Well it’s been a busy time for us and we are very much looking forward to our first visit as guests to Cambridge Folk Club on Friday 12th October.

First things first though.  On Sunday 30th September we went to Wath Folk and Live Music Club and had a great time – you know it’s gong to be good when the organiser, John brings a flask of  water especially to make a nice hot  cuppa for the guests!  The floor spots were all very good, the sound was brill  and it was one of those evenings that just flowed.  Very nice bunch of people at Wath and we had a good natter at the end so it was quite late/early when we got back to base.

Last week we spent ages rehearsing then went to see recording guru Neil Segrott in Leicester to lay down some tracks on Thursday and Friday ready for our long awaited new CD.  The CD will be mainly original songs with a couple of traditional songs and tunes.

I recently made a last minute decision to attend one of the courses ‘Making Songs’ run by Maddy Prior, Rick and Rose Kemp up at Stones Barn in the wilds of Cumbria.  I started, but didn’t complete any songs while I was up there, probably because I was having so much fun, but the flood gates opened when I returned.  My mind was buzzing with ideas.  The process of turning songs into arrangements with the benefit of a virtuoso guitar player close at hand is an absolute joy!

We’re really pleased with the result and hoping to have the CD mixed and mastered by the 30th October then get it pressed and ready to rock by mid November.  I’ll post more details nearer the time.

So, it’s Cambridge Folk Club this Friday and we’re very excited about that.  We thoroughly enjoyed our last visit, especially that wacky lass called Nicky who ran the raffle – quite an extraordinary experience !  She was almost …. evangelical about encouraging us all to buy tickets, so much so that I felt I wanted to buy the whole book!  I do hope she’s there again on Friday …..

While I’m thinking about it, another funny thing happened there, twice in the one evening.  Steve used some of his ‘hard earned’ to get a pint and left it neatly tucked away by his chair when we got up to do our floor spot.  He returned to the chair to find that it, (almost a full pint), had been inadvertently knocked over 🙁  So he went to the bar, got another pint and managed to hang onto it without spilling it for the rest of the evening.  However, with a good half pint left at the end, he got chatting with somebody and put his pint safely out of the way on a high shelf while he went to get a CD from his bag.  He promptly returned to find that all the unattended glasses had been collected!  He was feeling very bitter about his Bitter on the drive home ..

Well, I digress.  We’ll be staying over on Friday and are looking forward to spending some time in Cambridge on Saturday before heading off to Stevington in Bedfordshire for our evening gig.

The Stevington Guitar Concert Series has been running for a few years and features world class players.  Steve and I have been the regular support act for the past four years and it’s an event which I always look forward to.  This year the main performer is Frank Vignola, (with Vinny Raniolo), from New York.  I’ve heard so much about him I can hardly wait to meet the guy in person and enjoy the performance.  Tickets sold out so quickly that the organiser John Duffield had to arrange an additional performance on Friday evening – that’s sold out too!

Details about all our gigs are on the ‘Gigs’ page.

If you’ve read this post and you see us out and about, please do come and say “hi”. … 🙂