Ludford village hall was a way to travel on a cold and very windy and wet January night but if I had stayed away like a few regulars had done I would have missed what I consider the best night ever at this club. Jeff Gallant and band had traveled from Norfolk and put on a night of pure country music which I will never forget,with Jeff Lead Vocals And rhytham guitar,Jay dee Reed Peddle Steel (what a player) and Lead Guitar, George Ing Bass Guitar, ‘Tich’ Reeder Fiddle and Keyboard and Dick Hewitt Drums and Banjo. The show was the custiomery three sets with two short breaks for raffle and supper there was a great  atmosphere all night and lots of audience involvement hand clapping singing along and at one stage Jeff had a dance floor full of people dancing and making Indian calls. A selection of song we enjoyed were Swinging Doors, Guitars and Cadillacs, Always on my mind , Wing on me heels, Setting the woods on fire, don’t rock the juke box and I’ll call her Two things which stood out for me was Dueling Banjos played by Jay and Dick and the superb train sound on peddle steel from Jay. To be fair to Jeff the band and the night this report should have had a lot more detail but I enjoyed myself that much I took very little notes.January 2008

            January 16^th Nicky James was due to appear at the The Grimsby CMC but due to illness he was replaced with Darren Busby and Tim McKay. I had really been looking forward to seeing Nicky so I was a bit dissapointed but as always a really great show from these two both doing two sets each Tim started with a few uptempo numbers to get the linedancers feet warm but also sung some good classics from George Strait, Kenny Rogers, Garth Brooks and Hal Ketcham. During Darren’s spots we enjoyed The Cowboy and the Dancer, Help pour out the Rain , Raise me up and Some Beach to name a small selection. Once again a non stop night at the Excelsior with Darren coming runner up in the fast Draw.

            Saturday 19^th we went for the first time in months to the Blue Nickel CMC at Scawby. On stage this night 101 Proof a Country rock band from the Spalding area who gave us a night of very loud country style music. The band which normally play the pub and clubs at a weekend in the Spalding and Cambridge areas is made up of Mick vocals and Guitar, Ray vocals and Bass, Bob Drums and Percussion and a very very talented David Harmonica six and twelve string Guitars slide Guitar, Manolin, lap steel and six string Bass. The whole show was all all very upbeat numbers and when someone requested a slow one they had real problems deciding what to do but suprising the dance floor was full for most of the night. I mentioned earlier the talanted Dave he told me he owned 14 defferent insrtiments  but this night he had only brought 12 but he played all of them. Certinally a night with a difference and one I enjoyed.

            The following night we were at Ashby CMC to see Phil Lloyd. I had been looking forward to seeing Phil again and I was pleased to hear he had made a full recovery after his operation last year.

As expected mixed among his songs was a string of jokes and of course a few hospital tails all making it a good night out. A selection of songs from Phil’s show are Gipsy Women, Tonight we might, Life turned her that way, Drinking and Dreaming, Tulsa time, Singing the Blues, Living Proof and Together Again. This was a really good night and would have been better if there had been a few more in.