Al: Yes, I have one confirmed booking, the FAB Club in Grays, Essex, on Sunday afternoon, September 27, 2015. I am waiting to hear from another club just outside London. Once I have those two gigs scheduled, I will try to find about two more, perhaps three. I hope that at least one will be away from the London area, but first my wife and I have to decide where that will be. There are many places in the UK we have never visited, and there are many we would like to visit again.

In the USA, I only do about ten to twelve performances a year, and that's about all I want. I am more of what I call a "folk music activist" than a performer. For example, I serve on the board of directors Folk Music Society of New York and on the steering committee of the People's Music Network; I help run the Peoples' Voice Cafe weekly coffee house at Community Church in New York City; and I produce an annual multi-performer Woody Guthrie tribute concert.

Flora: Thank you for the suggestion. I will look into it.

Pat: Thanks for the e-mail.

Jim: While I know that the clubs can use the money, it is not pure generosity on my part, because I want to keep my amateur status when traveling outside the USA. I don't mind getting paid for performing in the USA, but in any given year the income from music is always less than my expenses. Otherwise I would come under the US Internal Revenue Service "hobby loss" rule, which says that losses from a hobby cannot be used to offset taxable income from other sources, but profits from a hobby are taxable as business income. Having business income would subject me to all sorts of rules, regulations, and scrutiny that I would rather not deal with.

--- Steve