Don, I think you'll find that our mischievious 'Guest' is actually Diane, or er...Countess Richard as she's known here.

Being married to one of the sound engineers for the Acoustic Cafe (yes..it's all coming out now isn't it!) ;0).....I can assure you that NO-ONE HAS TO PAY AT ALL! It is completely free, as Diane has heard me say over and over.

You merely turn up, put your name on the list, come back later or better still, sit down with the rest of us at the tables, or else stand beside all the masses of people on the pavement, right beside Dukes....and watch some darn talented people perform songs of all genres, covering everything from folk, acoustic, blues, a'capella, a bit of rock, cajun etc. etc.....Or basically, as I like to think of it, just GREAT MUSIC!

People of all ages, all backgrounds, all abilities.

Oh...and Barry and his lovely daughter Chloe are coming again this year, as he's stated earlier. YAY!! Last year, as Diane mentioned above, they gave us a GREAT version of Greenday's 'Boulevard of Broken Dreams' and they sent the place wild with delight...particularly all the youngsters who were queuing up on the pavements to watch them!!

Then of course, there was Barry's band, Rhyzome's evening gig, when the waitresses threw caution to the wind, abandoned collecting glasses, took off their shoes and shimmied along with the rest of the audience as Barry and his band, folk rocked the night away! AND they sang us some great folk songs too....

You can hear Barry right here, and see Chloe too, can't wait to see them all again:

http://www.myspace.com/barryhunt


AND we had Duncan McFarlane and Steve Fairholme in the afternoon as well and Duncan sang us his great 'Not PC' song and had us falling around, doubled up with laughter! Such a clever song that one.....and then he and Steve gave us some brilliant traditional songs too! Duncan and his entire band are going to be up at The Bulverton on Thursday evening, which I'm really looking forward to, as last year in The Ham, we couldn't dance to their music..(well, *one or two* may have done...Whistling Smiley!) ;0)....but this year we can all copy those waitresses and get some Serious Shimmying going to Benajmin Bowmaneer et al!! ;0)

And Duncan you can hear right here too:

http://www.myspace.com/theduncanmcfarlaneband

AND....having just been over to Barry's page myself, I see he's got my very favourite song 'Children Of The Sun' on there now....which tells the story of what happened to the Native American People....and as I now have many Native American artist's sites on my page, Barry is up there with them, right where he belongs!! So...his song will be playing on my page for the next few days....(I change the music/artists regularly)

And if you go over there, check out the brilliant John Trudell, Mary Youngblood and Vinnie James, all of whom are from Native American backgrounds....and listen to Barry's song as you're reading all about them....then hang your heads in sorrow for how they were treated!

http://www.myspace.com/lizziecornish



Oh Diane....THANK YOU!!!

I'd forgotten just how wonderful a time I had down there last year! And one day all the Mudcatters walked past us, with their Yellow Lilo...and I followed them....and they ended up in the ocean, in a big circle, singing 'We're bound for South Australia' at the top of their voices! Absolute magic!!

Great to be reminded of all that FUN!

Roll on Sidmouth!!


Lizzie :0)