Sessions can be frustrating in several ways. The main beef that I have is that a high percentage of participants play the same tunes and sing the same songs as they played and sang the last time. Another is that although musicians often play a medley of tunes, and may repeat the same tune ad infinitum in the course of the medley, singers are invariably limited to one song.

One can obtain one's revenge as a singer by including "Sir Patrick Spens", "Desolation Row" or "Love Chronicles", but that seems a tad unkind to any general audience present.

Far too many session participants (and performers in Folk Clubs, for that matter) are incapable of entertaining the audience, which does not always mean "being funny". They seem determined that they will perform their party piece(s) though the heavens fall (and the audience exits to another bar), whether or not they are communicating with the audience, or anyone else for that matter.

A session with considerable background noise can be silenced by any good tune or song, well performed. My favourite instrument for shutting up the noisy is my bowed psaltery, which is both quiet and ethereal, and gets quiet from any audience 95% of the time.

With the preponderance of sessions, in my neighbourhood at least, it is a pleasant change to do even a three-song floor spot in a well-run Folk Club. To do a proper gig, even if it is not well paid or even paid at all, is even more of a pleasure. The pleasure multiplies when the audience derive enjoyment from your performance.

The purpose of a Folk Club, to my mind, is to provide an intimate atmosphere where the barriers between audience and artist are minimised, to their mutual benefit.

The trouble is, there are too few around these days!

Keep up the good work, Breezy, storbans is one of the better Clubs. I have taken people there who had never before set foot in a Folk Club - they enjoyed it hugely, and have become regulars.

See you next week - must get some work done!

Alan