11th June 2008: Baldock and Letchworth Folk Club

A return to our old friends' Alan and Sue Hewson's excellent Baldock and Letchworth Club to support the excellent Vikki Swan and Johnny Dyer who were over from their Essex (?) base.

We started the evening off with some material that was new to Baldock which was very well received. We are making some real friends there now.

Vikki is of Swedish extraction and played a variety of instruments, including the nickelharper. Rob, polylinguist that he is, had some banter with her in Swedish and the audience was treated to some great ballads and some wonderful Scandinavian tunes. This was very opportune really given that I was off to Stockholm for the first time ever, early the next morning. In this regard, as per usual, I managed to find a few minutes in a busy work schedule to try and get into a record shop and check out more of this fabulous music. Sadly, the local information I was given was poor in that, having gone up five escalators in a major Department Store, found only workmen at work, refurbishing the floor and the music department was shut. By which time it was necessary to dash to the main station and get back out to the airport - sweaty and unsatisfied. But, so wonderful was the music we had heard from Vikki and Johnny, that I intend to pursue more bands and artist to hear more.