The Smallpiper Blog

Hello!
Happy Easter to everyone!
A couple of news items to take us up to the end of March, some happy and one sad.

Jonny has been trying out a new guitar, a a MoonDog guitar. You should be able to see it on stage from the start of April, so make sure you pay the moodog a vist and say welcome when you meet it!

For those of you in the States, SlipTease has finally made it to CDbaby, so if you've been waiting for it, it's in the store now! This coincides with being played on Marc Gunn's Irish and Celtic Music Podcast. Marc is about to release a new album and we're on it! We gave Marc one of our tracks (To Catch a Cat) and he added parts to it, we think it sounds phenominal! We'll let you know when it's out!

Sadly we wanted to mention that Barry Cheesman, the organiser of the Great Bardfield Folk Club, passed away last week. Our thoughts are with Anna. Hopefully the club will continue to go from strength to strength though, so make sure you try to get along if you're in the area. (We certainly will, bring an instrument, there is always a session at the end).

Finally on a happier note for all our local friends, we're continuing with our getting out and about in the county, you'll find us at the Bluebell on Friday 21st and Headingham on Wednesday 26th. We'll airing a couple of new songs and a tune set ready for April. So come and say hello!

Hello!
We hope that you're all well! We had a great CD launch gig with George at the weekend. I really wanted to put up some pictures, but we didn't take any and George is now away. It was great fun though and VIcki lead for the first time (um, well come to think of it there was that one time in a pub about 10 years ago when we were Muckle Flugga, but let's not talk about that...) You can buy George's album either from his website when he gets back from Oz or from WildGoose Records.

So our news for the month, well, we're working hard on some new songs that will be debuted in April on our little mini-tour. A poem by Robert Swan, (Vicki's Great great grandad from Peebles) is pretty much ready to rock and roll, so come along to hear it! Another poem by a Scottish poet has also been set to music by Jonny, that'll be debuted in the same gig and both feature nyckelharpa!

Where are we going to be?

02.04.08 Havering Folk Club, Romford, Essex
03.04.08 Wivenhoe Folk Club Wivenhoe, Essex
09.04.08 Wessex Acoustic Folk Club Upton, Dorset
10.04.08 Totnes Folk Song Club Totnes, Devon.

We hope to see you there! (Although we're bound to write again before then!)
:)
Vicki & Jonny

Hello!
Well, we say a new track, it's an old track really. We felt it was time to add another track, especially as you can now upload more than one track! Hurrah! So it's an old fave of ours (that we don't play enough). Geordie Lad - a flute and guitar track. So take a peak and have a listen!
Our next couple of gigs are The Anchor Folk Club in Byfleet, Surrey on Thursday and then George Papavgeris's CD launch in Pinner in Middlesex. Both should be totally fantastic evenings. If youre coming along to the CD launch be aware we're playing Georges songs and not our own set for that evening.
Hope to see you there!
:)
Vicki & Jonny

Hello!
Happy February! Happy daffodils and happy spring, although by the time you read this it might be back in the depths of winter again! Well, we've discussed long and hard the session and the two pubs in the village and we've decided to pass the session baton on. Luckily there is a brand new session starting up not that far from us on the 2nd Sunday of every month. So we hope that everyone who came to our session will go to this one instead:

The Butchers Arms, North End, on the Chelmsford to Dunmow Road
Second Sunday every month, starting on 10th February
Start between 8.00/8.30pm
Mainly English Folk Music. Songs and stories will be welcome and encouraged.

We can't be there in February, but we'll be along there just as soon as we can. Instead of running a monthly session we're going to try to get round to as many sessions as we can and then reporting back on them and building a session resource and map. So watch this space for where we'll be!

In the mean time we've got a busy February coming up:
07.02.08 Acoustic Club, Bishops Stortford, Essex
11 - 15.02.08 Kilve Court Able GIfted and Talented, (Vicki is a guest tutor)
16.02.08 23.12.07 The High Barn - Guitar Day (Jonny), Gt. Bardfield, Essex 01371 811291
21.02.08 Anchor Folk Club Byfleet, Surrey
So hope to see you somewhere soon!
:)
Vicki & Jonny

Hello!
We're really happy to be able to say that our session is going to run this Sunday! We're going to be at The Three Ashes in Cressing this month. The Landlord and Landlady have only been running the pub since last Friday, so it's we'd love to give them a big welcome and show them the best of the local Folk Music and hope that they will let us come back again next month! So if you're in the area we'll be playing all our best tunes and singing our best songs for them! Hope to see you there!
Sunday 13th January
The Three Ashes - Cressing
8pm ish
:)
Vicki & Jonny