this page updated 22 April 2006

Well, a week or so into the latest US trip and it's all going swimmingly so far. The trip got off to a great start at Manchester airport early last Thursday morning when the airline (bless 'em!) bumped us into Business First - we had seats 1K and 1L. It's not often I've got on to a plane and turned left. Needless to say it was a terrific flight...

We arrived in Newark in the middle of a snowstorm and were delayed a bit, but still arrived in Kansas City later that evening. The first two concerts in Marshall, MO, a small town some 100 miles east of KC, went really well. The school auditorium was a great place to play - fantastic sound. A huge number of people helped to put on the show - a fundraiser for the local 'meals on wheels' service - but special mention must go to Mike & Cara Brown who moved mountains to make it all happen.

This past weekend we've done three more concerts in Plattsburg and Kansas City, MO. We played these venues in 2004 so it was great to go back and see everyone again. Two years ago we were presented with the keys of Plattsburg - a real thrill - but this year we've been made honorary citizens of the city! That's another first! Upon receiving this great honour my first thought was that we might not need to go through so many hoops with US immigration...one of the locals somewhat cynically pointed out that we'd also need to pay local tax! Either way, it was a great moment. Once again we are indebted to a number of wonderful people without whom none of it would have happened.

Well, at least it's starting to get dark a little later and no longer is it pitch black by 3.30pm. I find it hard to be optimistic at this time of year as the couple of months after new year are just so miserable. Unless you're in New Zealand of course. Which I'm not.

We had a terrific evening with Alistair Anderson at the Sage in Gateshead a couple of weeks ago. It's a fantastic building that we both know well as all the music tuition for the Newcastle University folk degree course is held there, but this was the first time we played a concert there. It's a really first class venue and a great facility for the north of England.

Tonight we play the first of a series of village hall concerts we're doing this month prior to heading off to the States in early March.

Lots more live dates have been added to the live page, and it's always the best place to get the most up to date information.

Keep warm, and we hope to see you somewhere or other!

Ilkley, 30 December 2005

Well, another year just about done & dusted! It's been a pretty good 2005 on the whole and has taken us to some interesting places, most recently during the past couple of days. The concerts in Italy earlier this week were a lovely end to the year. More information and some photographs here.

The online shop was very busy during the run up to Christmas - early in 2006 we hope to be able to have our CDs available as downloads from the shop. Watch this space.

The new duo CD is coming along nicely, despite interruptions from various Christmas activities. It's absolutely the number one priority for January...

More dates are listed on the live page- we hope to see you somewhere or other. In the meantime, have a very Happy New Year!

Ilkley, 21 November 2005

A bit of a while since the last update...we've been busy doing concerts, teaching classes, recording albums and generally keeping out of mischief. The past week has seen me learning a lot more about the intricacies of website hosting systems than I ever really wanted to know. There was a change of servers that meant everything went pear-shaped for the past week. Still, it all seems to be working again, so I can forget about DNS and IP addresses and all the other stuff.

There's been a lot of teaching activity this autumn...while we were in Ireland last month we both took classes at the University of Limerick, then a couple of weeks later we were at a weekend-long course in Hexham organised by Folkworks.

Regular classes have restarted at Newcastle University too...

Recording of the new duo album is well underway, and the new studio system is proving to be absolutely fantastic. As a confirmed PC user it's been a bit of a wrench to buy a Mac, but the software isn't available on PC...

Only a couple more concerts this year (!) - more dates have been confirmed for 2006. All details on the live page.

We're just off to Ireland for a week or so...a bunch of concerts plus a couple of days teaching at the university in Limerick. There've been strong winds all week in the west, so I hope they've subsided before we get on the boat.

The Chicago celticfest was a blast! The entire thing is arranged by the mayor's office, and is completely free for the public. Amazing! We bumped into several friends there and despite the very short duration of the entire trip (100 hours Ilkley to Ilkley) had a lot of fun.

Since then has been the usual combination of gigs and studio, studio and gigs. Oh, and trying to keep the website up to date of course...

Small hiccup on the release of my 1983-LP-that's-about-to-become-a-CD-reissue...there was a slight delay at the factory that meant the release date is now 3 October. Well, it is 23 years since the last pressing so another 7 days really isn't the end of the world.

My old friend (and playing partner) Paul Buckley was here this week. He now lives in Donegal, but finds himself in this area a couple of times each year. Last Tuesday he played The Junction (famous music pub in Otley) and I was delighted to join him for the second half of the gig. Great fun! LOUD! Wow...my poor guitar didn't know what hit it - one minute it's playing Carolan tunes - the next it's turned up to 11 soloing on Hank Williams tunes! Funnily enough, earlier this month I unearthed the original tapes of the cassette-only album Paul and I made back in 1985, and it's actually not bad. And I'm in the mood for reissues...watch this space.

With a bit of luck (and a following wind) those of you who are on the mailing list will have received the new autumn 2005 newsletter. (It's also available from page 1 of this site). If you'd like a hard copy mailed to you please let us know.

Ilkley, 3 September 2005

Another summer break has just about been and gone and we’re almost at the point when we start touring again. The previous few months were certainly the busiest ever, seeing us play over 100 concerts on 3 continents, so it's been great to spend the past few weeks working in the studio on the next duo album. As yet untitled, it’ll be released in January 2006. In the meantime there are some other recordings to mention.

Back in the early 80s I made a couple of solo albums. The first, the imaginatively titled Chris Newman came out in 1981. All traces of that recording have long since disappeared except for a handful of LP records that I kept as souvenirs. A couple of years later came Chris Newman Two (titles never were my strong point), an album that featured many friends and collaborators from that era. These included ace mandolin player Simon Mayor and Britain’s foremost exponent of the triangle, Fred Wedlock. 

A few months ago I uncovered the stereo tapes of the second record and was surprised to find them in excellent condition. I'm very grateful to Andy Allan, the original recording engineer, who's done a fine job decoding the original Dolby ‘A’ masters and creating the files needed to put the audio into the digital domain. 

The album hasn't been edited or altered in any way and is full of terrific tunes played on various guitars, mandolins, banjo, flute, piano, bass & drums. And triangle. 

Chris Newman Two (OBMCD16) will be available from September 26^th.

In 1991 we released Out of Court, our third recording that included appearances by bass player Danny Thompson, uilleann pipes supremo Liam O’Flynn as well as Simon Mayor and both Maire’s sisters Nollaig & Mairéad on fiddles. The album’s been out of stock for some time as we managed to lose all the graphic files. This summer they’ve been recreated, more copies have been pressed and it’s once again available in the webshop.

Promoters please note - Kevin Martin, our booking agent, has a new phone number: 01943 601049. You can also contact him by email -  kevin@oldbridgemusic.com

Following significant price rises from Royal Mail we’ve reluctantly increased our flat rate postage charge to £1.25. We’ll keep this rate until Royal Mail introduces a completely new pricing structure in September 2006. Apparently rates will vary depending on size as well as weight, so it could be bad news for people who sell CDs and books by mail order. We'll know soon enough...

Another ten days, then we're off to Spalding and Chicago. Hope to see you somewhere!

A bit of a while since the last update. Funnily enough, being home-based for the past few weeks has actually given me less time to mess around with the website as there are always so many things to do. When we go away we probably have more truly free time.

Anyway, since the last performance at Isolo del Liri just south of Rome we've been spending lots of time in the studio. I've been putting down loads of tracks while simultaneously learning how to use the new recording system. Despite all my initial misgivings I have to report that the Mac G5 with Digital Performer is a really terrific system. Very stable - it's only crashed twice - and extremely flexible to boot.

Máire's been busy recording tracks for her harp CD, and has become really involved with the black art of digital editing...

The new Collings guitar and mandolin are working very well and record absolutely beautifully. To say I'm delighted with them is an example of classic British understatement - to be honest I can't believe I have two such fantastic instruments at my disposal.

Máire's new William Rees harp is also proving to be a huge success. She's extremely happy with it - like the Collings it records very well. Results will be forthcoming sooner rather than later!

Our album Out of Court, released in 1991, has been out of stock for quite a while because we mislaid the artwork for the sleeve. We recently had the entire thing reconstructed and are pleased to say that the CD is once again available. I listened to it again recently as it had to be remastered, and was fascinated to hear it again after a very long absence. The most noteworthy thing about it was the amazing array of guest musicians who appeared: Liam O'Flynn (uillean pipes), Danny Thompson (bass), Simon Mayor (mandolin as well as both Nollaig & Mairéad Casey (fiddles). It is, of course, available in the shop.

I've also just unearthed the master tapes from my second LP from 1983. The imaginatively titled Chris Newman 2 only ever appeared in LP form ands has been unavailable for a very long time. Not for much longer though - the tapes are being converted to a digital format prior to CD manufacture, and an excellent designer is creating a CD format sleeve from the existing 12" LP artwork. More information soon when I get a better idea of a release date.

OK, back upstairs I go...

That's that then! All those gigs from last September until last Saturday are done, and I can put away the PA for a while. It's been a very busy nine months indeed...

So, into the studio we go. I've taken the opportunity to have something of a rethink as some of our equipment has been starting to show its age, and new stuff is released on almost a weekly basis. Having asked advice of various friends and colleagues I took the plunge and did something I never thought I'd do...I bought a Mac. Yes, into this staunchly Wintel building has come a fifth columnist in the guise of an Apple G5.

In fact it was the software that influenced the choice of platform. Digital Performer is widely regarded as being super-stable and efficient recording software, and it's not available for Windows, so OS X it is!

After a few days wondering how anyone can get by with a one button mouse things have become clearer. It transpires that you just plug in a regular two button plus scrollwheel mouse and things work a bit more sensibly. All I need to do now is memorise about two hundred keyboard shortcuts that'll mean I can abandon the rodent altogether...

Anyway, the upshot of all this upheaval is that things are now being recorded on a daily basis, and we might even get a new album out before the 2012 Olympics.

Watch this space...

Things are starting to calm down a bit after the last few months of touring. We did our last trip of the season to the south of England this past weekend - I shan't for a moment miss the regular Friday bottlenecks on the M6!

It's been a fun few months that has seen us going up and down the country on almost a daily basis. 13000 miles since January is enough to be going on with.

We'll soon be in the studio recording for the next duo album that will be available in January - with luck we might even get it out in time for Christmas. We have plenty of material so now all we need to do is bung it down on tape.

I keep hearing the rumour that this summer is going to be hot - I've no idea whether the story has an official basis or is simply wishful thinking. I'll hope for the best anyway!

Ilkley, 27 April 2005

It's hard to imagine we've done quite so many shows in the past few months - I look at the list of old gigs and think I should feel absolutely wrecked! In fact, so far, everything's gone pretty smoothly - all the journeys have been incident free (far & away the best type) even though we've driven 11000 miles since mid-January. The overall organisation of the concerts has been pretty good and of course the weather's improving a lot now too which always makes a pleasant change. It's great to arrive in daylight...

Máire's been beavering away in the studio, having learnt how to edit stuff on the computer. She has a couple of fairly prestigious solo concerts this summer so is keen to have it available at that time. Watch this space...

We have about one more month of gigs than it all quietens down for the summer - just a few festivals.

All for now...

Just enjoying a couple of gigless nights in the middle of the current tour. We've done five shows already and have three more to go, starting tomorrow evening in Armagh.

We're trying to plan the next American trip, and it looks as though it'll be in March 2006. We'll be in Chicago, for the Celtic Festival) in September this year, but it looks as though we'll be going only for the weekend - not the first time we've done that! In fact, flying the round trip from Manchester to Chicago is a lot more relaxing than driving to Cornwall and back. And you get a film and a glass of wine!

The past few Irish shows have been really nice, and we've been pleased to see quite a few old friends for the first time for years. Someone once remarked that if you do this job for long enough, sooner or later you'll meet everyone you ever knew - more or less true.

Into the studio next week for a few days before we go to Kent - it's difficult finding the time to record anything when we're travelling around so much. In the summer it all quietens down a bit so we should be able to get stuck in again!

Easter already, even though it is early this year. It's great that there's still a bit of light in the sky at 7pm - this really is a nice time of year.

It's been a busy month that's included lots of concerts as well as a short holiday in Paris. Twenty years ago, when I worked with Cornish singer Brenda Wootton, I used to spend six months each year in France, and much of that time in Paris. It was great to go and see the sights - the Eiffel Tower, Versailles and the Louvre were all squeezed into three days. Some great meals too...(there are a few pictures here...)

Maire's been busy in the studio in recent days working on her solo harp recording. It's very frustrating on some ways - we have over half the album in the bag but it's just impossible to build in recording time when we're touring so much.

We're still aiming for  a release before the next millennium...

Off tomorrow for the south, and the first festival of the year. A couple of days later we head off to Ireland for the first trip of 2005 - all details are here.

We hope to see you somewhere...

We were all crossing our fingers last week that the snow wouldn't restrict our travels around the country, but we needn't have worried. It always amuses me that a couple of inches of the white stuff seems to paralyse the whole country whereas in Germany and Austria (not to mention the USA) people just get on with it. It's become so rare to see lying snow here in recent years - it's really quite pretty!

The last few weekends have seen concerts in village halls in Norfolk and the Midlands, as well as shows in London and South Wales. 6000 miles so far this year and plenty more to come.

The next three or four months are really busy but then we hope to get some studio time. It'd be good to get a new CD out before the next millennium...

The next US tour will be in September. Chicago Celtic Festival is confirmed and other dates are being juggled as we speak. It look as though other venues will be in TN and MO...watch this space.

If you'd like to join our (infrequent) mailing list, please email your details here (Please put 'mailing list' in the subject line.) In the meantime enjoy the gradually lengthening evenings - we hope to see you somewhere!

We're well into the spring tour schedule now, and have already played concerts in Norfolk, Staffordshire and the West Midlands. Later today we return to East Anglia for three more shows for Creative Arts East - all details on the live page.

Máire's appearance on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour earlier this month generated a lot of interest. Broadcast live on Thursday 3 February, it was repeated two days later. (You can listen to the broadcast here.) It's amazing how many people listen to the programme - we had emails from all sorts of people we've not seen for years!

It looks as though we'll be in the USA again in September - so far Chicago is confirmed and other dates/venues are being juggled.

Hope to see you somewhere!

In a couple of days we start the UK leg of the spring tour. It'll be a pleasure to do a bunch of gigs without needing to show the passport!

All the dates for the tour are on the live page here - we hope to see you somewhere or other...

We're well into the first tour of the year with three concerts already done and nine to go. Germany is, as always, an extremely easy place to travel in, and it's all the easier this year as the weather is really extraordinarily mild. In past years during the January tours we've been subjected to temperatures as low as-14C, masses of snow and ice and all sorts of other wintry horrors. Not this year though...so far...touchwood.

The UK mailshot will be sent out from Ilkley by next Tuesday, so everyone who returned the Freepost card last autumn will receive a flyer listing all our gigs from now until June. They are also to be found on the live page of course.

Just before leaving for Germany last week I managed to get a track finished (and posted) for a CD project organised by Flatpicking Guitar Magazine. It's an interesting project that exclusively features Collings guitars...more details here when I get them.

The horrible server crashes we experienced during the last two months of 2004 seem to be well and truly behind us, and everything seems to be working as it should. It's certain, though, that lots of emails sent to us during December disappeared into the ether. Mind you, all the spam went the same way so it's not all bad news!

We're back from Germany on January 31st and start the UK part of the tour in Norfolk a few days later. I hope we get to see you somewhere or other...

Apologies for the absence of the website for the past six days or so. The company who hosts our secure site needed to swap to new servers - a procedure that's not been quite as straightforward as I'd hoped. I instigated the changeover on 30 December in the hope that it'd be sorted out in a couple of days, and being new year, that nobody would notice. Some chance.

Still, it all appears to be OK now. (Famous last words....)

Into the new year now with the mince pies and chocolates a distant memory! It seems hardly possible that one week from now we'll be on the boat from Hull to Rotterdam en route to the annual German tour. It's been nice to have a bit of a break - quite fun to watch TV for a while and generally do not much at all.

Our tour dates have been sent out to those people on the German mailing list, and within two weeks all those who returned cards from the most recent UK mailshot will be receiving tour lists from now until June. With the smaller, and much more select (!), mailing list we'll easily be able to regularly send out comprehensive listings to everybody twice a year.

As well as watching all the holiday stuff on the TV I also spent a little time in the studio with the new Collings guitar. What a fantastic instrument - very easy to play and an explosive sound! I hope to get some pictures on the guitar page within the next day or three.

We're back from Germany on January 31st and start the UK part of the tour in Norfolk a few days later. I hope we get to see you somewhere or other...

The Irish Christmas tour of Austria is now finished. It's hard to imagine how fast time passes when you're doing 21 shows in 23 days and having such fun! The time really flew by. It was a lovely way to end the year - a really well-organised tour with a great bunch of people. So now we're into the serious business of Christmas...

We've nothing in the diary now until our January trip to Germany (details here) so we fully intend to spend time reacquainting ourselves with the sofa and the remote control!

2004 was a good year for us - busier than ever and lots of trips to interesting places in the company of lots of interesting people. Let's hope next year brings more of the same.

In the meantime, have a very happy Christmas and a successful 2005.

Halfway through this trip already! It is the most extraordinary fun...the organisation is terrific, the gigs are extremely well-attended (mostly sold out), the scenery is stunning and everyone's getting on like a house on fire. What more could you ask? Well, perhaps 28C and a room on the beach...

Driving around, the views are really stupendous...these really are serious mountains. It's amazing how many road tunnels there are too, and some of them are pretty long - I think the longest so far was 13kms, over 8 miles.

The are loads more photos from the current tour here...

We have three more concerts before a second night off (in Vienna this time) then the last six shows, finishing on December 18.

The dates for the next tour, our annual "if it's January then it must be Germany" trip, are now on the live page. It'll be quite a busy month so we intend to make the most of the Christmas/New Year break.

Orders to the shop continue to be sent out in our absence and everything seems to be ticking along merrily back at Old Bridge Towers.

See you somewhere or other!

We arrived in this unbelievably beautiful country last week after one of those journeys where everything that can go wrong - does. There was terrible fog in Amsterdam so our flight from Leeds was delayed by over three hours. We arrived in Schiphol just in time to see our Vienna flight (itself delayed due to weather) push back from the stand. We were eventually put on a much later flight that was due to leave mid-evening...it eventually left Amsterdam at five minutes to midnight. We got to Vienna a mere ten hours behind schedule - not bad for a journey of less than three hours!

We're now six shows into the Irish Christmas tour of Austria in the company of Cran (Desi Wilkinson, Sean Corcoran and Mikey Smyth) and the un-named trio of Cathal Hayden, Micheal O'Domhnaill and Mairtin O'Connor. Good times are being had so far - pictures are being taken and some are to be found here.

It is quite cold though, and due to get chillier during the next week or so. I think everyone has a pair of thermal long-johns - we might even set up a group photo!

I'm sorry for the problems over supplying Clive's new CD. The recording is on his own label this time (even though it was recorded here) so he's been in charge of manufacturing the thing. He was going to send some supplies before he left a couple of days ago for Australia but never got around to it. Meanwhile I'd put the CD in the online shop and orders started to come in. Memo to self...never advertise vapourware!!

More and more dates are being confirmed for the first six months of 2005 - details on the live page as usual.

All for now...

The first weekend was spent at the 3rd Annual Harp Symposium organised by Dusty Strings in Seattle, WA. There were  plenty of harpers there for the various workshops and concerts that took place over the three day period.

The Dusty Strings operation has expanded in recent times and now includes a very well stocked store in Fremont. They carry a wide variety of guitars and mandolins as well as the harps and hammer dulcimers for which they're principally known. As I was largely unemployed for much of the weekend I spent a good bit of time playing various instruments in the shop - one in particular really caught my attention so I bought it! I'll put details here soon, but it's a brand new Collings OM-1E - pretty much a modern version of my 1930 Martin OM.

Halfway through last week we took the 2 hour flight to San Francisco, one of the most fabulous cities in the world. This past weekend has been another round of workshops and concerts, but this time has been accompanied by fantastic weather - 71F this afternoon. Not bad for November, and a lot nicer than it'll be when we get home later this week.

I'll put up some Californian pictures as soon as I've sorted through them all...

We've had major email problems this week - our UK based server went down and took pretty much everything with it. It's still not right but is working in basic form. Emails sent to 'mail@oldbridgemusic.com' should arrive, but if you have emailed and are still awaiting a reply about something there's a good chance your message has fallen down the black hole. Please resend...

Tomorrow morning (6am - yuk!) we leave for the USA, having had our new visas issued last week. The entire process of getting visas & work permits has become extremely tedious (and expensive) of late. For the first time since 1992 we were summoned to the US embassy last week for 'interview'. This involved our getting a hotel in London as the appointment was made for 8am - an expensive business.

The 'interview' took less than four minutes and was a waste of everyone's time. Still, it's all done now and we're cleared until 15 October 2005. It's not hard to see why so many UK/Europe based musicians are no longer even bothering to seek work in the US - it's great once you're there, but it is a serious pain in the rear to do it legitimately.

I know of a few musicians who travel regularly to America disguised as tourists - not a clever thing to do these days because if you haven't got the proper paperwork all sorts of nasty things might happen.

Still, we'll worry about it all again next year - for now we'll simply enjoy the forthcoming trip, details of which are on the live page.

It's a great place that you must visit when you're next passing through Orkney...hmmm. It's a terrific place where there are music lessons during the day and sessions in the evening. We called in for a late drink after the concert on the Saturday night and there was a very superior session taking place.

Put it on your list!

So far we've been through Darwin to the Kakadu National Park - a fascinating place full of interesting stuff, some of which could spoil your whole day! From there to Katherine, and the famous gorge. The weather is HOT but very dry. The extremely wet monsoon season is still some weeks away so water levels here are pretty much as low as they ever get. There are a great many dry river beds that will be several metres deep before the end of the year.

Various photographs will be found here...

I hear from Ilkley that lots of 'please keep me on the mailing list' cards have come back. From now on we fully intend to send out biannual newsletters to everyone.

There's a page on the site - click here - with some pictures taken during the past couple of weeks. I'll put more up as I get time to process them through Paint Shop.

On Thursday morning we all fly to Sydney then go our separate ways. Nollaig & Arty fly back to Ireland, Cherish The Ladies make the long trans-Pacific flight to Los Angeles and then to Winfield, Kansas for the Walnut Valley Festival. I would be green with envy except that Máire and I are flying to Darwin and hiring a campervan for 9 days during which time we intend to visit the Kakadu National Park - the location for the Crocodile Dundee films. We've been told by loads of people not to paddle in billabongs!

It should be interesting. The camera will be fully charged...

Last night the venue was the Queensland Performing Arts Centre, a quite fabulous venue with over 900 people in attendance. Today we go to Sydney...Melbourne tomorrow.

I've been taking loads of pictures and will put up a special Guinness page within a couple of days.

Three weeks since the last gig and still two weeks to go until the next one! The autumn is going to be extremely busy so it's great to be able to work from home for a while.

Ilkley actually took on quite a continental appearance this past weekend as the main street was closed to traffic and a three day long street market was set up. Most of the stallholders came from France, Holland and Germany so it was a good excuse to buy loads of smelly cheese.

After the unbelievably heavy rain we had in the middle of last week, it was fortunate that the entire weekend was dry. The town centre really is very pleasant when there's no traffic in evidence - it should happen more often.

If you like you can join the email list here.

The autumn is going to be extremely busy indeed. The revived Guinness Celebration of Irish Music kicks off in Auckland in early September then goes all round Australia for a couple of weeks. We're going to spend an extra 10 days in Australia before returning to the European autumn and the first UK concert of the season in Orkney. The whole of October will be spent in the UK, then in early November we head off to the west coast of the USA for a couple of weeks. From 25 November we'll be in Austria until a week before Christmas. And I thought this spring was busy.

Hope we might see you somewhere or another...

Just back from the last gig of the season! After the concert in Belmullet on Saturday night we did a recording for Irish-language TV channel TG4 for a programme being made that features festivals in Mayo. All went well and now we are in a travel-free zone for the next month or so.

Clive Carroll's back in the studio until the end of the week as he completes the recording of his follow-up CD to his Sixth Sense album. The twelve tracks contain an enormous range of styles that are all played with his trademark accuracy and technical brilliance. We're mastering the audio next Monday so all we need to do now is the sleeve...

Máire's leg continues to heal, although it's taking longer than she originally hoped. It's a good job she doesn't play the pedal harp as she'd be in real trouble. (For more information about the cause of the accident, click here.)

More and more of the autumn venues in the UK have been confirmed and are to be found on the live page. It's going to be a busy few months one way and another. I've only managed to fit in four teaching days at Newcastle before Christmas as so many of the trips are overseas. We'll be doing a lot of catching up in February!

So, the month of August beckons during which time we're going to try to complete Máire's solo album and record as much as possible for the next duo CD. I hope to do more work on the swing guitar book I started about 100 years ago and maybe even think about instructional DVDs.

We'll see...

One more concert to go before the end of term, so to speak. In a couple of days we travel to Belmullet, Co Mayo for the last show of this period. Then there's nothing until we leave for New Zealand on 31 August. There's loads to do in the intervening time, but I'm really looking forward to not having to go anywhere for a little while. It'd be even better if the weather were great, but let's not be silly. This is England after all.

Last Thursday we took part in a show in Caernarfon to launch a CD called Trad Harps released by Sain Records. The recording's a sampler of all kinds of harp music with which we were pleased to be involved. Held in a hotel in the town the concert featured the excellent triple harper Robin Huw Bowen, Corrina Hewat from Scotland - another terrific player - as well as us. All went well until the very end of the evening when we left stage. The audience clearly wanted more so we went back onto the platform. Máire went first and promptly fell into a gap between the stage and the side wall, then fell very heavily onto the stage itself. I have never heard 150 people stop clapping so quickly...it turned out that Máire's right leg was trapped in the hole, but was pulled out by weight of the rest of her body falling forwards. A bit of a nightmare really, but in the best traditions of The Show Must Go On she returned to her chair and proceeded to play the encore.

The rest of the evening was spent in the local A&E department at Bangor hospital. It was determined that nothing was broken so she was free to leave. The following day we travelled back to Ilkley where things deteriorated quite rapidly. The upshot was that she was admitted into the local hospital for a couple of days where they ran loads of tests to ensure nothing was amiss. All was OK and once again she's been released! She ain't going to be running any marathons any time soon though!

Just before we left for the ill-fated Welsh trip last week we took delivery of Máire's new harp. A large van turned up with a huge cardboard box containing the instrument and about ten million polystyrene chips - we'll be finding those in the house for the nest six months. The harp's made by William Rees from Rising Sun, Indiana, and is a 36 string A to A instrument. It's a lovely looking thing and sounds very well indeed. We had intended to put a few microphones in front of it this week, but with one thing and another that hasn't happened yet. With a bit of luck we'll be able to record it after the forthcoming Irish trip.

Lots of the rural touring gigs for the autumn now have venues - all details on the live page.

Nollaig's CD is doing really well and has had received terrific reviews, all of which are within these pages.

Clive Carroll has completed the recording of his new CD - he's coming back next week to dot the Is and cross the Ts. It will be an astonishing recording full of great pieces, most of which are unplayable. Except by our hero! We're all trying very hard to get the album out in time for his autumn tour. Watch this space...

Well, the Steve Kaufman Flatpicking Kamp was, as widely predicted, a complete blast! It's an extraordinary event - this year there were something like 215 flatpick students, nearly all of whom brought their best guitar along for the week. I have never seen so much fancy hardware in my life. Quite an amazing display of very fancy instruments played by an equally amazing bunch of people who in some cases travelled enormous distances to be part of the event. Huge fun, and highly recommended to anyone who fancies improving their flatpicking skills.

Parallel with the flatpick kamp are those for mandolin and bluegrass banjo. The students on these courses number around 100 each so at any one time there are about 400+ participants there. For me one of the best thing about the kamp is the chance to meet up with old friends on the instructing team as well as meet people for the first time. Some of those players were incredible - it's hard to mark people out in this situation but Dennis Caplinger does extraordinary things on a banjo and manages to sound more like Barney Kessel on electric guitar than anything else! Don Stiernberg is a fabulous jazz mandolinist as well as being the nicest guy you could ever meet while John Moore has the most amazingly fluid mandolin technique I've ever heard. He's also a terrific guitar player...

Máire's just been in Ireland teaching at the Termonfeckin harp course for the 19th year in a row! As always there were great teachers and students there and it was as much a social event as anything else.

We both arrived back in the UK on the 2nd and were in good time to make the concert at the Helmsley Harp weekend on 3 July.

We've well on the way to sending newsletters to everyone on our snailmail list that also includes a card that needs to be filled in to remain on the list. In recent years the list has become somewhat unwieldy so a cull is overdue! The cards have our new Freepost address so don't cost anything to return. We hope in the future to have a leaner list that we'll be able to contact more often than of late.

If you like you can join the email list here.

The autumn is going to be extremely busy indeed. The revived Guinness Celebration of Irish Music kicks off in Auckland in early September then goes all round Australia for a couple of weeks. We fully intend to spend an extra week or so in Australia before returning to the European autumn and the first UK concert of the season in Orkney. The whole of October will be spent in the UK, then in early November we head off to the west coast of the USA for a couple of weeks. From 25 November we'll be in Austria until a week before Christmas. And I thought the spring was busy.

Hope we might see you somewhere or another...

Time really flies! I'm off first thing in the morning to take part in the annual Steve Kaufman Flatpicking Kamp in Maryville, Tennessee. This will be my second year and I'm looking forward to it enormously. I think there will be some 210 flatpickers there this year - that's an awful lot of guitars!

Clive Carroll's been in the studio during the past couple of weeks recording tracks for his forthcoming album, the follow up to the hugely successful Sixth Sense. Some details are here...

Nollaig's new CD The Music of What Happened is getting really good press in Ireland. Some details are on her pages on this site, but more can be found on Nollaig's own website.

Please bear in mind that online orders will not be posted between June 28 and July 2. All orders will be despatched on July 2, and no credit cards will be charged until the goods are despatched.

It's been a busy spring! We seem to have spent an enormous amount of time in the car lately, crisscrossing the country doing festivals and concerts, Not a complaint of course, but it's extraordinary that we're already well into the 6th month of the year - it seems like yesterday that we got back from Germany, and that was January.

Nollaig's new CD is selling really well in Ireland, and according to Irish Music Magazine is in the best selling chart in Dublin & Cork. She's doing quite a few gigs this month - the details are on her 'live' page.

Clive Carroll was in the studio for a couple of days this week putting down some extraordinary tracks for his next solo CD. He's an incredible player with quite amazing technical ability that allows him to play pretty much anything! Just wait until you hear it - it'll blow your socks off!

The online shop continues to thrive, and we generally fill online orders within a day or so.

At the end of next week I head over to Maryville, TN for the annual Steve Kaufman Flatpicking Kamp. It was great fun last year and I'm very much looking forward to part II.

We've started sending newsletters to everyone on our snailmail list that also includes a card that needs to be filled in to remain on the list. In recent years the list has become somewhat unwieldy so a cull is overdue! The cards have our new Freepost address so don't cost anything to return. We hope in the future to have a leaner list that we'll be able to contact more often than of late.

If you like you can join the email list here.

The autumn is going to be extremely busy indeed. The revived Guinness Celebration of Irish Music kicks off in Auckland in early September then goes all round Australia for a couple of weeks. We fully intend to spend an extra week or so in Australia before returning to the European autumn and the first UK concert of the season in Orkney. The whole of October will be spent in the UK, then in early November we head off to the west coast of the USA for a couple of weeks. From 25 November we'll be in Austria until a week before Christmas. And I thought the spring was busy.

Hope we might see you somewhere or another...

Another piece appeared in The Irish Times yesterday...we'll get all the copy posted here within the next few days.

It's selling well: the second pressing arrived from the factory yesterday morning, and a few have gone out sionce then.

It's available in the shop...

I hope that as a result of this we'll have a smaller, but more active, list that we'll be able to contact regularly a couple of times a year. (Each mailing to the UK we do now costs over £1000 in stamps alone so it all starts to mount up!)

If you like you can join the email list here.

Provisional dates are in for the Christmas tour in Austria that starts in November and runs for three weeks or so. The other participants are Cran (we last toured with them in Gemany in 1994) and Mairtin O'Connor, Cathal Hayden and Michael O'Domhnaill. It sounds like fun, and December will be a very picturesque (if chilly) time to be in Austria. Details for the Irish Christmas Festival are on the live page.

A couple of nice concerts this past weekend. Friday afternoon we went into BBC Radio Cambridge to plug the gig that evening promoted by Cambridge Folk Club. The pub where it meets - the Unicorn in Trumpington - is a really delightful place. It was nice to see a few old friends there.

Saturday was Nailsworth festival in Gloucestershire. An afternoon workshop in Ruskin Mill was followed by a very well attended concert in Christ Church. Another terrific venue, originally built in 1798 but souped up considerably more recently than that.

Two more teaching days this week in Newcastle then three more gigs next weekend followed by a bit of a break during which time we will get some recording done.

Nollaig Casey's new CD is officially released in Ireland tomorrow! It will be distributed to record shops by Claddagh Records, and is also available from our online shop. Irish Music Magazine is running a feature about her in the next issue.

Just back yesterday evening from Ireland. Trips there are always fun, and this one was certainly no exception. The concert last Wednesday in Dunlewey, Co Donegal went very well, and among the other people we met there was Ciaran Curran, the bouzouki player from Altan. (We first toured with them on the Irish Folk Festival tour in Germany in 1989 and since then we've been together on several occasions in New Zealand, Australia, Germany and the USA. As well as being a fantastic band they are undoubtedly the nicest people you could ever hope to meet.)

Ciaran told us about a concert at McGrory's in Culdaff that Altan were about to play as part of the BBC Music Live series. We were free on Friday evening so off we went to the Inishowen peninsula to watch the gig. A huge bonus was the appearance of Mairéad and Triona Ní Dhomhnaill - both wonderful singers. Altan were on great form and played as well as I've ever heard them. You can hear the concert yourself for the next seven days at the BBC Radio 3 website - look for the link to Andy Kershaw's programme and you'll hear the whole thing.

So, back from Ireland and into the office! Boo hiss...

It's nice to be at home for a little while, especially after all the trips during the past month or so. Someone asked if we were planning to go anywhere nice during our break in April - I replied in the affirmative - the house! When you travel around so much it's a real treat to have an evening in front of the box!

I've actually been in the studio all day, and Máire's writing the next newsletter that'll go out to all the folks on the UK mailing list later this month. In an attempt to trim down the list we are enclosing a postcard with each letter asking those who want to remain on the mailing list to enter their details on the postcard and send it back to us - the cards will be Freepost and won't need a stamp. While we don't want to lose anyone I think it's a fair bet that a large number of letters won't be opened or read, so this'll be a good way to ensure that the only people on the list are those who are really interested. The other good part is that we'll have a smaller list and will therefore be able to do general mailouts more regularly than thus far. (A full mailing currently costs over £1000 in stamps alone - no big deal for the Reader's Digest but a massive one for us!)

If you like you can join the email list here.

Provisional dates are in for the Christmas tour in Austria that starts in November and runs for three weeks or so. The other participants are Cran (we last toured with them in Gemany in 1994) and Mairtin O'Connor, Cathal Hayden and Michael O'Domhnaill. It sounds like fun, and December will be a very picturesque (if chilly) time to be in Austria. Details for the Irish Christmas Festival are on the live page.

The month of March is almost over, and with it a fairly busy schedule! We started the month in Kansas City, then went to Dallas for the North Texas Irish Festival before returning to the UK. A brief trip to Ireland was followed by a show in Yorkshire, then nine concerts in Devon and Cornwall.

The west country is a lovely part of the UK, especially out of season. I've been in Cornwall in August and it's not much fun as there are so many people crammed into a fairly small space. March is quite different though - the weather is decent enough to be pleasant, but it's also possible to park your car, walk into a restaurant without a reservation and generally move around without impediment.

The three concerts in North Devon were organised by Beaford Arts, and those in Cornwall by Carn to Cove, the rural touring scheme for Cornwall. Those west country villages are so pretty - real picture book stuff. If you've never been there make arrangements to visit immediately - but not in August!

We've been invited to appear as part of a Christmas tour in Austria that starts in November and runs for three weeks or so. The other participants are Cran (we last toured with them in Gemany in 1994) and Mairtin O'Connor, Cathal Hayden and Michael O'Domhnaill. It sounds like fun, and December will be a very picturesque (if chilly) time to be in Austria. The provisional dates for the Irish Christmas Festival are on the live page.

I'm not taking the laptop with me as we have so much other stuff to carry - no updates to this site will be made until we get back in early March.

The past month has been very pleasant, with visits to Hampshire, Somerset, Dorset, East Yorkshire and Hertfordshire. It's been great to meet old friends, and make sevaral new ones.

Germany in January was terrific! It's always such a great country to tour - excellent venues and audiences, unbelievably efficient organisation throughout, great roads connecting major cities (and fantastic public transport systems within those cities). All the concerts were very well attended, and we even found time to do a few touristy things; we went to the house in Bonn where Beethoven was born and visited a couple of terrific museums in Munich.

On the way home we met up with Nollaig Casey & Arty McGlynn in Amsterdam where they were playing the first concert of their Dutch tour - at the Concertgebouw no less! The tour finished a couple of days ago and they're back in Ireland.

Nollaig's new CD - the music of what happened - was manufactured in record time and was available for purchase at the Amsterdam concert. Full marks to Impress in Wembley for a really quick job. Details below...

The following day we got a bit of a shock when we turned up without a reservation at the Channel Tunnel. We were asked to cough up €267 - about £190 - for a one way trip to Dover even though we explained we didn't actually want to buy the train, just ride on it for 35 minutes. Anyway, a smart U-turn was executed whereupon we drove to the SeaFrance terminal and bought a ferry ticket for a much more reasonable €88.