Tonight, 9pm 'til 12am :

I'll be hosting Scattering The Roots 9pm 'til 12am, playing the usual tasty blend of folk, roots, blues, etc...plenty of etc... but not as regular listeners know it...

My esteemed Express FM colleague, Ian James, is taking on a 60 hour charity broadcasting radiothon, and I'll be joining him between 9pm and 12am to host my regular show **live** - expect some excellent tune-age and chat...

We had such a good time doing this in 2025, we decided to do it again for Ian's latest Radiothon in 2026.

Ian & I will be joined for our session by Express FM's Miles Henson, and I'm sure we'll both be heartily encouraging Ian in his fundraising endeavours.

Ian started his Radiothon at 6am this morning and will continue live on-air until 6pm on Friday 30th, remaining awake and behind the microphone for the full duration.
The three charities being supported each play a significant part in the local community :

Sophie's Legacy
Connors Toy Library
The Elizabeth Foundation

You can tune in throughout the marathon on 93.7 FM, DAB+ Digital Radio, online or on Alexa.

Listen online here : www.expressfm.com

Donations are greatly appreciated and can be made here :
www.expressfm.com/donate

I can recall Simon regularly forgetting the words to songs in the 80s.  This may have been for different reasons...

Went to see the chaps at Honiton last Friday.  They were on fine form (though I wondered if Ric was having trouble with his fiddle, as he seemed to be (ahem...) fiddling... with it at various points).  But it sounded OK to me.  In fact, the whole thing sounded good to me. I was especially pleased to hear Ric and Chris fiddling together on at least four numbers.  There were certainly at least a couple of numbers dredged up from quite a long time ago, including one from one of Simon's solo albums.  They just seem to go on getting better and better.  I was reflecting on the fact that there was a period when Simon would regularly forget the words to at least one song per gig for a few years, but it must be at least 10 years ago now - and possibly longer than that, and it rarely seems to happen now.

I will observe and report.

Other poorly attended legacy shows I've attended in the last few years in Austin include Brian Wilson, Roxy Music, and 10cc. All great shows, and Austin didn't show up.

Braved the storm to see Sir Ralph for the last time (formally) in Derry on Saturday, and well worth it. He was in superb form himself but the appearance of  for backup on a few songs was a lovely surprise. (Put the spoiler there in case anyone's going to Belfast and wants a similar surprise)
Thanks for the memories Ralph - hope to see you at Cropredy...

Sadly the rest of the potential ticket buyers have probably seen some of the online footage of his recent dates?  Art shouldn't be anywhere near a public stage at this juncture in his life (I don't think).

Tom Rush was so, so good last night. He’s a masterful guitarist and storyteller. Just fantastic and we’re so glad we made the effort. The theater holds 300 and I think he had between 75 and 100 in the audience, mostly his contemporaries from the look of it. I easily outpaced them on the trip to the men’s room.

I feel like I discovered a new artist last night. Speaking of which, he was accompanied by Brendan Cleary, a young singer/songwriter and excellent guitarist whose first album comes out later this year. Highly recommend him as well.

Sadly, Austin is populated by music snobs who just don’t turn out for older artists. I often have to travel to Dallas, Houston, or San Antonio for shows. Case in point - Art Garfunkel has sold about 200 tickets at ACL Live (capacity 2400) for his November show.

Ciaran is on the new album by Paul Walker and Karen Pfeiffer. The album cover looks like its filmed at Middleport Pottery where we go most Saturdays for a coffee after a walk with friends.

I'm genuinely surprised by this. And by Tom Rush still gigging.

Jules

And a new one, Tom Rush at the State Theater, tonight!

I am not familiar with his oeuvre, but I have known his name for a long time. As I understand it, he was a key figure in the American folk revival of the early 1960s. He's 85 now, and by all accounts is still a fine performer and storyteller.

We weren't planning to go until we saw that he had sold only about 1/3 of the tickets at the 300-seat theater. For reasons unknown to me, Austin remains a nightmare for legacy artists. I wonder why they bother to come here (but I want them to continue, please).

Looking forward to tonight!