Davey Baby

I've had the privilege of hearing Mawkin and though you are a mighty nice bunch of guys and sickeningly good musicians, for such a tender age, here is my advice:-

1. Learn some songs.
2. When the fiddle player is leading, the melodeon chappy ought to play some background chords, drones, simple fills, so that he doesn't look out on a limb.
3. When the melodeon chappy is leading, the fiddle player ought to play some background drones, simple fills, so that he doesn't look out on a limb.

Why?

Well, I listened to a lot of instrumental bands at the Oxford folk festival (where I heard you) and as some other people mentioned in the thread earlier, each repertoire began to sound the same. You guys weren't guilty of that because you played tunes from different sources, traditions, styles and mixed it up nicely. And, as also mentioned earlier, singing adds another dimension to the band and makes it more interesting to a wider bunch of people. You don't have to either do a song or a tune, you can do a tune that leads into a song or vice versa. So mix it up laddie, get everyone involved more of the time and if you find your voices are not individually strong, do plenty of harmonies. There are vocal bands whose sum of the parts sound great despite being mediocre soloists. Eventually you will find that just like playing an instrument, the more you sing, the better your voice, expression, delivery and style will improve. You will start to get gigs in clubs too rather than just ceilidhs and festivals.

Regards to the lads and keep smiling!

Pete