Made my way down to Lewes in Sussex last weekend with my pal from wayback in the 60s, the fantabulous Frankie Armstrong. The Lewes Saturday Folk Club is old school, in that they really are acoustic - no amplification whatsoever. They have a wonderful venue upstairs at the Elephant & Castle Pub, with great acoustics, so no-one has any problem hearing anything, and that includes ALL the words.

The guest artist was Brian Peters, a wonderful musician and interpreter of traditional and contemporary folk songs. The floor singers were pretty extraordinary too.

On Sunday, Brian hosted a workshop/forum on Traditional Ballads. We all produced a ballad or two to share, and Brian shared his research on them. I sang the versions of Lamkin and Yarrow Braes that my late husband, Donneil Kennedy used to sing. Frankie sang Lady Diamond, a cracking ballad I'd never heard before. Indeed, all the ballads that were sung that day were absolute crackers. I hope to hear more very soon.