OK. I'm afraid that we don't tend to have the UK-style folk club/singaround venues (are you from the UK?) that I've read about on Mudcat. The Flying Cloud, as well as the other two I'm about to list, is a folk/trad concert venue, not the kind of place where you can show up with a guitar and expect to sing. If you have a CD and press kit you could send them, tell them the dates you're in Canada, and maybe they'd book you to do a full show. Or, perhaps you'd be interested in taking in one of their concerts.

Flying Cloud (at Tranzac)

Hugh's Room (fairly central, on subway)

Acoustic Harvest/Fiddles and Frets (east end, take bus from subway)

In terms of unscheduled, volunteer performing, there are the open mikes at many bars and coffee houses, where participants get a slot to do 2-3 songs. However, the open mikes are usually oriented towards singer-songwriters; they won't prevent you from singing a trad song, but it's very unlikely that you'll hear anyone else singing one. I see that the Tranzac has an open mike on Mondays, which might be more folky than average, but I'm not sure - do you know, Peter?

Tranzac (very central, at subway)

Anyway, if you're interested in the open mike route, let us know and I can suggest more venues. I know there's one every Thursday here, for example:

Renaissance Cafe

But from what you've said here, I think these are the best options for you:

1. There's a song circle every Friday night. It's held in people's houses, so I can't tell yet what the location will be that week. It's oriented towards trad songs and "in the tradition" new songs; some people bring instruments, but there's a lot of unaccompanied singing and chorus songs. There's no website, but mudcatters Black Walnut and Tony Burns are the organizers, and mudcatters Balladeer and Eve Goldberg are regulars. I usually go on Fridays I'm not working.

2. Come sing in my living room! The audience is small but appreciative, and you can do as many songs as you like. I'm downtown, on a subway line. If you're not a mudcat member, you can email me at marion_parsons at yahoo dot ca.

Good luck, Marion