5th December 2008, Cambridge Folk Club

A trip to Cambridge is almost like a trip to a home club. The welcome is always guaranteed to be warm and the acts are almost universally of the highest standard. This night was no exception. We shared the evening with two other acts – local heroes - The Ouse Brothers – who, as usual, played some truly excellent blues material, mostly self-penned, intimate and exceptionally well performed – and Sunday Driver, who are a most unusual band, blending successfully Asian sounds from tablas and sitar with harp and other more conventional folk instruments, to provide a very interesting sound. Stimulating songs, very well performed – no wonder they are listed for the Cambridge Folk Festival in 2009.
We introduced some new material to the act –we like to do new things for Cambridge. The audience is sophisticated and demanding and so it is a great challenge to get things right for presentation there. So, we introduced ‘Billy Don’t You Weep For Me’ which Rob and I have fallen in love with after hearing the wonderful Nic Jones version. We are very keen to engender variety in our act and, as such, Rob plays this on mandola and I sing without guitar – very relaxing for me as it allows me to concentrate on the vocals (and getting the lyrics right!) We also gave the northern Irish song, The Flower of Magherally, its first run out.
Even more amazing, we were told that our friends Chicken Lickin, residents at Cambridge have decided to cover our translated French song, When I took my horse to water, which we took from the music of Malicorne. This is a great honour and we wish them well with it.