Betsy: "Truro tonight and Carlisle tomorrow"

Yes - that happens far too often in spite of best endeavours to keep the mileage sensible. And the reason is that clubs operate not only on different nights of the week, but different weeks of the month. Extreme for example: If you've recently (in the past three years) played all the (remaining) Monday clubs between Truro (Sun) and Newcastle (Tue) - or have bookings in the future - you may indeed have to take Carlisle (Mon), when you'd have preferred Birmingham. Time was when this was just a pain (and a danger - because the more miles the more risk), and fuel was not much of an issue. But costs have doubled, along with concerns about carbon tyre-prints. I'm now having serious doubts about the very idea of trying to fill a diary with club dates.

John: "There isn't a fortune to be made, and I think artists should have a reasonable and realistic idea of how much they really ought to expect to earn from folk music."

Indeed, which is why I post so often on this subject. Many people think touring folkies make much more than we do - and resent it. That needs to be debunked. And there is much misunderstanding about how 'other' clubs operate, when sharing of good ideas might help (hence my efforts in that direction). Clubs come in many shapes and sizes with a variety of 'business models' (including none). But the economics are universal and it does no harm for people to understand the issues from both sides. When I started 6 years ago, a well known life-long pro told me 'you can make a living in the clubs - it's hard work, but it can be done." He was right then - just - but he'd not give me the same advice today. And I'd not say the same to a new starter now - unless they had some leg up from somewhere.

Tony: "No one seems to be trying to take the music out of back room clubs and into the bars from where it came."

Hi matey - actually I don't think that's quite true. There are quite a lot of 'folky' bar venues around, and bar-based open mic nights are flourishing. But note the 'mic' in that. The bars from which the music came were largely quiet. The bars into which you'd return are not. Now, you and Una have a robust style which works really well in a bar, which grabs most of the audience and can safely cope with any minority who don't get it. But that doesn't work for me. Even one person nattering at the back spoils the 'grip' and breaks the mood. My songs/stories often turn on a single word. Miss that, and the whole point is gone - and a lot of other artists, specially those who do trad unaccompanied are the same. I did a bar last week in Birmingham. They mostly shut up for the songs, but they yakked all through the stories - because they didn't realise they were as important as the songs, and were used to chatting between numbers. I don't think there's many people on the story side of the folk scene who are happy in free-entry bars. I've tried a good few times now and resolved Never Again, no matter how badly I need a gig that night. A decent door charge is the only reliable method I know of to get people to buy-in (literally) to the 'folk-song-story' listening/singing along experience.

Betsy: "A folksinger is no different to any other trade or craftsman"

This cannot be said often enough - along with a reminder that the tradition has been bolstered in diverse ways down the ages by trade activity of one kind or another, so the modern 'trade' musician does in fact spring from a decent, honest and important lineage. That said, the folk world is pro-am yin and yang, so you have to take what comes and make what you can of it. And if that's nothing - so be it.

Tom