Bonne année, y'all!

Blue Railroad Train dans le studio de KTBC/ in the KTBC studio (Austin, Texas, USA): Philippe Perrard, Jean-Marie Redon, Sharon Lombardi, James Field, Thierry Lecoq

Pour un merveilleux 2007, plein d'aventures musicales, nous vous disons Merci. Et nous vous souhaitons un très heureux 2008, plein de bonheur, de joie, et de la musique !

For a wonderful 2007, full of musical adventures, we say Thanks. And we wish you a very happy 2008, full of joy and music!

************

James and his wife Pat returned recently from the States. For him, the highlight of the trip was

an all-afternoon-evening benefit show to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the opening of Club 47 in Cambridge (Massachusetts). As you may know, it was where Mlle Baez got her start and became the cradle of the Boston folk scene where everybody played. For the occasion, they reprinted the Club's calendar for two months in 1967, and it included Bill Monroe, Merle Travis, Mose Allison, Muddy Waters, the Chambers Brothers, and Jim Kweskin and the Jug Band, among others. THOSE were the days.

The Club's later incarnation, Club Passim, still exists, and the benefit was quite an affair. Jim Kweskin, Geoff Muldaur, Peter Rowan, Spider John Koerner, Carolyn Hester, Jim Rooney, Bill Keith, Chris Smither, and my old band, the Charles River Valley Boys - as well as a dozen or so other acts - all put in an appearance... It all came off shockingly well.

Jim Rooney appears this coming Friday (18 January) at the Seamus Ennis Centre, Naul, Co. Dublin.