6th April 2009 Waltham Abbey Folk Club and other bits and pieces

In line with our interest of visiting new clubs, Rob and I attended a singer’s night at the Waltham Abbey Folk Club. Jan Ayres, who runs this very friendly club, very kindly allowed us to double up and do a couple of numbers each round in what was a very talented room of singers and players. Resident duo Blue Harbour performed some excellent bluesy material, and there was some great fiddle music, excellent accordion playing and some very funny banter all night.
As Rob and I have been travelling in recent weeks, we have been talking a lot about the need for us to get back into the studio and do a third CD. We are acutely aware that the two CDs we currently have cover only a modest proportion of our current repertoire. I have now invested in some Cubase software and am slowly beginning to master it – and this might liberate us from making too much call on friends in St Albans and Suffolk. But, it will take some considerable time to master this complex software to a level that we could realistically make a quality recording – even if I have some decent mikes, etc. So, we are still working on what best to do. The real problem is, of course with full time ‘day jobs’ is simply finding the time. We are both active family guys as well as professionals in our own field, with jobs that require a fair amount of travel – so finding two or three days (or preferably a lot more) to do a recording session justice, is going to be hard.
Elsewhere, I am proud to say that we have been asked again by Marlene Sideway to play at the International Brigade Memorial in Jubilee Gardens on July 4th. It was a moving and stimulating event last year and I assume it will be so again this year.