Only a few more days before the merry-go-round of touring starts all over again … hurrah! I’m just back after a three-week sojourn in the wilds of Texas … I had a great time. I travelled over with my good friends The Ansells, Diane and Bryan along with their four gorgeous kids: Marcus (13), Emma (11), Maria/Mia/Candy (don’t ask!) (9), and last but by no means least, Alicia (4 and three quarters!).

Marcus Ansell - Texas Ranger	Emma Ansell - Texas Cowgirl	Alicia Ansell (4 & 3/4) - budding rockchick	Maria/Mia/Candy Ansell!

Bob joined us for the first week and I went off with him to rejoin the band tour with Corinne for her three dates in Texas: Dallas, Houston and Austin – where I stayed on with The Ansells for the remainder of our hols. I have loads of photos some of which I’ll share here. Needless to say … a good time was had by all though none of us want to see another burger for a long, long time! Yeehaw!

A Texan Eatery	CC and the Ansellettes!

Prior to my Texan adventures I had four shows or at least I tried to do 4. The first was way back on June 16 th at the “Store cap’a’pie” in Dipton County Durham. A new place for me and a great gig. I loved it. The second was the next day at the Black Sheep Festival in the delightful town of Masham in deepest Yorkshire. The only other time I’d played here was way back in 1988 with Richard Thompson as part of his band. The thing I remembered most was that the Town Hall, where the gig took place, used an old 50p electric meter and Paul Owen our then roadie, had to sit next to it all night feeding it with 50 pence’s! The meters are no longer there but not much else has changed. It’s still a delightful unspoilt place. I had a ball here meeting up with long lost friends and acquaintances most notable of which was Gilly Darby, the wonderful singer from an acoustic duo “Waterfall” back in the eighties. She now lives in New Zealand in what sounds like idyllic surroundings. We even managed to sing a little together in Gilly’s second spot in the old brewery. Hurrah. We also met for the first time, some wonderful people from Carlsbro PA who were sponsoring the whole festival. Great! My first spot in the afternoon went well and I was hoping for a similar experience later on in the Cricket Pavilion (oh I live an exciting life!). And given the circumstances it went well but for the incredibly drunk woman in the front row who refused to stop smoking! Oh boy was this a tense moment.

Entrance to the Cap-A-Pie

Eventually she and her not-so-drunk boyfriend moved to the bar where they no longer puffed away but where she proceeded to make as much noise as possible throughout my entire set! She even threw a pint of beer over Andrew (Mr Carlsbro to you!) who was trying to quieten her down - he handled the experience with a great amount of dignity! Never a dull moment eh? One to remember for all the wrong reasons. The rest of the audience were fantastic and showed their appreciation loudly … at all the right times of course!

The final 2 gigs were with Dave Kelly and the Travelling Gentlemen. The first show was at Crawley Folk Festival, which took place at the Hawth Centre Crawley. It was Saturday July 1 st … do you really need reminding? It was the quarter Finals of the World Cup … and I don’t mean Cake Baking! Oh well. Luckily for us the ball went in and the gig was great.

And finally … Another Saturday in July, this time the 22nd at Ascott in the Oxfordshire countryside the first, it was hoped, of many years to come of a fine music Festival. Can you cast your mind back that far? Up until that day, July had been an absolute scorcher. In fact my Mum, Dad and Aunty Sheila had been staying with us the previous week and we’d been burnt to a crisp several times – oh but we had fun! So … come the 22 nd, Bob and I set off in the blazing sunshine and half an hour down the road a smattering of clouds began to gather. Half and hour later the Heavens opened and the Almighty Herself threw a thunder and lightening storm the like of which neither of us had driven through before. We couldn’t see a thing for quite some time and when we did it was to skirt whole trees strewn across the carriageways.

To cut a very wet story short … we arrived with half an hour to spare only to find the entire Ascott site in a mud bath! The stage was empty and the technical crew huddled together under a small stripy awning. The audience were packing up their sodden belongings and heading home. We had to wait an hour or so before it was finally officially announced that the Festival was off! What a great pity it was … apparently Richard (Thompson) … aka The Rain God … had performed brilliantly (what else!) the night before under a blazing sun. Oh well … there’s nothing anyone could have done. The irony was that as Bob and I drove away from the site the sun shone brightly. Ho, hum.

I made 2 un-scheduled appearances at the end of July, one at the Cambridge Folk Festival and the other at the Palace Theatre in Newark … both singing with the Rain-God himself, Richard Thompson. Hurrah.

Bob was already in the States hard at work with Corinne on a six-week tour so I asked my great friend Lynda Turner to come with me. It’s ages since we spent time together and we were both a bit giddy. She came down from Manchester the night before and we had a lovely time eating, drinking and talking into the wee small hours. I thought she might like the Orchard Tea rooms just outside Cambridge and so we stopped off there for a delightful lunch experience before checking in at the Festival. It’s always exciting to be at a Festival and a great privilege to get access to the good loos backstage! We had a fab time wandering round, soaking up the atmosphere and sunshine … a wonderful combination. Richard was in fine form and we rehearsed 4 songs … Persuasion (which we’d never done before!), Wall of Death, A Heart Needs a Home and Valerie (with tambourine!). When it came to the show we ran out of time and so we could only do 2 of the songs we’d run through: Persuasion – which worked wonderfully and Valerie which was fun, fun, fun! Oh I’m a lucky girl!

RT "RainGod" and CC

Lynda and I drove back to Newark that night and met up with Richard and Simon (Tassano - RT’s sound man and tour manager par excellence!) around 5 O’clock. Did a quick sound check and Lynda and I then went in search of food and found a lovely Italian restaurant for yet another culinary experience. It’s a hard life.

	Though this was a completely different setting the atmosphere was just as good as the previous night … could this have anything to do with Richards talent and charm?! This time we were able to do all 4 songs and enjoyed every minute of them. I also had a side stage view of the entire concert … yet another privilege. Hurrah again.
RT and CC in Newark (pic by SM25)		Post-gig chat! (thanks to SM25 for pic)

Only a few days later I was flying out to Austin with the gang. I’ll mention just a few of the highlights: buying a small-scale very blue acoustic guitar, complete with vivid blue strap … simply to practise you understand! A pair of purple cowgirl boots were also a must have and a snip in the last days of a sale - hurrah. Watching Marcia Ball and her wonderful band in Zilker Park Austin. Being at 3 of Corinne’s fabulous sold out gigs … all very exciting! Going to the Broken Spoke several times … Austin’s oldest music venue … couldn’t find anyone to two-step with me – ah. Spending a day with Simon Tassano who took me swimming at Deep Eddy pool, where we bumped into Darden Smith, Jerry Jeff Walker and other local luminaries! But my absolute favourite experience beyond doubt, was Stubb’s Gospel Brunch on our last Sunday, where the food was delightful but the band “The Shields of Faith” were fantastic!A four piece band whose drummer was an astonishing 9 years old!! Plus 4 fabulous male singers belting it out. I got up on stage with Emma and Alicia to help with an audience participation bit – now that was a moment! I could go on and on but I’ll spare you this time. It was all wonderful and a very hot … over 100 degrees every day … experience.

Emma, Bryan and Marcus - eating!	CBR's Houston Gig	A Real Life Cowboy!
A little bit of Austin's history	Hardcore country at the Broken Spoke	A ghostly two-step
The beautiful Hamilton Pool	Diane & Emma - mother like daughter	BTBF relaxing - it was hot!
CCs Dad!	CCs Mum!	Aunty Sheila!
Fabulous 9yr old drummer	The Shields of Faith Gospel Band	"Hey Look Ma, I'm singing!"

I’ve had a great summer I hope you have too. More importantly I hope to see you at a gig this coming autumn. If you’re not on the emailing list please join, it’s very easy and you’ll be forewarned of gigs and releases. In between all my shows – solo tour September- band tour October- continuing solo tour November … I’ll be writing and recording for the next cd … watch this space. If any of you have photos of any of the shows I mentioned in this Diary report, email them to thecrew@anotherdam.com and we’ll post them up here with a name check!

Take care and … see you out there!

Much love

Christine x

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