Ludlow Food Festival was a massive success for all involved. We played the whole 3 days and did a very enjoyable final set on the Saturday night. Fabulous weather, record attendances and plenty of fantastic food and drink made the festival a great experience. One of the good things about being called Whalebone is the huge amount of scope for puns. This weekend we coined the phrase 'Whaleburn' and learnt that after playing most of the day on Friday, in full sun, that drinking lots of water was the way forward. We also met a very talented chap called Louis who makes amazing chocolate called Chokolit, which after sampling extensively we can categorically state is fabulous.

The following weekend we spent playing at the Bishop's Castle Michaelmas Fair. September seems to be a safer bet nowadays for outdoor events with the weather, so we had another great weekend. The town was full of people and the vibe was lovely. Michaelmas is traditionally a celebration of St Michael the Archangel and coincides with the autumn equinox and the end of the harvest. Old Michaelmas Day falls around the 11th October and according to an old legend, blackberries should not be picked after this date because Satan was banished from Heaven on this day, fell into a blackberry bush and cursed the brambles as he fell on them... Don't say we didn't warn you! We played both days outside at the Six Bells Brewery and were looked after very well by Nev and Sue. The lead guitarist sampled a couple of their products so we have it on good authority that the merchandise is excellent. We will be heading back to Bishop's Castle in a few weeks on the 17th of October to play at The Three Tuns as part of our Autumn Tour. Talking of which....

The first date of the Autumn Tour kicked off at Ditton Priors village hall, with Rich McMahon and The Father Teds. It was great to meet up with Rich again, and a great night was had by all. The following week we played at Rushbury village hall with Daylevel and we always have a giggle and a nice time with Bri and Sal. The next date is in Shrewsbury at the Gateway Arts Centre on Friday 2nd October. Tickets are available from www.ticketsource.co.uk/whalebone.

Our live album, Roosty...Folky...Live and Funky... has received a 4 star review from Kindred Spirit Magazine! Click here to read it!

The album 'There to Here' is finally available, remastered and with three bonus tracks. It will also be available digitally over the next few weeks/months from various digital companies. The CD is available from this site under 'Buy', CD Baby or from us on gigs. We offer a 'bundle' package where both our albums can be ordered for £15, saving £5 on individual prices, through this website.

We travelled up to Nottingham for a gig at the Robin Hood, organised by Folkwit Records. It's a really groovy venue and we had a great gig, after playing all day at Made in Shropshire the day before, we were well rehearsed! We'll be back up in that neck of the woods later in the year to play 'Cup of Tea Folk' at Lee Rosy's Tea. 

Kaleidoscope Theatre in Kemberton provided a fantastic venue for a very enjoyable concert that featured a wonderful cameo performance by Kaleidoscope Theatre Company and we are very excited about returning there later this year for a couple of winter concerts scheduled for December.  The weather thankfully stayed dry long enough to play at Chorley Show, where we all had tans on one side of our face from playing outside. This unbalanced sun kissed look extended to burnt feet too, but it was better than being rained on. It was a great day with a lovely atmosphere as ever. Similarly, Farmer Phil's Festival stayed dry, despite very threatening looking clouds.

We had lovely gig with Beck Sian and Kadie Brimfield at St Aelhaiarn's Church in Wales. This is a wonderful historic church in Guilsfield just outside Welshpool dating back to the 12th Century. The saint acredited with inspiring the church's name, St Aelhaiarn, translates as 'Iron Brow' and relates to a story of Aelhaiarn 'the snooping saint', following his master and his curiosity resulting in him being torn into pieces, then put back together again. This happened at night and one of his eyebrows was lost, so a metal tip off a pikestaff was used as a replacement, leaving Aelhaiarn to live the rest of his life with an iron brow. And the good news is, we'll be back next year with Beck Sian for another concert there, where we can brush up on some more history of the local area!

Our track 'September Reel' from the live album 'Rootsy...Folky...live and Funky...' is available to download free as part of a compilation album entitled 'Many' compiled by FATEA. FATEA is an online music magazine dedicated to all aspects of folk and acoustic music and it's various genres.

The Fatea Showcase Sessions are designed to provide greater exposure to artists that have impressed the Fatea team. Some are already signed, others are carving a solo trail, releasing songs on their own labels, all are dedicated to their music. Fatea Showcase Sessions are exclusively available for a three month period after which it will never be available again.

The Fatea Showcase Sessions are zip files containing high quality, 256kbs, drm free, mp3s. All of this year's sleeves have been designed by David Owen and will form a single piece of art. So if you'd like to have a listen, click the link below and discover some great music for free up until October 31st 09.

http://www.fatea-showcase-sessions.co.uk

July has seen some great gigs and new venues. We returned to Wenlock Pottery in Much Wenlock at the start of the month and had a superb night. Although Andy Murray had lost his Semi Final match at Wimbledon earlier in the day, the atmosphere was great and the venue lovely. Mike Fletcher who runs the pottery is outstandingly talented and has just launched a new 'Raku' range, which is well worth checking out. We also went down to play at Mortimer Country Food Fair, hosted by a groovy book shop in Brampton Bryan called Aardvark Books. We did try to play outside several times but was thwarted by the weather, so stayed indoors mainly, but it was a great event and playing inside highlighted what a really interesting place it is with a huge range of titles. Hopefully next month will be wall to wall sunshine looking at the amount of outdoor events we have!

Unfortunately for us, the Hereford Beer Festival proved to be too successful and sold out of Beer and Cider by Saturday night, so our appearance on the Sunday was cancelled. Apologies to anyone who turned up expecting to say 'Hi', though we're sure you were just as disappointed not to be able to sample the fine ales usually on offer! Hopefully we'll have the opportunity to play there next year.  

Another first was playing at Chase Folk Club in Burntwood. We played with the fabulous Beck Sian again and had a great time. It did however take us ages to find and forever to get home with diversions and road closures proving to be the cheif navigator's nemesis, nearly having to get home via Wolverhampton... We have no idea of the route or how we made it there and back in the end. Think we may need a sat nav eventually... We'll be hooking up with Beck again a couple of times next month at Chorley Show and at St Aelahalam’s Church in Guilsfield, Powys, for a summer evening concert (see 'Gigs & Tickets'). Steve did an interview with Katy Jay on WCR Radio on the way to a gig in Shrewsbury. Katy had seen us play at The Varsity earlier in the year and said some really nice things. Hopefully we'll get back to Wolverhampton to play in the near future.

We have some new photos up on the website (under 'Photos'), taken by Rich Foot of Footprint Photography at Kaleidoscope Theatre in Kemberton, Shropshire. We're really pleased with them as they show us looking like we have a good time when we play live, which we do! The venue is a wonderful theatre owned by the Kaleidoscope Theatre company where we'll be playing in a few weeks time on August 14th. We've also added the option of purchasing tickets on this website (see 'Gigs & Tickets' page) for some of our gigs later in the year. This facility is operated by Ticketsource and provides a hassle free way of ordering tickets online where customers receive a confirmation 'eTicket' with a unique booking reference that can be printed off and presented on the night for entry to the gig. 

It's been a hectic month, lots happening and new developments. The Spring Tour with the fabulous Beck Sian has come to an end with a packed Chorley Village Hall and an atmospheric finale at St Mary's Church in Bridgnorth and Meifod Church in Powys. We've had a great time with Beck over the past 3 months and have played lots of new venues and areas.

We travelled down to Worcester on a very hot Sunday afternoon to play 'Acoustic Lunch' organised by a subsidiary of Worcester Music Festival, some footage of 'King of the Faeries' has been posted on YouTube, see here. Bank Holiday Monday saw a trip to Bantock Park in Wolverhampton playing to a crowd in the grounds on Bantock House. The weather just about held and a great line up of artists provided a great soundtrack for the audience and their picnics!

May's Cinnamon gig saw Adrian Byron Burns appear as our guest, he was awesome and captivated the entire audience, a very fitting artist to appear as our last guest at the venue. The June Cinnamon gig on Tuesday 23rd will be the last music night that we host and organise with Whalebone playing all night. It concludes a four year period, where in one form or another, we've organised an acoustic music each month, meeting lots of talented people and making many new friends.

The beginning of June saw a couple of firsts for us. We played the Woodman Folk Club in Kingswinford and the Varsity Unplugged in Wolverhampton which was a great gig with an amazing sound and a fabulous audience. Sherwood Arts Festival took place in Nottingham, again lucky with the weather, we played a hot and sticky set to a group of groovy arts and talented craft people.

The live album 'Rootsy...Folky...Live and Funky... has received a couple of reviews, one from FATEA (see here) and one from the Jazz Mann (see here). Sunday Folk on BBC radio with Genevieve Tudor has played a couple of tracks off the album the past couple of weeks, 'King of the Faeries' and 'Two Wild Women'. We also took a trip to Redditch to play a live session and interview on Radio Pulse. Some YouTube footage of our version of the KT Tunstall song 'Black Horse and The Cherry Tree' can be viewed here.