  This turned out to be an excellent choice, not so much for the traffic (which had its moments) but for the outstanding beauty of Lavenham.  I’d never been to the town before, but it is packed with attractive half-timbered public buildings, houses and some very inviting inns.  I look forward to returning there one of these days to sample the pubs.

I had a good 90 minutes walking around Lavenham before eating my sarnies and setting off to Hadleigh. I arrived at the Ansell Centre in the town just as organisers Simon and Val were setting up.  Soon afterwards, the other listed act for the evening - the very talented Tony Winn - arrived and we had a very pleasant chat about the music scene in and around the Hadleigh area.

Given I had a lot farther to travel to get home, Simon, Tony and I agreed that I would perform first as this would allow me to leave for home a little earlier.  Tony was very understanding of this arrangement.

The evening concert began with a very talented and amusing local duo who performed music hall songs and songs from Lancashire covering topics as broad as how woodpeckers changed the carving of Sweet Fanny Adams on a tree trunk, to the perils of doing number twos in gents loos in pubs.

It felt strange getting up and performing without Rob beside me, but the audience were very engaged throughout.  They supported me well on the choruses and seemed to enjoy the stories behind the songs.

After the evening break, I stayed to enjoy some of Tony Winn’s excellent set before whispering my goodbyes to Simon and Val and tiptoeing out the back of the room to set off home.  The A12 is my least favourite road in all Christendom but, despite at least half a dozen sets of roadworks, I was only slowed rather than diverted, making it home for a pre-bed beer before midnight.

Many thanks to Simon and Val for the initial invitation and being so supportive on the evening.  All best wishes to Tony Winn.

I'll confess to a level of trepidation ahead of this gig at Croydon Folk Club. This had nothing at all to do with the club or the music and everything to do with rush-hour M25, navigating the fiendishly busy roads of Croydon and finding a decent parking spot to unload the gear for the gig. We managed my motorway worries by setting off very early for the gig with the aim of getting there first and then being able to relax. So, we set off from St. Albans at 2:30pm and it was a good job we did as, with incidents and other issues, it took us over three hours to get to central Croydon. However, with time now on our side after arrival, we were able to find a parking space, scout out the streets around the venue and then move the car to an optimal parking spot just by Croydon Folk Club’s Ruskin House (look for nearby Heathfield Road if you’re heading that way). Once parked up, we had plenty of time to eat our sarnies and at 7:00pm, when the venue opened, we made our way to Ruskin house.

Ruskin House is an imposing building set in its own grounds and is the headquarters of the Communist Party of Britain and Croydon's Labour Trade Union and Cooperative movements. The folk club is held in a more modern facility in the grounds of the house.

We arrived at the venue around the same time as club organisers Brian and Jenny. On a day of sunshine and showers, Brian was resplendent in his black and white MC top with black shorts. It has been a long time since we played Croydon Folk Club so it was great to catch up on all the club news.

As we set up for the evening, club members began to appear. Their numbers increased markedly as the clock ticked round towards the start time of 8:00pm such that, by the time Brian introduced the first floor spots of the evening, a goodly sized audience had assembled.

The floor singers all performed well and we were grateful to them for getting the first choruses of the evening going.

After four previous gigs in quick succession, our sets were by now well-rehearsed and Croydon Folk Club members were soon joining in on choruses with great gusto. It was a really excellent gig. We enjoyed ourselves enormously and, from the feedback we received, it seems clear that many in the audience did too. Again, themes of musicality, player interplay and the interesting stories we tell formed the bulk of the feedback to us.

There were also some lovely stories from the audience itself. Over and above having friends of Rob attending, one couple had come along after seeing us perform when they were on holiday in Bideford only 11 days earlier! What a huge compliment and we thanks them for it. Another couple were visiting the UK from the United States, were keen to see some new folk acts and had travelled out to Croydon from their hotel in the Kings Cross area to see us perform. We'd like to thank them for making the effort to do that and for their kind words to us on the evening.

Very many thanks to Brian and Jenny for the invitation to return to Croydon Folk Club and for looking after us so well while we were there. Thanks also to all the club members who engaged so enthusiastically with us and our set throughout the evening. They very much made it a memorable evening for us.  Their support was both uplifting and greatly appreciated.

Sadly, the Highways Department subsequently did its best to suck the joy out of the evening with a M25 motorway closure on the way home. However, after participating in a noisy caravanserai that was diverted through the sleepy villages around nether Leatherhead, much to the pleasure of local residents I’m sure, it was reasonably plain sailing. In bed for 1:00am. 

Ah, the mysteries of ‘unknown unknowns’. Only the satellites in the sky will ever know why the quick-witted idiot that is my SATNAV picked out such a circuitous and very rural route to get us to St. Neots for our Tuesday night gig. It certainly knew something we did not.  Despite living very close to the A1M, it didn't deliver us to it before we arrived in Hitchin in the north of the county. Thankfully, beyond that, it was clear sailing.

We arrived at the excellent Priory Centre in St. Neots in plenty of time to take our sandwiches and fruit out onto its sun drenched terrace overlooking the Great Ouse to watch elegant rowers and less-than-elegant paddleboarders passing by.

Refreshed, we returned to the car to get our gear and take it the St Neots Folk Club venue, an intimate room at the top of the community centre. With the Town Council in session in the next door room and French rock ‘n’ roll dance phenomenon CEROC about to kick off downstairs, it was a busy night.

It was great to chat with club organisers Roger and Patti as club members gathered for the evening. Knowing the folk club well, it was wonderful to see how many of our old friends have ventured out on such a roasting hot evening to sit inside and listen to our music. Much appreciated.

As always, the floor spots by club members were excellent and, this being our fourth gig in quick succession, we felt on top form in both of our two sets. St. Neots is a great chorus singing club and our current set list is well stocked with songs for people to join in with. So, the end result was a really lovely and satisfying evening, with lots of excellent feedback given at the end of the concert.

We were treated once more to the unknown unknowns on our way home as the SATNAV was adamant we return to St Albans not via the straight line A1M route but cross county all the way to the M1 and south. Anyway, we were home by midnight for - at least in my case - a decaf cuppa and a read of my book to wind down before bed. That rock ‘n’ roll for you.