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.

Readifolk has always been a great supporter of Na-Mara’s music and it was lovely to be returning to perform at the club once more. After two long days of driving at the end of the previous week, we'd both been able to rest up for a while and were raring to go again. At only an hour's drive away, it felt as though we were visiting near neighbours. We were certainly visiting good friends.

We set off late afternoon to have a light meal with our very close friends in Reading, Joe and Mandy, before navigating the ever-busy roads of central Reading to get to Readifolk’s lovely home at Watlington House. When we arrived, we were met by club organisers Una and Colin and it was great to catch up on all their news and to hear how well the club was faring. Colin kindly helped us unload our expanding range of instruments and we set up as the room began to fill.

Remembering promises from the last time Na-Mara had performed at the club, two club members brought in their exceptionally high-quality classical guitars for Rob to see and play.  Rob spent a rare old 20 minutes playing some of his classical repertoire upon them to the evident delight of the instrument owners.

As is always the case at Readifolk, the quality of the floor singers was once again very high. We had excellent variety throughout the evening, including everything from Jim Croce through to French and Irish traditional songs to English and German tunes sets to some excellent self-penned material about the experience of migration to Australia from the perspectives of both emigrants and aborigines.

Our own two sets seemed to go down very well and, as ever, the Readifolk audience was keen to sing along with our choruses. We certainly had a lot of laughs before the evening was over.

I'm pleased to note that the drama experienced trying to get through the M4/M25 junction two nights previous had all but evaporated by the time we were back on the road home from Reading. Indeed, we were back in St. Albans by midnight.

Many thanks to Una and Colin for both their kind invitation and their warm welcome to the club. Many thanks also to our MC and fellow floor singers for the evening, and to Ian and Jane for remembering to bring along their wonderful instruments.

Refreshed from a great night's sleep in quiet and comfortable surroundings, we had a lovely breakfast chat with our host and Bideford Folk Club committee member, Alison, at her splendid B&B.

Taking advantage of being in one of the prettiest areas in England and not needing to be on the road again until lunchtime, we took Alison's advice and drove down to the local estuary for a ramble along the River Caen out towards where it meets the River Taw. The weather was glorious and the breeze from the river proved refreshing.

Then, after picking up our instruments and other gear from Alison’s house, we set off to have lunch in Barnstable before travelling on eastwards for our gig at Swindon Folk Club. As we drove back eastwards, we could see the temperatures, already warm, were rising alarmingly. By the time we reached Swindon, the town was sweltering in the heat.

The Swindon Folk Club is held in a largish upstairs room above The Hop Inn in the Old Town.  It is a hostelry that provides some quality craft ales and some very very good pub ‘nosh’. The manager of pub was very obliging and let us park behind the pub.  This made unloading and loading our growing selection of instruments and gear a lot easier and was much appreciated given the heat.

Given we had plenty of time before performing, we treated ourselves to a mercifully cold (alcohol-free) beer and a truly magnificent ‘ham, egg and chips sandwich’ as we watched the pub fill up with those who’d finished a hot day at work.

Swindon Folk Club organiser, Claire, found us with our faces in our sandwiches and came over to say a cheery ‘Hello’. We discussed the possibility of using the club's PA system for the night but, with the acoustics in the club room being so good, plus our general preference to perform acoustically if we can, we decided against it.

By now, the heat of the evening had become more than a little oppressive and it was very kind of all of those that chose to join us indoors for an evening of music when a cool glass of beer or wine in the garden or park, must have been very appealing. So, it wasn't a surprise that the audience was modest in size comprising key club organisers, some club regulars and some attendees who were passing through Swindon that weekend in attendance. Claire and a fellow member of her trio, The Bellflowers, started the evening off with some stunning harmonies over two songs. She was followed by performer who'd played professionally in Germany for over 30 years and just happened to be passing through Swindon that weekend. He played a range of jazz classics with great skill and humour. He, in turn, was followed by a club regular who played some Richard Thompson and Billy Joel material very well.

We went on around 9:00 pm by which time the room was melting and it was hard work trying to maintain our normal energy levels in that heat. With it being so hot, it was very sensible and natural for the room’s windows to be opened. Sadly, the downside of that in a decidedly urban location was that we were occasionally accompanied by passing motorbikes and ambulances rushing by. With Claire's kind support, we finish the evening at 10:30pm, said our goodbyes and packed up the car.

The motorways were reasonably kind to us until we approached London and the M25 and then a whole sequence of roadworks and, at one point, potential motorway closure made for a tiring final leg of the journey. The thought of a cold, alcohol-full, beer in the fridge at home was what drove us forward.

Many thanks to Claire and all her colleagues at the Swindon Folk Club for looking after us so well on a hot and difficult evening. We wish the club all the very best for the future and sincerely hope that the committee's aspirations for continuing and growing the reputation of such a famous and historic folk club come to fruition. The club has weathered difficult times in recent years and has come through them well positioned for the future.  We wish them all the very best.