I'm afraid that I have to agree with Ray in being disappointed with the Manchester concert, and for me it wasn't just the sound - although I also thought that was sub-par and for a concert of this nature it needs to be excellent. For most of the evening I couldn't hear John McCusker's fiddle, Russ Barenberg's guitar or Dirk Powell's banjo at all.

At the time of booking I wondered whether they really had the best mix of people this year and unfortunately this was borne out for me. Especially as Tim O'Brien (a major reason for booking) was missing.

I was keen to see Dirk Powell but he seemed a little overwhelmed in this company...other than a great version of Country Blues, which finally got the place going during the second half. I was also interested in seeing Allison Moorer but was disappointed in her contribution. The first song she did was a hugely self-indulgent number at the piano...completely out of place in this context. The second was a pleasant enough country number but entirely forgettable.

I had high hopes for Ashley Cleveland saving the day when her first (gospel) number was really good, but then her others were disappointing. Paul Brady at least brought a bit of fire and drive to the first half with his couple of songs, including Baker Street (with the sax riff on pipes and lap steel) but then he too seemed to go bonkers at the start of the second half with another schmaltzy self-indulgent piece on the piano.

The whole thing had a feeling of complacency and painting by numbers about it to my mind. Believe me, I don't want to be typing this - I was blown away by last year's (Glasgow) TS and keenly anticipated this year's concert. Honorable mention should go to Mike McGoldrick, who as ever worked hard throughout and whose tasteful contributions on pipes and flutes were superb on every song they featured on. John Doyle was great in both his rhythm guitar and his solo piece and Dirk Powell got the place rocking on Country Blues as mentioned above. Julie Fowlis was very good, even though the Gaelic singing is not my bag. And I actually thought Kenny Greenberg's electric guitar was excellent and sparingly used.

Overall though a big letdown. Sigh.