George wrote:
Mudcat, you should be proud to be a sponsor.

Quite right - many thanks to all the mudcatters who joined in the commulanl Mudcat sponsorship, and also to those who sponsored tracks individually, and I was proud to see their names and that of the Mudcat Café itself printed in the book next to the titles of their respective songs.

The concert was a blast - again thanks to all who came to support it, and the Song Links 2 launch was a much better attended concert than the first one two years ago, with almost every seat filled as well as the bench seats around the edge of the hall. From the stage this was immensely satisfying so thanks to all who helped swell those numbers.

As for the concert itself, I must agree with Countess Richard's comment about Devil's Interval (Lauren McCormick, Emily Portman and Jim Causley) - wonderful harmony singing that was very English and at the same time wonderfully different from anything else remotely like it, and a superb combination of voices.

Also a special mention for Emily Portman: about ten minutes before the concert Martyn was running around the performers asking if anyone knew the American version of the May Carol - Emily volunteered and found herself singing the song in the concert with no warning! (hence the crib sheet)

We've only just got home, having gone on to bookings in Wiltshire and Hampshire, and finally listened to our own copy of the CD on the way back today. It's really a very fine work and we enjoyed every minute of it.

And we're just off to Ely folk club now to hear Sara and Kieron again!

Anahata