After an extended journey home from a performance the previous evening, it was a relief to have only a handful of miles to travel to see our good friends at Redbourn Folk Club. (Well, at least we had the local knowledge to deal with the road works that were put in our way this time.)

We arrived at the gorgeous Holly Bush pub, home to Redbourn Folk Club, early and, with the club room being open, we were able to set up before either organisers or audience members arrived. The club room, an old schoolhouse, was a haven of coolness on what was a warm, sunny, evening.

As the start time for the evening approached, the club room filled steadily and, albeit not completely full, provided a good-sized audience for an evening of music.

Redbourn Folk Club is blessed with a range of talented club singers, and we were treated to an excellent version of Richard Thompson's Farewell Farewell as well as great songs from club organisers Malcolm and Jenny, and from fellow club singers Simon and Matt. All beautifully done.

I'm pleased to report that our own two 40-minute sets went down well with several newcomers to the club that evening enjoying them immensely. The Bonny Gardener Boy (Le Garçon Jardinier) had its second run out and we also performed our newest composition, ‘Father, Oh Father’, which rails at the way organisations like (but not exclusively) the Roman Catholic Church shuffle child-abusing problem priests to new parishes, gifting them the chance to abuse again. I’m pleased to report that the audience was very supportive of both the song and the importance of performing it in public.

Redbourn Folk Club members are so welcoming and supportive and both Rob and I were engaged in excited conversations throughout the interval and after the show about all aspects of folk music, folk tunings and instruments. The one mystery of the evening was how one of Rob's guitar strings managed to break when he wasn't even playing it! The need for a string change required a rejig of the set list, but it all seemed to work very well.

It was wonderful to see two good friends of mine from my college creative writing group in the audience. They have given me so much help with my story writing, it was nice for them to see what else I do. Many thanks to Janet and Martin.

Thanks to Martin and Jenny for the invitation to return once more to Redbourn Folk Club and for all their support over so many years. Thanks also to audience members for the warmest of receptions, their singing and their supportive comments afterwards.

Discovering a flat tyre on the car a couple of days before the first of eight gigs in June wasn't the most auspicious start for Na-Mara’s summer tour. Thankfully, we managed to get someone to come out and change the tyres at home on the morning of our gig at Hoy at Anchor Folk Club and we were set.

There comes a time after days of rehearsal, that you are bursting to get out and play to real people (instead of to cardboard boxes in a loft room). This is particularly so when the real people concerned are the really nice people at Hoy at Anchor Folk Club.

Supported in our travels once again by our good friend Dave B, Rob and I set off for Leigh-on-Sea at a time early enough to anticipate the slew of road works eastbound on the M25. Our early departure meant we arrived in decent time at Hoy at Anchor Folk Club’s new venue, the Estuary Club on London Road. The club is now held in a pleasant and intimate modern function room festooned with the traditional club banner. Indeed, there are two such banners, one behind the performers and one covering a large mirror opposite the performers (so they don't have to watch themselves perform).

With us playing acoustically, we had ample time to set up and talk to various club members and organisers. It was great to find out that the club is in good health with audience numbers up. The availability of a car park behind the club is a boon for both club members and performers.

Hoy at Anchor Folk Club is endowed with a substantial number of fine singers and six of them individually give us a song each and then many of the same singers combined to perform as a shanty crew, singing an adaptation of a well-known shanty  - “We're bound for Transylvania”. In addition, we were treated to some poetry reading, both profound and funny, and a beautifully performed jazz classic.

Rob and I then took to the stage and performed two 40-minute sets with a short break in between for ‘parish notices’ and the raffle. We gave a first ‘run out’ for our translation of Malicorne's wonderful song, Le Garçon Jardinier. I'm pleased to report that we performed it well and it seemed much appreciated by the audience. Time constraints were against us introducing our new song Father, Oh Father! but we have promised ourselves we will fit it in at a forthcoming gig.

For our first gig of the year, we were pleased with both how we’d performed and to receive so many supportive and warm comments from audience members once we'd finished our encore and were packing up.

Many thanks to the organisers at Hoy at Anchor Folk Club for the invitation to visit the club again. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and believe the audience did so too.

Of course, late night travelling on the M25 can suck the joy out of any evening and a complete closure of the motorway two-thirds the way home spun us off on a rural diversion which meant that we arrived home just before midnight, tired but still buoyed by a lovely evening.

Thursday 19^th October 2023: The Trip to Madrid

After much rehearsal and practical preparations, the time had arrived for us to set off to Madrid to perform in the 37^th Festival Internacional Andrés Segovia. Rob and I, together with our ever loyal travelling companion, Dave, assembled with assorted luggage and just one instrument.  We’d taken the decision to borrow both a classical and a steel stringed guitar in Madrid to avoid the unnecessary risk of sending our precious instruments through the airport baggage systems at Heathrow and Madrid Barajas airport.  This left only the mandola.  This we protected by placing and padding it securely with the hard case for a 12-string Taylor guitar.

The taxi arrived right on time and we piled in, three blokes, luggage and a very large guitar case.

The journey to and through Heathrow went smoothly and we were able to drop off the twelve-string case at the special luggage desk in good time to go through security and have ourselves a snack before our flight.

Stormy weather conditions meant that the flight was a ‘tad bumpy’ but, with the three of us having together survived a flight ten times worse going between Beijing and Chongqing in 2019, this was as nothing.

It took a wee while for the mandola in the twelve-string hard case to arrive at the special luggage carousel in Barajas airport, but an immediate inspection showed it had survived the journey unscathed. Phew.  There are such horror stories.  So, now complete, we were all set for the festival and raring to go.

The amount of luggage we had proved something of a challenge to our taxi driver (and his already half-filled boot) but we eventually squeezed it all in and, apart from it resembling a Ryan Gosling car chase film at times, the drive took us swiftly to our rented apartment in the Calle de Barcelona, just a short distance from the famous Plaza del Sol.  Being a pedestrianised area, we had to wheel and carry our various things to the accommodation and, after some misunderstandings over how to retrieve the keys from inside a secure lock up area, our helpful host aided our gaining entry into our apartment.  Up three flights of well-trodden wooden stairs, we reached our accommodation which was characterful and would certainly do us well for the duration of our stay.

We dropped off our bags and left immediately for a nearby restaurant called Ginger where we were to meet the Festival Director and long time friend of Rob’s, Pablo de la Cruz, members of his festival team, plus a number of Rob’s friends.  This proved to be our first (of many) great meals whilst in Madrid. WE were greeted warmly and immediately felt at home.

After a splendid meal, characteristically late as is the Spanish way, we walked the short distance back to our apartment.  To say that the narrow streets around our apartment were still lively would be a major understatement.  As we unpacked and got ourselves ready for bed, we could hear a babble bordering on tumult from the streets below….. and I could still hear it as I tossed and turned in beds at 1.00am desperately trying to get some sleep.  In the nights that followed we discerned a pattern to the street noise.  There was the ‘before the revellers go home’ phase, followed by a ‘drag the tables inside and roll down the shutters phase’, then the ‘individual late night bawdies (or football fans going home)’ phase, before the early morning ‘roll the shutters up and drag the tables back across the cobbles’ phase.  It wasn’t an easy first night but it got easier.

Friday 20^th October 2023, Charlas at the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), Escuelas Pias, Calle Tribulete 

This was a busy day for Rob as not only was he playing a concert with Na-Mara on Saturday 21^st October, he was also giving three presentations or ‘charlas’ at the 7^th Curso de Maestros Guitarreros y Compositores en la Música Española in the UNED Madrid, Escuelas Pias.  Two of the presentations related to Schotts music and its relationship, first, with Andrés Segovia and, second, with José Tomás. His third presentation was about the use of the classical guitar in folk music and I was there to assist him in performing a couple of examples from our repertoire (Nancy from London and If I Had But One True Love).

The day began with breakfast at a nearby restaurant with Rob’s longstanding friend, Miguel Javaloy Serrano, whom it was a joy to meet.  Breakfast finished, we walked the few blocks over to the Guitarrería Ramírez, the home of Guitarras Ramírez, in the Calle de la Paz, where we picked up our loaned classical and folk guitars for the day’s charla and the following day’s concert. Guitar makers since 1870, José Ramirez guitars are amongst the finest in the world and going into their shop was like entering a magic guitar wonderland.  Beautiful instruments, wall to wall.

A helpful assistant laid our two guitars on the counter and we both took our seats to try them out. My steel stringed guitar was sublime. Less your usual folk acoustic guitar, more a cross-over from a classical to a folk instrument.  It sat beautifully in the hand.  The action was superb.  For me, the only slight problem was that I usually stand to perform and this guitar was not made to be played with a usual strap around the neck.  There was no strap button and I quickly rejected the offered noose-like strap that clipped onto the sound before running underneath the guitar and being slipped the head.  I decided I was perfectly happy to sit if it meant I could play this wonderful instrument.

Once we had signed for the guitars, we set off on another short walk across central Madrid to participate in the charlas.

We arrived in good time to listen to talks on, first, music therapy and emotional management, and, second, the relationship between Andrés Segovia and Alirio Diaz.  Then Rob and I took to the floor.  The talk was all in Spanish and Rob and I had identified a few passages for me to give in Spanish.  Rob is completely fluent in Spanish but what they made of my Middlesbrough Spanish accent, I don’t know. Our two songs both went down very well, as did the presentation as a whole.  So much so, in fact, that a representative of Ramirez guitars asked Rob and I to make a special film of Nancy from London in a location elsewhere in the building that had better acoustics.  We were naturally honoured and happy to do this once Rob and others had finished their subsequent charla presentations.

After the formalities of the morning were complete, a dozen or so of us repaired to a nearby restaurant for a hearty lunch and some beers.  In the Spanish way, lunch was much later than might be imagined in the UK and, by the time we had returned to the apartment to drop off our instruments after it, it was pretty much time for us to return to the UNED Madrid Escuelas Pias building to listen to a powerful and moving concert by world-renowned guitarist and educationalist, Carlos Bonell.  The evening concluded with more beers and tapas in a nearby restaurant before returning home to try and get some sleep before our concert the following day.

Saturday 21^st October 2023:  Espacio Ronda, Ronda de Segovia

A tad bleary eyed after another noisy night, we were up in good time to breakfast in what was now our ‘local’ breakfast place.  We then returned to the apartment for some rehearsal ahead of our concert at the Espacio Ronda, near the Puerto de Toledo.  Satisfied and excited, we then walked across central Madrid to the venue, arriving in plenty of time to get ourselves comfortable with the auditorium, the green room and our instrument tuning.  The staff at the Espacio Ronda were extremely helpful.  The venue itself is a beautiful, modern, space with excellent acoustics.  Seating for 60-70 people was already nicely laid out.

As we prepared, our fellow performer, Sardinian guitar maestro, Simone Onnis, arrived and introduced himself.  Having got ourselves comfortable with the stage, we withdrew to allow Simone to do likewise.  Even in his pre-concert preparations, it was clear that he was going to provide a dramatic and powerful performance.

As the clock ticked towards our start time at midday, the venue filled up and, after a brief introduction from Festival Director, Pablo de la Cruz, we took to the stage. Questions about how a classical guitar festival audience might receive our music had kept me thinking for weeks, but I really shouldn’t have worried.  They absolutely loved it!  Our set had been constructed to present mainly traditional songs and tunes, and it was clear that the audience particularly liked the lilting melodies of songs like Nancy from London, The Verdant Braes of Screen and Only For Three Months, and the beauty of tunes like Star of the County Down and Javier Tejedor’s wonderful Añada Pa Julia.  Rob did most of the introductions but, in my broken Spanish, I was able to make some small contribution.

The time on stage passed in a trice and, to our joy and amazement, as the final applause after our encore continued, audience members began to stand.  We were having our first ever standing ovation.  The response will stay in our minds forever.  Thanks to all involved in facilitating such a memorable occasion.

We then ceded the stage to Simone Onnis who proceeded to perform an utterly blistering concert, covering music by a wide range of composers for classical guitar.  He too was very well received by the audience and, having now secreted ourselves at the back of the auditorium, it was a privilege to watch him.

After Simone had finished, we spent time talking with a range of audience members who were extremely complimentary about our performance and our music.  Over on the ‘merch table’, CD sales were brisk.  Many thanks to Dave for his sterling efforts on our behalf…….And then it was time for lunch!  Another wonderful and varied meal with Festival organisers, Simone, fellow Italian guitar maestro Ciro Carbone and others.  Rob and I could not have been more satisfied with what we had achieved. We had rehearsed hard and it had paid off handsomely.

After lunch, we crossed central Madrid back to the apartment for a cup of tea with Miguel Javaloy Serrano at our flat before setting out to meet Rob’s cousin and her husband in the Plaza Mayor for a very interesting stroll around the many different historical areas of central Madrid. It was the best possible way to wind down from our earlier exertions.

With our music adventures now largely complete, we could relax into more ‘holiday’ mode.

Sunday to Wednesday, 22^nd to 25^th October 2023

On Sunday 22^nd October, we all visited the fabulous Museo Arqueológico Nacional in the Calle de Serrano, had lunch at a Basque restaurant with Rob’s cousin and partner, and then attended a lovely concert in the evening given by the Cuarteto de Guitarras Nonius at the Espacio Ronda which included the Spanish premiere of a Julian Anderson guitar piece published by Schott Music.  This was followed by a merry session with Pablo de la Cruz in a nearby bar on what was a very rainy night in Madrid.

The following day, Monday 23^rd October, we visited the staggeringly good Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum on the Paseo del Prado before celebrating a birthday in the group at a nearby Catalan restaurant.  That evening  we attended a brilliant concert by guitar maestro and Rob’s friend, Ignacio Rodes, at the Teatro Infanta Isabel in the Calle Barquillo, before repairing to an excellent local taverna and a lively restaurant afterwards.  

On Tuesday 24^th October, the group had to split up. Rob was tied up in business meetings that day.  So, Dave and I tried (and ultimately failed) to book a train to Toledo and, instead, spent a splendid day at, first, the Real Jardín Botánico in Plaza de Murillo, and then the Museo de America on the Avenida de los Reyes Catolicos, calling in on the way to the Faro de Moncloa (Plaza De Moncloa), a 92-metre-high transmission tower with an observation deck providing panoramic views over the whole of Madrid and out to the surrounding mountains. 

After a hearty meal in a local tavern in Moncloa, Dave and I returned to the apartment before meeting up again with Rob and going to visit other members of his family in Madrid.

Our day concluded with a return to the Plaza del Sol area and a meal in a busy restaurant.

The return to the UK on Wednesday 25^th October went very smoothly indeed.  After a final breakfast in our ‘local’, we were able to catch a suitably sized taxi with space for all our gear back to Barajas airport. The IBERIA flight was again on time, the baggage collection went fine (including the safe return of the mandola to the UK) and the journey round the M25 was slow but ultimately steady. 

Many thanks to Pablo de la Cruz for the invitation to perform at the festival and to María Torre Núñez for all her assistance.  Thanks also to Amalia Ramirez, Luthier and Director of Guitarras José Ramirez for loaning Rob and me two superb examples of José Ramirez guitars for our concert. Finally, many thanks to Miguel Javaloy Serrano, Laura Rossi and many others for their support and company throughout our time in Madrid.

After the stresses and strains of a drive through central London and back to perform at Dulwich Folk the previous evening, it was very pleasant to be able to leave for a gig in the early evening, at a club and venue so familiar that we didn't even need to switch on the SAT-NAV.

Chesham Folk Club has been extremely supportive and kind to Na-Mara over many years. It is friendly and welcoming and we have come to know many of its audience members over the years.

Notwithstanding the comfortable departure time, we arrived at the White Hill Centre, home of the club in Chesham, in good time to catch up with club organiser Clive Carey and a number of our other friends at the club.

It was a glorious evening and the brightly lit room in the community centre was initially warm. However, as starting time for the evening approached, the sun began to go down affording the room a calming ambience and glow.

Clive Carey, Bob and Annette performing as the duo Petrichor and Dave Artus provided some wonderfully delicate music at the beginning of both the first and second halves of the evening.

Our two sets both seemed to go down well with the audience joining in enthusiastically on all the choruses.

As always, it was a real pleasure to see our friends at Chesham Folk Club again. We wish the club and its members every success for the future. My thanks to Clive Carey for the invitation to perform again at the club.

Decisions. Decisions. Broadly the same amount of time. Tolls either way. One route is far longer but more relaxing, the other (for me at least) nail biting but much shorter. In the end, we opted to pay the congestion charge and take the car through central London to the Dulwich Folk club rather than around the M25 and into London on the A2.

I am not the most comfortable of London drivers. So, a trip down the A5, Marble Arch, Hyde Park Corner, Vauxhall Bridge and, then, onto Dulwich, weaving through the buses, bikes, electric scooters and death wish roadrunner pedestrians, doesn't come easy.  However, with the aid of more experienced London drivers, we made it through.

We had set off in the early afternoon to visit two close friends who live in Dulwich Village before moving on in the early evening to make our first visit to Dulwich Folk.

Late summer sunshine having (eventually) arrived, we spent a glorious late afternoon sitting chatting in our friend's garden with a cuppa and a light tea. 

As the bells of Dulwich College rang 6:00pm, we said our adieus and arranged to meet our friends again a little later at the club. Being just a ten-minute drive away, we arrived at The Castle pub in Crystal Palace Road just as club hosts Jackie and Peter had finished setting the room up for the evening’s entertainment. Peter had seen Na-Mara perform at Croydon Folk Club in 2022 and did us the honour of inviting us to then come along to play at Dulwich Folk.

The club is held in a medium sized upstairs room over the main bar. Everyone we met over the course of the entire evening was extremely friendly and the club had a really lovely feel to it.

So, without the need for any form of PA system, we were able to set up quickly and had time to speak with a number of club members as they arrived. Then, our friends and family members began to arrive, and the club room began to fill nicely.

Both halves of the evening at Dulwich Folk start with a round of floor singers, with the main act completing both sessions. The range and talent of Dulwich Folk regulars is very striking. We had an accomplished duets with clever harmonies, well delivered songs in both French and Spanish and soulful deliveries of beautiful English and American folk classics. Sadly, the house choir, usually seven strong, had been severely depleted by COVID. That said, the remaining trio performed very well as did a duo visiting London from the Shropshire/Welsh borders deploying Hungarian zither and guitar to accompany heartfelt songs about nature and the landscape. 

I'm pleased to report, especially after rehearsing diligently in preceding weeks, that both of our sets went well and were well received by the Dulwich folk audience. It was a hot sultry night, but the instruments stayed in tune with our concentration held.

We finished with an encore of Companion de la Marjolaine and had a pleasingly long round of applause at the end of the evening. Feedback was excellent as we said our goodbyes to family and friends old and new, and then it was back on the road retracing our path through central London.  There was now mercifully less traffic, but all of it now moving noticeably faster. 

Still, we made it through and were unpacking the gear at home by 12:15am. It had been a really enjoyable concert and day. Many thanks to Peter and Jackie for the invitation to perform at Dulwich Folk and to all the members of the Dulwich Folk club for their warmest of welcomes.

They could be no better way to conclude our ‘seven gigs in eight days’ tour than by having an evening of music in the company of good pals who you've known for a long time. Even better when you don't have to travel more than one motorway junction to see them! 

So, with the luxury of a proper ‘tea-time’ and a 6:45pm departure from St. Albans, the three of us set off for the Pump House in Watford, home to the wonderful Watford Folk Club.

The venue was already set out by the time we got there. So, we unpacked and set ourselves up quickly. This left plenty of time to chat with club organiser, Pete Nutkins. Pete is a good friend of ours and a great supporter of Na-Mara’s music, and we were introduced to Mel and Cynthia who are now working with Pete to manage club nights.

It was another beautifully sunny evening and, with St. Albans Folk Festival getting underway that same evening, it wasn't clear how busy the venue would be. Pleasing then to report that any pre-concert fears about attendance levels proved unfounded. A mix of club regulars, club newcomers and friends of Na-Mara boosted numbers and, by the time Pete started the evening off with his rendition of ‘The Calico Printers Clerk’, the room was nicely filled.

As evidenced throughout the evening, Watford Folk Club is a great singing club. It is also very friendly and filled with talent. Dave Artus, who’d supported us only three days earlier at Dartford Folk Club, performed a Reg Meuross song for us all. He was followed by club regular, Boris, who sang ‘The Ploughman Lad’, before both Ray Owen and Liz Lawley sang songs of their own composition.

Looking out from the performance area, it was obvious from our very first chorus of the evening that everyone was up for a good old singsong and our first set simply flew by.

Such is the array of club talent at Watford Folk Club that, before our second set, a further five performers were able to contribute to the evening. We had Ady Shaw singing his song, ‘Bar Room Philosopher’, Mel played a tune on piano. Sue and Michael sang Billy Bragg's ‘Northern Industrial Town’, and Carrie sang ‘Katy Cruel’ before a final number from Pete Nutkins, a Sarah Makem song. 

Then, making it a hat trick for us over the course of the week, Dave won the raffle ahead of our second set. (If we win many more bottles of wine, we might be able to open an off-licence.)

Energy levels remained high in the room until the very end of the concert which we finished off with an encore of Maid of Culmore. 

CD sales were pleasingly brisk after the show.  Indeed, after a week of good CD sales, our carrying stock was so depleted that we actually ran out and had to make special arrangements to help get a desired CD to a disappointed customer. 

Many thanks to Pete Nutkins and the Watford folk club for the invitation to join them again, and for their kind words and thunderous choruses.

We were very excited to be travelling to Margate for the sixth gig of our seven venue tour. Rosslyn Court is a truly remarkable venue run by Morag Butler and her team. The main business of Rosslyn Court is as a Bed and Breakfast in Margate.  However, with Morag's love for music of all kinds and her commitment to the Margate community, a room at the side of the house, on the corner of two streets, has been converted into a super little music venue.

Because Morag livestreams the gigs, the Rosslyn Court team consists of a sound technician for the PA, a cameraman, and a producer to manage the production of the broadcast. It is all great fun and highly professional.

With Rob having relatives in Margate, the three of us set off early from St Albans in order to have a cup of tea and some cake with them in their back garden. The journey down to Margate was swift and unproblematic - although some of those Margate back streets can be a bit tight.

We spent a very pleasant hour with our friends and were treated to some heavenly cakes bought from a local patisserie.  It was lovely to catch up with all their news. Then, at 6:00pm, we said our goodbyes and drove the five minutes to Rosslyn Court, where we parked up near the venue and carried our gear in.

A veritable pocket dynamo always full of energy, Morag greeted us warmly and introduced us to her team, John on sound, Chris on camera and Andy on production, with Una on the bar for the evening.

With the event kicking off at 7:30pm, we unpacked and carried out our sound check immediately. John created a great sound for us quickly and efficiently and by 7:00pm we were able to sit and have our (now regulation) sandwiches chatting with Morag and Una in the Rosslyn Court garden.

The venue had filled nicely by start time and Morag kicked the evening off with a gorgeous rendition of Steve O'Donoghue's song, Accident of Birth. (We have written before in this blog about Steve O'Donoghue. He is a writer and performer of the highest calibre and how he isn't feted the length and breadth of the UK folk world remains a mystery to us.)

After Morag finished, we were straight on to do our hour-long livestream which can be viewed here   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xa22WJuBwrE&t=1069s  . 

Cleverly, anyone who comments on or donates through the livestream or who attends in person is automatically entered into the Rosslyn Court free raffle to win wither a CD from the guest or a ‘Who Gives a Crap’ loo roll. So, around 8:00pm, Morag comes on stage to call on those watching through the ether to consider making a donation, and at 8:25pm she draws the raffle before one last livestream song from the guests. At 8:30pm-ish, the livestream ends and there is a short intermission.

In our case, the livestream part of the evening seemed to go well and we received some nice feedback throughout the break. It was also lovely to meet up again with our old friend and local journalist, Jodie, in the break and hear all about what she's been doing in recent times.

Ever the innovator, Morag has also introduced a novel way to begin the second set at Rosslyn Court, with a Q&A session for the guests and, so, we were asked questions about how many guitars we each have, which instrument we would save in the event of fire, whether we play other instruments than those on show and whether we’ve ever played abroad. The questions trigger plenty of banter.

Following the Q&A, we performed a brief second set aided at one point by smoke machine and glitter ball (! – our first) finishing at 9:30pm and following with an encore. Infused with Morag’s energy, the whole evening was highly participatory and fun, and everyone there seemed to have a great time. 

Morag had offered us all accommodation for the night with the promise of fish and chips before bedtime but, where possible, Na-Mara are home birds and with commitments the next day and having spent so little time at home in the previous week, we thanked Morag for her generosity and set off for home.

With such an early finish, we had a notion we might be home before midnight. However, as the proverb goes, ‘When men plan, God laughs’. Indeed, it seemed as though the entire British road construction industry was hell bent on cutting Kent off from the rest of England that night. Immense sets of road works slowed us down, required us to zig from the M2 to the M20, before zagging back to the M2 again. The disruption was such that we even had to stop off at a garage to make sure we had enough fuel to get us home. We finally reached home close to 1:00 o'clock, tired but still smiling after another lovely evening at Rosslyn Court.

We wish Morag and her team all the very best for the future.  Rosslyn Court is a credit to Margate and deserves every success.

Na-Mara hasn't played many support slots in recent times, but we were very pleased to be invited to support folk royalty, Nancy Kerr and James Fagan at an Ely Folk Club concert. Sadly, for all concerned, Nancy was suffering after a painful dental procedure and unable to perform. However, James Fagan managed to encourage the multi-talented Tim van Eyken to perform with him for the evening. Good friends and bandmates from times past this proved to be a beautiful reunion of great talents.

The unfathomable mysteries of our car SATNAV, Camilla, caused us more than a little consternation as we set off from St. Albans by suggesting that we were going to be tight for time for our sound check at Ely Folk Club. Using some algorithm we haven’t yet fathomed, she predicted a journey time of around 100 minutes compared to our phone SATNAVs’ 80 minutes. Naturally, we followed the phone’s preferred route and, indeed, arrived at the venue in plenty of time.

Ely Folk Club is now held in the Arkenstall Village Centre, near Haddenham, 7 miles southwest of Ely. It is a large venue with excellent acoustics and good parking. There isn’t a bar on site, but club members can bring their own drinks, and the room is nicely set out with two long rows of tables. Al very nice. Very comfortable.

Having arrived in good time, we popped into the venue to say ‘hello’ to club organisers and found the room a hive of activity with a goodly number of club members setting out tables and chairs while sound technician for the evening, Dee, was organising the PA. Not wanting to get in the way, the three of us retreated back to the car park to have our (now traditional) sandwiches and fruit ahead of the gig. 

It was a gorgeous summer's evening, and, after a few minutes, club organiser Ruth Bramley popped out for a chat. We haven't seen Ruth for many years, and it was great to catch up with all her news and to be warmed up by her infectious energy.  While we chatted, James Fagan arrived for his sound check, Tim van Eyken arriving soon afterwards.

Sarnies demolished, we decamped back into the venue to watch James and Tim do their sound check and to get ready ourselves. Dee created a wonderful soundscape for James and Tim and, by swapping a classical guitar for a melodeon, our setup proved reasonably similar. Dee was the epitome of efficiency throughout the sound check and did a great job for us. 

It is usually the case for gigs that the main act sound checks before the support. This is entirely logical as it is clearly important that the main attraction for the evening has the most attention and the least stress through the sound checking process but it also means that, during the concert itself, the support’s sound equipment and instruments can be peeled away easily, leaving the main act’s sound arrangements as originally finalised. And, so, minutes after our sound check was completed, we were on at 7:30 on the dot. 

We performed five numbers in our half hour slot and were warmly congratulated on our short set by audience members at both half time and full time. 

James and Tim then took to the stage for an excellent first set. They started off with ‘On the Banks of the Condamine’ and then moved from Australia to New Zealand with Paul Metser’s classic ‘Farewell to the Gold’. Given their lack of rehearsal time, James and Tim provided a great first set of songs and instrumentals, traditional and contemporary. They didn’t even break stride when James bust a string on his bouzouki.

After the 30-minute break, James and Tim picked up from where they'd left off, with a version of Robb Johnson's ‘Herald of Free Enterprise’.  Movingly, later on, Tim sang ‘When First I Came to Caledonia’, in memory of Norma Waterson. For an encore, the pair finished the evening with a rousing rendition of Alistair Hulett's powerful song, ‘Blue Murder’.

As we packed our gear away and James and Tim were doing the same, we were able to have a brief chat with them and to thank James for the very generous words about our support slot he’d spoken halfway through the second set.

After saying our goodbyes to James, Tim and Ruth, and thanking Dee for all her hard work, it was back in the car, and with phone SATNAVs at the ready (Camilla, being in disgrace for the evening) we raced home without incident. Given the 10:00pm finish at Ely Folk Club, we were all home nice and early. 

Many thanks to Ruth and all at Ely Folk Club for the invitation to perform, to Dee for the lovely soundscape she created for us, and to James and Tim for their kind words and supreme musicianship.  We also wish Nancy Kerr the speediest and fullest of recoveries and look forward to hearing her and James again in the coming years.

There is nothing worse than the stress of having to be somewhere at a given time and being stuck in traffic. As a consequence, where possible these days, we’ve taken to leaving very early for our gigs and parking up somewhere near the venue for refreshments before pushing on to the gig for the evening.

Our trip to Dartford Folk Club reinforced the benefits of this new discipline. The M25 was painfully slow from the moment we got on it at St Albans to just a few miles short of the Dartford Bridge. Things would have been very ‘sticky’ had we set off in ‘rush hour’.

So, we managed to cross the Bridge in decent time to execute our plan of parking up at a local Country Park on what was a splendidly sunny day for a restful half hour before finishing the journey to the wonderful Dartford Folk Club for our 6.15pm sound check. Infuriating then that, despite best endeavours we couldn’t locate the car park for the Country Park. Instead, we trawled the housing estates of east Dartford in vain, eventually admitting defeat and turning for Dartford town centre. ‘Aha!’, came the cry. ‘There's a park! Princes Park’. So, we veered off down a side road only to find out that said ‘park’ is actually the home of Dartford Football Club. Anyway, we pressed on a wee bit beyond the football ground and found an open area near some posh houses where we had our sarnies and juice in true rock'n'roll style.

From there it was only five minutes to the venue which we found easily. Many thanks to Alan, our sound technician for the evening for coming to say ‘hello’ and solving our parking query outside the venue. With his help we were able to park up very close to the gig entrance and unload our gear with ease.

The Dartford Folk club is now in its 50th year, 25 of which have been at its current venue, the Dartford Working Men's (CIU) Club.  The folk club itself is held in an impressively large room with a low-level stage for performance at one end. Alan and his club colleague, Andy, immediately set about setting the stage up for us and the floor and support slots.

Dartford Folk Club has a great community atmosphere, with old friends meeting up for a chat well before the start of the evening. We too caught up with old friends. First, to arrive was our support for the evening, Dave Artus.  We’ve been friends with Dave for many years and hadn't seen since before the COVID pandemic. So, it was great to hear all the things that he's been up to in recent years.

Next, we had a lovely chat with Dartford Folk Club organiser, Joe Whittaker, who we've also known for many years and who has been a forceful supporter and advocate for our music. 

Finally, we got to meet up again with Doug Welch.  Many years earlier, Doug had invited Na-Mara to perform live and discuss our music on his Radio Kent folk programme which, along with many other specialist radio programmes the length and breadth of the UK has, in our view, recently been cruelly axed by the BBC. It was so good to hear that he was still actively promoting folk music in the Kent region.

Dartford Folk Club is a large club and, by the time the music started, audience numbers had built to 50 to 60 strong.  The room itself is set out with rows of chairs set closer to the stage, with the regular room tables spread out towards the back. 

Alan had done a great job with the sound and MCs for the evening, Jim and Alison, started the evening off with three beautifully delivered songs with guitar and sweet harmonica, ending with Nina Simone's classic, ‘I Wish I Knew How it Would Feel to be Free’. Gorgeous.

Dave Artus then took to the stage. A fine singer and guitar player, Dave entertained the room with Huw and Tony Williams’ ‘Morse Code Song’ followed by two of his trademark self-compositions, ‘Wheelbarrow and a Dream’, about the amazing orange groves of Baldassare Forestiere, and ‘Times Decay’, with its reflections on life. 

We then took to the stage for our first 45-minute set which, this time, included a rendition of The Bite. The Dartford Folk Club is a truly great chorus singing club and the audience immediately joined in with our traditional and self-penned songs

The half-time feedback was excellent and CD sales were brisk.

The club doesn't have floor spots to open the second half and so we were straight back on stage again after the break and the raffle (which, unusually for us this tour, we didn't win).

The second set flew by and we were almost surprised to be at our last couple of numbers. Audience energy kept up throughout the course of the second set and we finished, as we have been doing recently, with an encore of Maid of Culmore.

We stayed on after the gig to chat again with Joe Whittaker, Doug Welch and a number of audience members who had questions about our songs and instruments.

With the car just outside, we were soon back on the road to St Albans with the ever helpful Dave Berry at the wheel. The M25 was again frightful even at that time of night but.... mercifully not on our side of the motorway. Those travelling east that evening might well have grown old sitting there but we were scooting home for a bite to eat before bed.

Very many thanks to Joe Whittaker for giving us our first headline gig Dartford Folk Club and for his continuing support for all we do.  We wish him, his shanty crew ‘Swinging the Lead’, and all at Dartford Folk Club the very best for the future. Likewise, well done Dave Artus. We wish you all the best and hope to see you again soon.

Up nice and early for the next leg west on our tour. Cuppas and ablutions finished, we tidied up the Airbnb and readied ourselves to get the instruments back into the car. All very efficient. So, it was a bit of a shock to hear a noise and find a man in our living room speaking only Polish. The next guests had arrived early - two hours early to be precise. Anyway, using his best Polish and hand signals, Rob told him to give us 15 minutes and we'd be gone and, with that information, a smile and a shrug, the man ducked his head and departed.

Car loaded, we set off to get ourselves well beyond Bristol before breakfasting. At that time on a Sunday morning the traffic was reasonably light and we managed to reach Taunton Deane services before our stomachs were rumbling too much.  The food wasn’t great but it filled a gap.

The M5 and A30 had only light traffic and we managed to make such excellent progress that we could afford to push on a little beyond our planned destination near Redruth to visit St. Ives. The rain clouds vanished over the Moors and we arrived in the pretty port in sunshine and spent a pleasant 90 minutes exploring the harbour area.

Then it was back in the car and on to meet our hosts for the evening , J and N.  We arrived with them as planned around 4:00pm just in time for a lovely cup of tea and some lemon drizzle cake in their beautiful cottage garden. We know J through our links with the IBMT and it was J who persuaded the Dreamers Folk Club to extend an invitation to us to perform there.

Having been shown to our rooms for the night, we were then treated to a very nice pre-gig meal, perfect for an energy boost. 

Meal over, we followed J and N to the Dreamers Folk Club which is held in the large backroom of The Victoria Inn in Four Lanes village near Redruth arriving at the same time as many other performers, and the beautiful, deep red, club banner was already in place behind where performers stand to perform. The welcome from club organiser, Jonathan, and others couldn't have been warmer.  It was a real pleasure to be there.

The room was set out with tables and it soon filled up. Jonathan and his partner began the floor spots with a crowd pleaser, Peter Sarstedt’s ‘Where do you go to my lovely?’. We then had some topical songs about local issues and an hilarious modern take on Matty Groves which sets the fight challenge in a pub over a game of snooker! Laugh out loud material. This was followed by a gorgeous version of jazz classic, Georgia, on acoustic guitar with beautiful vocals and sweet, understated, harmonica playing. 

Nigel then performed an excellent monologue about Neolithic NIMBYs’ downbeat reaction to that newfangled Stone Age construction at Stonehenge.  We followed on with our first set. 

The Dreamers’ audience was very much up for singing and choruses all seemed to be picked up quickly. It was also an excellent listening audience which meant the quiet songs were also well received. We had some lovely feedback at half time from an audience full of energy. A significant compliment was from one woman in the audience with a reputation for knowing an immense amount about the British folk song canon, who thanked us profusely for playing songs that she’d never heard before. 

There were more excellent floor spots before our second set began from excellent guitar-vocal duo Paul and Ruth, two great songs from Hilary playing guitar solo, and then Jane sang a truly rousing version of Keith Marsden's ‘Idlers and Skivers (Knocking on the Door)’.

Our second set seemed to go every bit as well as the first. We performed our song ‘Only for Three Months’ especially for J who we know has performed it unaccompanied many times at Dreamers Folk Club. As with the previous night in Bristol, we finished the night with an encore of The Maid of Culmore.

After some final conversations with club members, we were reasonably quickly packed up and on the road again, following J and N back to their cottage. We never drink alcohol before performing so, on another baking hot night, it was very generous of J and N to break out some cold beers for us after the event. It was lovely to relax with a cold drink and enjoy such stimulating conversation with our hosts in the living room of their beautiful cottage before slipping off to bed. 

After a very peaceful night’s sleep, we were all up in good time to make the 300 mile journey back home to St.Albans. J and N's hospitality was to the fore again as they provided us with a splendid breakfast to send us on our way and, with that, we said our goodbyes and turned for home, up through Truro to the A30, which was again kind to us, before the M5, M4 and the inevitably troublesome M25 home.

Many thanks to the Dreamers Folk Club for the invitation to perform there and to J and N for their boundless generosity and hospitality.  It was a long way to Redruth but it was worth every mile travelled!