As promised in the thread on the Gainsborough Old Time Festival, here's as much as I know at the moment about a UK tour by four of the stars. It's called The Gathering, and it consists of Debby McClatchy and Tom, Brad and Alice.

Debby McClatchy:
Many will have seen Debby in folk clubs over the last quarter century or so, giving her superb charismatic take on old time mistrel, gold rush and Appalachian string band material with immaculate banjo accompaniment.

Tom, Brad and Alice:
Tom Sauber is a superb banjo player at home in a number of different picking styles including clawhammer, and an excellent fiddler, with a history of playing with some fine people.

Brad Leftwich has produced a couple of first rate instruction videos for old time fiddle and the definitive book of tabs for Round Peak clawhammer banjo. He has analysed the fiddle and banjo styles of many of the great old guys, and reproduces them really well.

Alice Gerrard is a fine guitar and fiddle player and founded the Old Time Herald, a wonderfully informative and useful magazine, which she edited until last year. She made many fine recordings with Hazel Dickens.

The three of them produce wonderful string band music with first class harmony singing, and have produced a string of excellent CDs.
They knocked everyone out at Gainsborough two years ago.

The Tour:
Feb 18 - Keswick (Theatre by the lake) - 017687 74411
Feb 19 - Hexham (Queens Hall Arts Centre) - 01434 652477
Feb 20 - London (Blackheath Halls, Lee Road) - 0208 318 9758
Feb 21 - Selby (To be confirmed) - 01757 705101
Feb 24 - Birmingham (Ceol Castle, 402 Moseley Road) - 0121 440 4278
Feb 25 - Bridport (Arts Centre) - 01308 424204
Feb 28 - St Ives (St Ives Theatre, Lower Stenack) - 01736 786655
Feb 29 - Great Torrington (The Plough Arts Centre, 9-11 Fore St) - 01805 624624
March 5 - Kingswinford (The Woodman Folk Club) - 01384 831263
March 6 - Trowbridge (Arc Theatre, College Road) - 01225 756376
March 11 - Redbourn (The Hollybush Folk Club, Church End) - 01582 452954

My connection - Debby's an old friend who's talked me into driving for them. It didn't take much doing!
Cheers
Ray