Got the Christmas music on, at last. Just loving Jackie Oates & John Spiers album A Midwinter's Night: really well chosen songs, and a lovely restrained swing to the playing. Halsway Carol's a particular gem.

Sad to learn we've lost Joe Ely. His Lord of the Highway is still high up in my list of all-time favourite albums . . . and me and my great friend Tim used to sing Me & Billy the Kid back in the dawning days of Clogiron. www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9hW...

Managed to break two fingernails last weekend. Wouldn't usually worry too much, but on Sunday 14th I'll be at The Horse & Farrier in Otley, supporting Janice Burns and Jon Doran, 7pm start. Quick trip into town yesterday and now I have some surprisingly discreet emergency acrylics.

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Up betimes, cocking eager ears at Radio 5 Sports Extra, after the excitement of yesterday in Perth at the first Ashes test. Could our merry band of Bazballers carry on where they left off? Alas, hope's brief candle has already guttered & gone out . . . at least until Brisbane, week after next.

It's gig day and I am feeling GOOD

The estimable Riley Baugus at Ryburn Folk Club last evening. Marvellous old-timey banjo playing, some very droll chat, and a powerful sense of carried tradition, as if the American Civil War was only the day before yesterday.

CHANGE OF VENUE: This Thursday's Topic Folk Club double header with Reuben and The Bridge has been moved: It'll now be at The Castle, Grattan Rd, BD1. Should be a cracking good night -- treat yourself to an evening out.

Thea Gilmore at Barnoldswick Music & Arts Centre yesterday evening. Poetic, personal, funny without being comic; amazingly inventive. One of the most thoughtful, imaginative writers on the circuit just now. Sublime. Got home and sat up till all hours listening to her Afterlight album.

It was my pleasure & privilege to visit Chirk Marina in May to record 3 songs for The Narrowboat Sessions. Lovely people, and all in support of a better cause than simply raising my own profile. This is the second of them, Don't Ever Say Goodbye. www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbts...

Oh great. A new song, one I'm quite pleased with . . . but once again the key that suits the voice doesn't suit the fingers. I strive for economy of effort, but keep having to go off down tuning rabbit holes. This one might have to be DADGAD de-tuned 2 steps . . . which makes gigging it tricky.

Of all the turning year I love wild garlic time the best. But a sunny afternoon on October runs it close.

Fabulous Costa Portugal: sun, music, chums. Spookies, Wilson & Wakeman brilliant & hilarious; Miranda Sykes sublime. Excellent Rum Ragged, Hannah Scott; Melrose Quartet. Ralph McTell a national treasure. And here's me strutting & fretting my 5 mins on the garden stage - thanks Nigel Plant for photo.

Scarborough yesterday for Earth Angel, the new Alan Ayckbourn. Beautifully structured, building to great jokes & a big bust up. As ever, clever, funny & nuanced commentary on reality, rumour, on-line amplification & distortion. Fish & Chips, & a sunny walk on the front afterwards. Grand day.

John 'Fiddlers Green' Connolly, last of the deep sea librarians, at Ryburn 3 Step Folk Club last evening. Marvellous blend of thoughtfulness & humour, a masterclass in how to charm an audience: between-song patter that was carefully planned & judged, then delivered easy and off-hand. Just terrific.

September rolls in. Tomorrow - Friday 5th - is Bandcamp Friday, when the lovely people who provide independent artists with a shop window waive royalties & every sale goes to the maker. Browse my humble offering at chrismanners.bandcamp.com If another indie takes your fancy, check them out too.

I'm part of the playlist again for Roy Wetton's Folk Show on Bourne Community Radio, starting at noon today. All the best in traditional and contemporary folk music. And me. Thanks Roy. www.bournecommunityradio.com

And summer's lease hath all too short a date.

Tomorrow evening (Wednesday 20th August), Otley Folk Club upstairs at The Black Horse Hotel. Guitars restrung, set list written and rehearsed, shirt ironed, merch gathered. Hope everyone enjoys it as much as I will . . . and everybody at Whitby Festival wishes they'd chosen Otley instead.

'What country, friends, is this?' 'This is Illyria lady. Next to the River Aire, just off the Bradford Road.'

Open air Shakespeare i'the park this evening, and for once I might not need layers of Arctic clothing.

Welsh bluegrass from Taff Rapids at the wonderful Barnoldswick Music and Arts centre last evening. Furiously deft, great harmonies . . . but so introverted on stage. Come on lads, look at the punters and not your fingers all the time.

Excited by yesterday's news of millions of unclaimed Premium Bond prizes. My dad bought me a bond when I was less than a fortnight old. Riches would be mine! Rooted around, found it, all the rigmarole of registering & logging in & checking. Nothing. Not a penny. Ever. Would've been too easy, really.

Not so high profile as Ozzie or the much-lamented Tom Lehrer, we also recently lost George Kooymans, guitarist with Golden Earring. Remembered in UK for Radar Love and an iffy concept album, purveyors of splendidly doomy Euro-rock and a lot less naff than most. www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXeJ...

I'm part of the playlist for Roy Wetton's folk show this week - starting just less than half an hour (and presumably on catch-up). Thanks Roy. broadcast.shoutstream.co.uk/public/8096

Getting myself sorted for tonight's visit to Paul Taylor and Penistone FM. A few songs from me, chance to pick a few favourites for Paul to play, and some chat in between. With a guitar slung just so, and on catch-up for a week or thereabouts. penistonefm.co.uk

A gig for which I don't need to iron a shirt. Looking forward to guesting on Paul Taylor's Folk Roots & Acoustic Hour on Penistone FM, next Tuesday July 22 from 7pm. penistonefm.co.uk

Sorry to learn we've lost Dave Cousins of The Strawbs. They were the first band I ever saw perform live (at Barnsley Civic). He didn't have the sweetest voice, but - Lay Down, Stormy Down, Hangman & the Papist - they produced some really good stuff. Having a retro listen just now.

Enjoyed Ballad of Wallis Island at the cinema the other evening. The music's ok tho' not stellar, but the film's touching and funny. Best is how it peels back defensive layers from the lead characters to show hidden hurt & vulnerability. Tim Key as the bumbling, tone deaf Charles is especially good.

Musing idly on fave guitar solos: Kimberley Rew, Katrina & Waves: Going down to Liverpool Nils Lofgren, Bruce & E St Band: Youngstown (Live in NY City) Gary Moore: Still got the Blues Barry Flanagan: Pahinui Aloha (Hapa: In the Name of Love) Mike Oldfield: In Dulce Jubilo 2nd thoughts tomorrow.

Yippee! It's gig day. Southport, I shall be among you this evening.

The final date of my Not Quite a Pensioner Yet tour is coming up this Sunday (June 15) at the famous Bothy Folk Club in Southport, starting at 7.30pm. Looking forward to it more than a six-year old at Christmas. www.bothyfolkclub.org.uk

Get up to much this weekend Chris?

Yippee, it's gig day. Otley Music Festival, tonight at the Black Horse with Tim Marshall, Reuben & the Bridge and headliner Hannah Scott. 7.30 start.

Off for an all-day songwriting workshop with chums, led bye Boo Hewardine. He probably thinks it's going to be per-hur-hur-hur-fect. In fact, he'll need The Patience of Angels.

Today’s office. #Railway200 Big sing

Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning. Not terrible, but bombastic, overloud & overlong. No opportunity to twist the tension higher overlooked, & a fair amount of sermonising. The earlier ones were better & this tries too hard. Or perhaps I only say that because I've been infected by THE ENTITY.

Busy old week coming up: a Narrowboat Session, a folk club and the Railway 200 Big Sing. Still hoping to squeeze in a visit to Mission Impossible, though.

scontent-lhr8-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-... Gearing up for this year's Otley Music Festival. Ironing the spangly shirt, working out the Set List. Not time to change strings yet.

Sad we've lost Geoff Higginbottom, though not unexpected. I met him in Manchester in the early 1980s (along with Keith Hancock, Brian Peters & Mark Dowding). Always looked for his skinny pony tail at the Rovers Retreat bar in Corrie. Hadn't seen him for too long, but his loss still leaves a hole.

Tomorrow is Bandcamp Friday, commission-free. I have a modest selection that might provide a good Fathers' Day gift, especially if you're not speaking to each other. If not me, rummage and find someone more to your taste. Thank you. chrismanners.bandcamp.com

Ah, Seville. Leaps with one mighty bound into my all-time Top 5 favourite international cities. Brussels and Seattle now in relegation play-off.

I have spent the day spring cleaning my man cave The Spannertorium and now feel dustily and sweatily virtuous.

Very pleased to have joined the Connected Artists roster on @coastalbreezeradio.bsky.social. Thanks for supporting and promoting grassroots music.

Pete Coe last evening at Otley Folk Club: completely enthralling, weaving reminiscence and anecdote between the songs, bringing source singers and earlier generations of the revival back to mind vividly. Unshowy, unhurried, in command without having to try too hard. Masterful.

Splendid review in Fatea magazine for my most recent release Bar the Doors and Bang the Shutters Down. Insightful, judicious, forensic . . . and kind. Thank you Fatea Magazine Neil King and David Kidman. www.fatea-records.co.uk/magazine/rev...

Tomorrow is Bandcamp Friday, when the lovely people at Bandcamp pass every penny to the impoverished artistes whose music is on their site. You could do worse than check out Jonharvison, pamjohnson1, cathharneymusic, mockingbirds1, timmoon1 . . . or me. bandcamp.com (Don't let this lad put you off.)

Well, without giving away any spoilers, me & Mrs M iPlayered to the end of Virdee last night, and the longer it goes on the darker and twistier it gets. Just terrific. Edge of the sofa. Well done Amit Dhand for a real breakthrough . . . but I'll think 3 times about going into Bradford at night now.

I might go so far as to describe myself as being tickled, perhaps even chuffed: getting ready to be live in the studio on the Antony Silson show on Drystone Radio this coming Sunday (March 2) for a spell between 17.00 & 20.00. Antony @ Drystone Radio. www.drystoneradio.com

Came away from Becoming Led Zeppelin in two minds. On the one hand, it's definitely the authorised version: hardly anything about on-the-road antics or fearsome manager Peter Grant. On the other, lots of terrific live footage. Boy, they were mighty. That howl of Plant's makes me shiver.