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Another folk music web site erupts from the musical miasma on the web. Hurrah! Folk Music in the UK publicise and promote a range of folk music from the United Kingdom. Their website, launched in June 2011, is steadily gaining readers and they are still adding features, should be good. Throughout the site there are pages for folk music artists from around Britain in addition to loads of links to folk events, sites and traders - in fact anything connected to the folk music scene.

There's a new podcast flying over the airwaves called 'Under the Mason's Apron' - presented by Tinker Mal and Planxty Gramster - they bill the show as: 'Real Folk for real folk... like you!" And now that I've listened to shows #1 May and #2 June 2011, I'm inclined to agree.
The web site: http://masonsapronradio.co.uk/ states that 'Under the Mason's Apron' is a monthly (or as the guys state 'monthly-ish') podcast: "... featuring folk music old and new for aficionados and the uninitiated alike. From the famous to the obscure, signed or unsigned, live or dead, good or whatever."

 Reviews should amount to more than a list of comparisons. I know the objective is to give the reader a clear and simple reference to better understand what the band/ artist sounds like. I’m guessing the purpose of using phrases that range from ‘sounds just like ...’ through ‘in the same vein as ...’ to ‘reminds me of ...’ is to help the reader to know what to expect.

How many festivals will either fall by the wayside or run at varying degrees of loss during the economically arid and financially cut months of 2011? And how many will eventually rise from the ashes or simply fade away forever. And it’s not just the new and fringe festivals that are feeling the draught some of the great and good have already fallen. Who follows?

Every so often you come across a biography that opens up unexplored avenues, sheds light on shadows or shows unknown aspects of the subject’s personality. That’s exactly what you get with ‘The Keys of Heaven’, David Sutcliffe’s biography of Charles Marson – devoted priest, establishment critic, social reformer, deflator of egos and avid collector of folk songs. That eclectic mix made Marson a complex and intriguing man and Sutcliffe’s book is equally absorbing.

Yes possibly - great if you're outside - not so great if you're stuck in an office or classroom. Fantastic if you're an ice cream salesman - not so wonderful if you're a farmer with crops gasping in the field. Whatever your take on the current spell of ‘hot and sunny’ weather – remember this is the British Isles and no weather pattern lasts forever. So while the media ramps up its frenzied reporting to ‘what a scorcher’ levels and make dire predictions that we will all die of thirst as the reservoirs empty, spare a thought for the festival organiser.