This evening was the 16th birthday party for the Baldock and Letchworth Folk Club and for Alan Hewson’s well known ‘house band’ Tam Lin.  A wide variety of friends of the club came together to provide a great evening of music supplemented by a selection of wonderful cakes – real cakes and ale, I’m sure Somerset Maugham would have approved!

We did a couple of short sets.  Amongst other great players, Malcolm Hobbs performed some material from his most recent album and, just passing through it seems, nationally known folk artist Si Barron was there to provide four top quality songs.

Tam Lin, well known throughout the local area as an excellent barn and ceilidh dance band, finished the evening off with a short set  which resulted in the tables being pushed back and half the audience having a very lively dance!

A great evening all round at an excellent, friendly and welcoming folk club. 

Best wishes to the club, to Tam Lin and to the next 16 years of good music. 

Less than a week after performing at Les Ray and Deirdre Murphy’s Red Velvet music marathon, we were back in Cambridge.  Albeit at the same venue, this time we were visiting the Cambridge Folk Club to support the mighty Phil Beer.

We had last been on the same as stage as Phil when na-mara appeared just ahead of Show of Hands at the Friday main marquee event at the Bromyard Folk Festival in 2013 and it was a delight to hear that Phil remembered us from that event.   

Despite setting off early for Cambridge, it seemed as though the entire southern English road system had seized up to confound us.  Thankfully, deploying clever technology and pedal to the metal when we could, we arrived in decent time for a sound check albeit frustrated by our two-hour journey.  This was, however, put in perspective when we heard of Phil’s seven (or was it nine?) hour journey from the West Country.

Not surprisingly, a musician of Phil’s reputation draws a big audience and, not long after completing our soundcheck, the room began to fill – and it filled until it was full.

We kicked the evening off with a half hour set which was upbeat, different to our previous visit to the venue and contained some of our new material.  Writing for local Cambridge Time Out-type magazine Local Secrets, Rychard Carrington captured our contribution to the evening as follows:

“Opening the show were na-mara, a guitar and mandolin duo from St. Albans, who like to perform traditional numbers from France and Spain alongside British songs. Yet it was their two own compositions that were particularly stirring, on account of their themes: The Garden of England, about contemporary slavery in Kent, and Navajos & Pirates, about German resistance to Hitler. When folk takes on humane political concern the power of music is particularly affecting.”

We have thanked Rychard separately for his kind words and are very pleased that he appreciated the nature and focus of our music.

Phil then came on and provided the audience with a virtuoso performance, covering a wide array of musical styles played on a multitude of instruments.  We had everything from John Dowland on ukulele to Randy Newman transposed for guitar, via traditional tunes on fiddle, a small sprinkle of Show of Hands songs and a lot else besides. This was all delivered with amusing anecdotes and clever banter throughout.  Off stage, in quieter moments, he and I were even able to share stories about mopeds of yore – that’s a sentence no-one expects to write.

Once again, many thanks to our friends at Cambridge Folk Club whose support and kindness to na-mara is as long-lasting as it is firm; and it is most sincerely appreciated by us both.  We wish Phil Beer and the Cambridge Folk Club well for the year ahead and very much hope to be back in their company in the not too distant future.

For the third year running we were pleased to accept an invitation to play at Les Ray and Deirdre Murphy’s sponsored Red Velvet Music Marathon.  Les and Deirdre are committed fund raisers for cancer charities and, being musicians and well connected through the local folk communities in Cambridgeshire and beyond, have for the past three years organised a 24-hour music session at The Golden Hind pub on Milton Road in Cambridge.

Having already raised over £9,000 for cancer and hospice charities in 2013 and 2104, their aim this year was to raise another £6,000 and push that grand total up to £15,000.  The focus for this year’s charity was the Arthur Rank Hospice Charity, based in Cambridge.

This year was a twin venue event.  We were performing on Saturday evening at The Golden Hind, which some may recognise as the home of the Cambridge Folk Club but there was also a lot going on at CB2 restaurant Cafe, on Norfolk St in Cambridge.

As in previous years, it was a lively evening at The Golden Hind.  We arrived in time to see some excellent sessions by The Brokedown Palace, Penni McLaren-Walker & Bryan Causton and west country duo Heartwave. We then did a half hour slot, again taking the opportunity to bed some of our new material in, and we were then able to stay to see our friend, Laura Cherry, perform a lovely her set with her new playing partner.

Supportive to the end, a number of our friends from the Cambridge Folk Club were there helping the evening along and it was great to catch up with their news.  It is pleasing to report that they enjoyed our set since, by a coincidence of the diary, we were booked to return to the folk club proper the following Friday to support Phil Beer.

At time of writing, we haven’t yet heard whether Les and Deirdre made their £6,000 target but speaking to them after the event they remained very optimistic of doing so.  We wish them well in doing so and were pleased to be able to give support to them and the Arthur Rank Hospice Charity.

We first come across the NAF Club when it was featured in the excellent Herts., Beds., Bucks. and Cambs. local area folk magazine, Unicorn Magazine.  Located in Silsoe in central Bedfordshire and run by Ned Lawton of the very friendly and very talented music trio, Ragged Staff, the club’s name lays out its intentions clearly, namely, to provide a local venue for acoustic music beyond just the folk genre.  The full name for the club is the NAF (Not a Folk) Club.

Having recently moved to The Star and Garter pub in Silsoe High Street, it was our honour to be invited to perform as the club’s very first headliners in its new venue.    The club has been given an nice, intimate, room upstairs in the pub and, to support the opening evening, the landlord laid on lots of tasty grub at half-time. 

We arrived early and tuned up.  Ned turned up shortly after and the room then filled quickly.  Despite it being a bitterly cold night outside, the room was cosy and full with performers and audience by the time the evening got underway. 

True to its name, club members ably and readily covered a wide range of acoustic music genres in the floor spots, and one talented young man provided a couple of moving pieces on his new Gibson electric.  It was also great to see Ragged Staff play live.  They are in the middle of a busy period of gigging themselves currently and were on fine form deploying a mighty array of instruments to very good effect.

We enjoyed performing our two sets and took the opportunity to introduce more of the material we have been developing over the winter.  This included Scots song, ‘Time Wears Awa’ which we first heard from the singing of Alison McMorland (who, in turn, learned it from Willie Scott).  We also played for the first time in public our new self –penned song called ‘The Black Widows’.  This tells the story of a murderous pair of sisters who were hanged in Liverpool in the late 19^th century for fraudulently taking out multiple insurance policies on husbands and other family members, and then using arsenic soaked from fly paper to slowly poison them.  Both songs seemed to go down very well, and we were pleased with our renditions of them.

Thanks very much to the Ned Lawton and all at the NAF Club for the honour of being invited to open their new venue.  We feel sure the club will have many great nights there.  We wish the club and Ragged Staff well and sincerely hope our paths cross again with theirs in the not too distant future.

A Sunday night trip to Twickfolk to support Jez Lowe - what a nice way to start the year’s ‘gigging’! Having spent many hours in quiet rooms finishing the mixing and mastering of our new CD ‘Navajos & Pirates’, it was good to get back to rehearsals and performing.  A straightforward trip round the North Circular to a club we have long admired, was an ideal way to begin our 2015 schedule of gigs.  

We arrived in good time to the club and saw firsthand the efforts that Twickfolk’s dedicated team of volunteers put in to getting the club ready for an evening’s performance.  Albeit still at its historic home of The Cabbage Patch pub on London Road in Twickenham, the club now has an excellent new space within the building, with a great stage and excellent sound system, and the team was hard at work making sure everything was alright for the night.

Arriving early allowed us not only to have a good sound check but also to reintroduce ourselves to Jez Lowe whom we had supported at the Baldock and Letchworth Folk Club some years previous. Naturally, we congratulated him on his nomination for the Best Original Song at the BBC Folk Awards for 2015 and, in the time available, managed to have an extremely pleasant discussion with him about his touring workload and our mutual friends and acquaintances.  Speaking from experience, not every headliner artist is as welcoming and open as Jez and it was both instructive and a real pleasure to talk with him.

In terms of performance, we introduced a winter-honed addition into our set for the evening - a much reworked version of Compagnons de la Marjolaine - and generally kept everything upbeat and lively. This seemed to work well.  Organisers and audience members seemed appreciative of what we did and were very complimentary when we spoke to them afterwards.

Not surprisingly, Jez had attracted a big audience and he put on a great show, full of his trademark interesting and poignant songs.

Twickfolk is an excellent and well supported folk club and we sincerely hope we can return to the club in 2016 and show its members a little more of what we can do.

At the end of 2013, Rob and I were asked by local folk activist Alison Macfarlane to play at an evening at The Maltings Arts Theatre in St Albans to raise funds for the casting of a bronze statue in honour of local resident, Thomas Watters.  As mentioned in our blog from that event, Thomas left his job as a Glasgow city bus driver in 1936 to serve as an ambulance driver in the Spanish Civil War and, when the war finished, spent the remainder of his life in St Albans.

It is pleasing to report that sufficient monies were eventually raised to honour this brave man with a statue, and this was put on public display in November 2014 by the Museum of St. Albans alongside an exhibition on the background to the Spanish Civil War and the role played in it by the British Battalion of the International Brigade

Having been honoured once with the invitation to play at the start of the fund-raising process, it was a double honour to be asked by Alison to return and play at an event to mark the end of an exhibition where Thomas’ new statue took pride of place.  It was nice to see Linda Fryd again, who also played at the initial Maltings fund raiser. Sadly, the third act from that evening, GBH, were unable to make it this time which was a pity as Rob and I had enjoyed their set enormously when we first saw them. 

In addition to the area for the exhibition itself, staff at the Museum of St. Albans had made a medium sized room at the back of the exhibition space available for the commemoration.   They also kindly agreed to extend their working Sunday to keep the museum open and support the event.  Alison and friends provided refreshments and the room soon filled to bursting with friends and neighbours of Thomas, friends and admirers of the sculptor Frank Casey, and supporters of the International Brigade Memorial Trust. 

The evening proceeded with a mixture of speeches and music.  Alison played some lovely tunes and Linda provided an excellent set of songs appropriate to the evening.  Our own set focussed naturally on stories of the Spanish Civil War and the evacuation of the Basque children, interspersed with a range of Spanish tunes.  Frank Casey closed the evening with a moving speech telling of how he had first met Thomas and how Thomas’ humanity and wisdom had moved him deeply.

At time of writing, the exact nature of what will now happen with Thomas’ statue is unclear.  We certainly hope that the local council finds a suitable place in the town to exhibit the statue, somewhere where it can be viewed and remind local people of the courage of one of its citizens in facing down the threats of fascism. 

Many thanks go to Alison and her friends and to the staff at the Museum of St Albans for all their hard work in mounting this very worthwhile event. Thanks go also to all those who helped raise money to support the making of this important statue.  Finally, thanks go to sculptor Frank Casey for giving his skills to make this statue that helps us all remember the bravery of Thomas Watters.

A picture of Frank Casey’s sculpture can be seen at: http://www.international-brigades.org.uk/sites/international-brigades.org.uk/files/field/image/WattersSculpture.jpg

We have been regular performers at the Barnet Folk Club in recent years, and it is always a pleasure to see organiser JJ Dunne and club members.  JJ has always been very supportive of our music and we are very happy to support Barnet Folk Club.

Taking place in the atrium area of the Arts Depot near Tally Ho corner, the Barnet Folk Club venue is somewhat unusual.  It is a big space to fill.  However, with an excellent bar, a cafe- style arrangement of tables and a good p.a. system, club organisers manage to create a surprisingly intimate performance space. The evening is open to the people of Barnet and it is always nice to see an audience from 8 to 80 years old and from every walk of life.

JJ kicked the evening off with a couple of excellent Irish numbers and then Rob joined him to play Christy Moore’s Viva la Quinta Brigada – and very nice it was too.  Another club member then performed a Leon Rosselson number and then a couple of his own compositions. We then did our 45-minute set, which seemed to go down very well. 

The tradition at Barnet is for the headline artist to join JJ and finish the evening with a rousing chorus of Whiskey in the Jar.  However, since our set had not included our song ‘Only For Three Months’, JJ encouraged us to stay on stage and finish the evening with a performance of the song as an encore – something we were naturally honoured to do.

As the audience drifted away, many of them came up and thanked us for an excellent evening, which was lovely.  Some bought CDs and others joined our mailing list, which was very encouraging.  Like the audience, we too had very much enjoyed the evening and are hoping to return to Barnet in 2015 as part of the launch for our new CD.    

Back in April 2010 we were invited to play a showcase for the Friends Music Society in Welwyn Garden City.  That evening proved to be a most enjoyable experience and, having been invited this time by the Society to perform a full two times 40-minute set, we were really looking forward to going back. 

The Society runs a regular programme of well attended music concerts throughout the year. Classical music tends to dominate with jazz probably the next most common genre. Folk music appears reasonably rarely in their schedule and, as such, it was both an honour and a pleasure to be invited to perform. Having had the pleasure once before, we also knew that the Society is an excellent listening audience. 

With renovation happening in its regular performance venue, the Society is currently holding its events in the Free Church in central Welwyn Garden City. The hall is both spacious and, like many places of worship, has excellent acoustics. As is our preference, we arrived early, unpacked and tested these out.  As 6.00pm approached, the hall filled up and it was heart-warming to see some friends’ faces amongst the growing audience. 

Some in the audience were familiar with our music - either from local folk clubs or from our concert for the Hertfordshire Spanish Circle in the summer. However, for many, this was something of an exploration and they were curious to see what we would perform. 

Given the shocking dearth of folk music on mainstream English (rather than British) media, there is little chance for most to get a clear idea of what the genre might consist of these days.  However, it certainly seemed that our mixture of gritty modern and traditional tales, mixed with beautiful melodies and lively tunes from around Europe, struck a chord with many in the audience.  The result was a great deal of enthusiasm shown towards it in the room and some excellent feedback at the break and after the show. It was particular highly pleasing to be complimented by audience members on our musicality – something we work hard at and take pride in.

This was an early evening concert and, being over by 8.00pm, it allowed us to take up the invitation of a drink in the pub next door. With glass in hand, it was very nice to spend time with members of the Society and hear something of their musical activities, both here and abroad.  Both the beer and the company were good and, given the shortness of the hop home, we were still back in time to have a drink and some supper with our loved ones.

Thanks to the Friends Music Society for the invitation to perform for them again, for providing such a warm welcome and for listening so carefully and being so welcoming and generous to us.  We look forward to performing for the Society again at some time in the future and, until then, we wish its members and musicians well. 

Following a performance at the Gate to Southwell Folk Festival back in 2011, Rob and I were very happy to accept an invitation to perform at the Carrington Triangle Folk Club in Nottingham in February 2012.  We had a wonderful time there and have kept in touch with club organiser Martin Smalley ever since.  It was, therefore, nice to receive an invitation earlier this year to return to the club and perform our more recent material for club members.

We set off early afternoon and, despite the best efforts of a busy M1 made worse by roadworks, we made it to Nottingham in time to join with Martin to talk about the forthcoming evening’s performance on BBC Radio Nottingham’s Alan Clifford show.  Alan is an effervescent guy with a great sense of humour, and it was a wonder to behold to see him in the studio, simultaneously keeping the rush hour drivers of Nottingham entertained with news, weather, music and interviews while being so personable with his guests in the studio, both off and on air.  After a quick fire round of questions and answers, we settled in to play our version of ‘The Flower of Magherally’ live – which we enjoyed doing enormously.  I hope our melodious tones salved the nerves of Nottingham’s fine citizens as they struggled their way home from work through the heavy rain.

Having finished and said our goodbyes to Alan, Martin guided us back to his house for an evening meal which perked us all up beautifully for a night of folk music.  After catching up with news of both the folk club and the Southwell Folk Festival, we followed Martin and his partner Marion on to the club to set ourselves up for the evening.

The Carrington club is upstairs in what looks to be a really cosy, urban, pub.  If I am ever in Nottingham and not performing or driving, I’m going to have a few pints there – I think it would be a lovely pub for a winter’s evening. 

The upstairs room began to fill up quickly and then, to our complete surprise, in walked two familiar faces from the Watford Folk Club.  Apparently, they have close friends in the city and had timed their visit specifically in order to coincide with our performing at their friends’ local folk club. Thank you so much Liz and Chris, we feel very honoured by that!

Carrington has some great floorsingers.  Martin and Marion themselves both performed beautifully.  There was an excellent rendition of Scots song ‘Jock Stewart’ and Chris from Watford also performed two great songs.  There was a Robin Hood epic tale sung by a superb ex-punk band member who really drove the story along fantastically well – busted string and all! He was absolutely compelling to watch.

Both of our own sets went down well and, once again, we were blessed with an audience willing to learn new choruses.  We finished the set to a few whoops and invited to play an encore.

There was some urgency to our packing up.  na-mara tend to be ‘home birds’ who drive late into the night to get back to our own beds. However, this time, there was an added necessity as I had to get up really early the next morning for a flight from Luton airport and Rob has an early start too.  At best, I was probably only going to get three and a half hours sleep.

So, with excellent directions from Martin, we hit the road and made it to the M1 quickly as the rain continued to lash down.  Remembering our all too vivid recent experiences on the A1 we contentedly talked of how the M1 wouldn’t be closed – or we did until we found out that the M1 had in fact...erm...been closed – not just in one place but two.  Another journey from hell had begun.

We abandoned the M1 and looked for the best way to hook up with the A5.  We followed ‘A’ and ‘B’ roads, wending our way first west (nearly to Tamworth!) and then south.  Unfortunately, so did all of the juggernauts.  With no space to pass, we were forced to travel at the speed of the slowest lorry.  The little bit of kip I had promised myself before getting up for the airport was getting less by the minute.

Frantically charting our progress on the i-Pad, I could see other nearby roads closed with accidents and road works.  Mercifully, before we went too far into some of the quieter stretches of the A5, we spotted that it too was closed, and we were able to get back onto the M1 south of its second closure.

Eventually we reached home and I managed about two hours sleep before hauling myself out for my plane – and Rob didn’t get much more before setting off for Oxfordshire the next morning. (AS might be expected, I fell asleep on the plane and just hope that I didn’t turn out to be one of those gurgling, lolling, snoozers that no-one wants to sit next to.)

Many thanks again to Martin, Marion and all at the Carrington Folk Club for their welcome and thanks again to Liz and Chris for giving us such a wonderful surprise there. The East Midlands area is region we are very keen to get more involved with and we look forward to returning to the area in the not too distant future.

Club organiser Steve Ramm had kindly approached us after our performance at the 2013 Tenterden Folk Festival and offered us the chance to headline at the wonderful Hoy-at-Anchor Folk Club in Westcliffe-on-Sea. 

We had had the pleasure of playing at the club's previous venue in Leigh-on-Sea back in November 2011 as well as the Leigh-on-Sea Folk Festival on a pleasant summer’s day in 2012 and had long been keen to make a return. 

Fired up from an excellent reception the previous night and stopping only for a plate of grub at an eatery on the seemingly mercilessly busy A12, we arrived at the club nice and early.  This meant we had plenty of time to chat with club organisers and to get set up in comfort. 

The new venue for the Hoy-at-Anchor is a nice sized room at the front of the British Legion Club in Westcliffe-on-Sea which, with the club’s folk night decoration and chair settings, provides an intimate setting for an evening of music.

It is nice to report that a number of club members remembered our floorspots from previous visit to the club and, indeed, we remembered some of those who had played with us back then – and it was it was very nice to hear them play once more. We had some excellent melodeon playing and a couple of songs from Mick Denny alongside some other great contributions. 

Our first set went well and, as with Chesham the previous night, we enjoyed a listening audience both keen and quick to pick up on choruses. The banter was also very good between club members and with us. 

We had chance to chat with some of the club members and fellow performers during the break including a young Irish singer and whistle player who was new to the club and was already clearly making some good musical friends there. 

Our second half also went very well and we were again rewarded with calls for an encore when we finished. As we were packing away, it was very nice to be encouraged to return to the club soon - something we would love to do. 

For once the journey home proved uneventful which helped to nicely round off a very pleasant evening.