It was great to be back out ‘gigging’ again and it was a real treat to start our 2016 commitments at the lovely Loughton Folk Club. We have visited the club on a number of occasions before and have always had the finest of welcomes. This evening was no exception.

Now run by Gary James, Steve O’Donoghue and a team of committed volunteers, the club takes place in a very pleasant, nicely-sized, room with good acoustics above the Loughton Club. The club has an intimate and involved air about it.

For the second half of our musical weekend we had a double treat in store. Not only were we going to meet up again with our old friends at the Cambridge Folk Club but we were also going to get the chance to renew our acquaintance and play with Sussex-based five piece, Kiss the Mistress.

For the first part of our musical weekend, Rob and I were treated to a first class welcome at The Goose is Out folk club in Nunhead in south-east London last night.

It is always exciting to visit a new folk club. Well, Orpington Folk Club might have been a new folk club for us but the club itself has an enviably long-established pedigree. It celebrated its 50th (!) birthday this year and we were very excited about the invitation to play there.

This was our first concert after the summer holidays and, after some hard work at rehearsals, we hit the road on a sunny Saturday afternoon for a special concert in Ely. We had been invited to play for attendees at a conference organised by prestigious The Chartered Institute of Linguists. A visiting group of linguists from Germany had expressed a specific interest in hearing more about Gaelic and, with others, we helped provide a musical exploration of songs and tunes drawn from across the Celtic world.

It is always wonderful to be invited to play a part in the institution that is the Cambridge Folk Festival and we were honoured to be asked by our good friends at Cambridge Folk Club to provide a brief set on the Club Tent stage.

It was up bright and early to get on the road for our performance at the 2015 Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival; our sound check was planned for 10.00am and we had 131 miles to get there.

Despite an early hiccup on the M25 and a detour through Watford, the Sunday morning motorways were reasonably clear and we were able to stop off for a ‘naughty but nice’ breakfast before going on site.

It is always a pleasure to visit the Baldock and Letchworth Folk, Blues and Roots Club. Over the years we have made some lovely friends there who have always been very appreciative of our music. So, on a warm summer’s night it was great to see so many turn out to see the mighty Bob Fox perform, with us as support.

We had the pleasure of spending a lovely evening yesterday in the company of a welcoming audience and three very friendly and talented young musicians in the form of headliners, Jaywalkers.

na-mara had last performed at Dunton Folk at a Christmas-themed event back in December 2013 when supporting the hugely entertaining Blast from the Past. On that dark December evening it hadn’t been quite so easy to see what a pretty setting Dunton Folk takes place in. This time St Mary Magdalene Church in the pretty village of Dunton looked resplendent bathed in late evening sunshine.

Performers came from far and near to play folk music of every description and make a great night of music at Royston Folk Club last night.

For its showcase evening, the Royston Folk Club uses a delightful old room, complete with wooden beams and an excellent bar area off to one side. It also has a large room elsewhere in the complex of buildings that make up The Old Bull Inn in Royston in north Hertfordshire for its concert evenings.