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Julie and Gav sing and play We'll Meet Again We felt we had to sing this just now. And like most people we're so looking forward to the company of friends and family again one day... Gavin

An arrangement of "Hier Encore" from French duo Brigitte's album "À bouche que veux-tu?", played on Jeffries duet concertina. The arrangement is a work-in-progress, using elements of the original, as well as a the bassline from "Sidewalking" by the Jesus & Mary Chain. I've been resurrecting my spoken French over the last few months, so it seemed like a good idea to have a go at learning some French songs. It's proved surprisingly tricky to stop pronunciation going haywire while wrestling with the good old Demented Typewriter. As it stabilises I'll add more detail. Just as when singing a traditional song, I've stuck with the original gender of the song -- hence all adjectives are in the feminine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBN9lXkQWcc

Here's a traditional song I recorded today. It must be said that the song's narrator is a bit of a bounder. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZppwAy9_2k

Adrian is partly to blame for this one! It hadn't really occurred to me to try many additional Smiths songs, although I'd been thinking about reviving "The National Front Disco" and "Margaret on the guillotine" given the current political climate. Some of you may remember that I used to do "Girlfriend in a Coma" on anglo, but no others. I always thought the line about the "back scrubber" had something of the music hall about it, so I've (kind of) played it for laughs... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JiyQSDynfg

Here's a bit of fun -- the Pet Shop Boys' song "You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk", which is a mouthful of a title worthy of Morrissey. It has typically arch lyrics, and my arrangement has elements in common with the way I play "Just as the Tide was Flowing". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRNpuaUKKo0 (edit: I've finally broken my duck with videos as I now have a mobile case that will prop my phone up properly )

Here's one for the legion of drone/doom metal fans among us https://soundcloud.com/lachenaliamusic/ouroboros-is-broken-concertina A version of the longest track from Earth's Extra-Capsular Extraction EP, to celebrate 25 years since its release (and the impending arrival of Dylan Carlson & co. in the UK for another tour...) This is a slightly different version again from the way I used to do it in my experimental tuba group ORE -- not least in the instrumentation (2 tubas plus all manner of guests including contrabass clarinet) but also for the addition of harmonic lines and a relaxation of the rather rigid deconstructive process I used to apply to it (removing one note from each repetition until left with the coda pattern). Still a work in progress while I work out whether I like what I've done with the chords at the end

This may only make sense to Brits --- it's the theme tune for Saturday afternoon sport on the BBC in the 1970s and 80s. I've often said that if I wrote a single tune as good as this I'd die happy, and I say that completely without sarcasm. It's played in D on a C-core Jeffries duet. The chord structure to this tune is really lovely but a pig to play on the Jeffries! Sadly there's no way of reproducing the timpani glissando in the first section... https://soundcloud.com/lachenaliamusic/grandstand

A self-penned song from my performance at the Black Diamond Folk Club last month, called "The Elf Princess" -- it's a kind of English folk take on the Erlkönig. The slow jig that surrounds the verses is called "The Cherry Blossom Falls" after the line in the last verse of the song. It's the first time she's been out of mothballs in some time! https://soundcloud.com/lachenaliamusic/the-elf-princess-live If you like loud guitars there's also a link to a much earlier full band recording here: https://soundcloud.com/lachenaliamusic/the-elf-princess

A version of Clyde Water / The Mother's Malison, recorded live at the Black Diamond Folk Club in Birmingham, 27th May 2016. The tune is the Berwick version collected from the McEwen brothers, the words broadly from Nic Jones. Played on Jeffries duet in the key of E. https://soundcloud.com/lachenaliamusic/clyde-water-the-mothers-malison-roud-91-child-216

A recording made back in the summer of one of the very grimmest of ballads, in this rather jaunty version from the singing of Lisa Null. https://soundcloud.com/lachenaliamusic/lucy-wan It's always very entertaining to perform this live -- there's always an audible gasp after the line "he has cutted off Lucy Wan's head"

This is an attempt to come up with an arrangement in the style of Philip Glass, inpired by his "Songs from Liquid Days" which I've performed on piano with a couple of singers over the years. "Elizabeth My Dear" was the Stone Roses' appropriation of the famous Scarborough Fair tune for their own nefarious purposes. Monarchists may find this upsetting. https://soundcloud.com/lachenaliamusic/elizabeth-my-dear-stone-roses-cover

I like this song a lot -- it's a variant of "Ramble Away", I think, with a really distinctive melodic line. Played on Jeffries duet, recorded on iPhone: https://soundcloud.com/lachenaliamusic/courting-coat

These consecutive posts are making it look as though I've been busy -- I haven't This is another recording from earlier in the year - one of the best of the ballads that end with the true lovers' knot, for my money. https://soundcloud.com/lachenaliamusic/lady-margaret-and-sweet-william

Another from the same batch of recordings as The Prickleye Bush. As I've written in the SoundCloud blurb, this performance came out strangely jolly https://soundcloud.com/lachenaliamusic/oh-dear-rue-the-day

Here's a recording of The Prickleye Bush / The Maid Freed from the Gallows I made a little while ago, learned (loosely) from Nic Jones's version. https://soundcloud.com/lachenaliamusic/the-prickleye-bush

My good lady and I have been invited to sing/play at a local allotment's "Pie night" on Friday. Songs about pies are fairly thin on the ground in my repertoire, but I have a few that can be filed under "general agriculture" which I have been dusting off this week. This is my own version of The Haymakers, or "The Month of May" learned from recordings of the Copper family but fairly heavily "folk-processed" over the years. A nice reminder that May isn't just a time for misery and nonsense peddled by the political classes! https://soundcloud.com/lachenaliamusic/the-haymakers

We're delighted that entertaining Jeffries duet maestro Mike Hebbert has agreed to return to Frittenden to feature in the regular free end-of-the-month session on the 26th April - the last of the season. If you're interested in concertina playing, live in the south-east and haven't yet heard him play, this really should be an unmissable event. I don't think anyone forgets the first time they hear him - I certainly haven't as he inspired me to take up the instrument. Just think of it - TWO Jeffries duet players in ONE room! Is this breaking the laws of physics? The session starts at 8pm, and we'll ask Mike to chip in three short sets of three items, as usual. No doubt it will another night to remember, as Mike takes his little box through an astonishing range of musical forms - last time, in addition to his famous performance of the Dambusters March, I remember he also played material ranging from tango to slow Irish airs. In the usual Frittenden way, there will also be lots of time for tunes and songs (and anything else that's follows our usual agenda of trad, old fashioned and entertaining) from session attenders. Contact gmatkin@gmail for information. In the meantime, here's what Mike has to say: 'Concertinas are uncommon enough instruments and Jeffries duets are the most uncommon type of concertina - but Gavin Atkin plays one of these oddities, and so does this evening's guest Michael Hebbert. 'Michael was born in Glasgow, grew up in Blackburn Lancs and began his performing career in Wallingford Oxon as a pub musician and dance band leader, contributing to Ashley Hutchings's Kicking Up the Sawdust (Harvest SHSP4073) and releasing his own LP The Rampin' Cat (named after the pub, Free Reed FRR 009). 'On the folk circuit he has a long-standing double act with singer Andrew Frank and his concertina classes and workshops have featured at Kilve, Witney, Swaledale, Bradfield and the English Country Music Weekend. 'With a huge repertoire of tunes from many traditions, Michael shows the tremendous versatility of the instruments made by the Jeffries brothers. A triumph of late Victorian craftsmanship measuring only 6in across, the little squeezebox packs the essence of the music whether it's blazing away like a fairground organ, punching a tango rhythm, or unfurling the long melody of an Irish slow air fit to break your heart.'

As part of the Kickstarter campaign to fund the planned film about Shirley Collins, The Ballad of Shirley Collins, I was invited by Shirley to perform at Café OTO in Dalston, which resulted in this duet with the comedian Stewart Lee. As Stewart says in his introduction, we had tried this out a couple of weeks previously without really rehearsing it... was great fun! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob01iFSq8LA

Apologies if this song is a bit political for this forum... but here is Morrissey's "Margaret on the Guillotine" repurposed for the UK's great eejit of an education secretary Michael Gove, and, thus, retitled "Michael on the Guillotine." It's not the most generous of songs in its overall sentiment https://soundcloud.com/5357311/michael-on-the-guillotine

Just for fun - "Video Games" by Lana Del Rey, recorded on my Jeffries duet. Finding that Eb7 chord at the end of the chorus is a swine. https://soundcloud.com/5357311/video-games-lana-del-rey-cover As I've posted on SoundCloud, I don't feel the need to switch gender perspective here - I sing enough folk songs which are narrated by a woman, and as far as I'm concerned this is the same sort of thing. Great song - really looking forward to her next LP.

It struck me when listening back to this that I haven't really sorted out how to sing Dire Straits songs without the vocal sounding very derivative. It's his rhythms and phrasing, particularly in the unpitched lines - they're so distinctive that they almost suck you into using an embarrassing fake Geordie accent. Anyway - Romeo and Juliet from Making Movies is one of his songs which is just perfect. For many people of my generation in the 80s liking Dire Straits wasn't really "allowed". I always had a soft spot for Making Movies and Love Over Gold though. I make no great claims for this, but it's a bit of fun: https://soundcloud.com/5357311/romeo-and-juliet-dire-straits I intend to do Telegraph Road at some point

Here's Julie singing I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter, accompanied by my Jeffries duet tina: It's all part of the work in progress for an CD we're recording, so wish us luck! Gavin