OK, OK, so I'm going to toot my own horn! The announcement here is that Jeff Warner is about to embark upon his next Autumn-in-England tour - 25 Aug to 16 Sept, 2006. This time, I (Barbara) am able to be with him for some of the gigs, and am tooting my own horn about that in the hopes that some of my new UK pals will be able to turn out to see us - and sing along in lusty tones!

Some of the parts of the country that Jeff has gigs in are Cornwall, Manchester area, Bath, Hastings, Sussex and London. So if you're not too far from any of those places, check the complete schedule at his website "Performances" page:
www.jeffwarner.com

I'll be flying over from Finland (still doing my "walkabout!") for two weeks, and will be able to join Jeff for the Hastings, Sussex and London dates. I would LOVE to see some of my new UK comrades, met in April/May of this year at Upton Fest and at Fox & Hounds. SussexCarole? Crane Driver? Cats? Steve and Ali? Hey! Micca, too! Anybody out there?? I met so many, and of course, the Mudcat names have gone right out of my head!

For those who can't quite remember right now why his name looks familiar, Jeff is the son of Frank and Anne Warner, eminent collectors of American folk songs from the 1930s to the 1950s. He plays banjo, guitar and concertina, as well as small "pocket-instruments" and sings primarily traditional American songs in acoustic performance. For years, he worked with Jeff Davis, but has been more-or-less a solo artist for the past 7 or 8 years.

Jeff's gigs are definitely his own show, but when I'm involved, generally I come in for the last 3 or 4 songs in each set, singing harmony or lead, depending on the arrangement.

In September of last year, we co-produced Jeff's first solo CD (and I sing on it, as well), which has now been favorably reviewed by Sing Out!, Dirty Linen, Penguin Eggs, and fRoots. A previous Mudcat thread about that is here:

thread.cfm?threadid=84273

At the risk of tooting my horn both loud and shrill, I'll run along now. It would be great to see some familiar faces out there, though!