Lively and friendly folk music session at the Wheatsheaf Inn, South Petherton, 16 April 2008

Update: The Wheatsheaf folk session has now moved to The Bell Inn Ash Somerset

Traditional English folk music and a mix of other tunes and songs rocked at the Wheatsheaf Inn, South Petherton last night (16 April 2008) in a session hosted by Martin Hughes and Happy Hopcott was soon feeling very contented that he had found a new bunch of friends.

A special bonus was the interesting Stroh Violin featured on the right and played brilliantly in the course of the evening by Peter who kindly gave me permission to show him playing it on this blog.

Following on from the highly successful weekend at Sidmouth Sailing Club folk music reunion, Martin Hughes of the Loose Knit Band suggested that I might like to join in with the folk musicians at South Petherton who meet at the Wheatsheaf Inn every two weeks.

Having been very impressed by the friendly and supportive musical ethos that Martin Hughes and the other members of the Loose Knit Band created at the Sailing Club folk reunion at Sidmouth, I very much hoped that this friendliness would also be found in South Petherton.

I certainly wasn't disappointed. There were about fifteen musicians present and not only were they individually wonderful musicians but also proved to be incredibly welcoming.

The style of music was predominantly traditional English Folk dance music but, in keeping with their open ethos, they welcome singing and any other type of musical expression.

During the course of the evening humorous songs were sung and even ragtime tunes were played.

Will I be going back? You bet I will. The music is the sort of music that I like, the people are the sort of people I like and the Wheatsheaf Inn proprietor was friendly and supportive, which I like.

The session starts between 8.00 at 9.00 in the evening and is held fortnightly on Wednesdays. (Be sure to confirm with the landlord before traveling in case of any changes to arrangements).

Martin Hughes also hosts a session at Somerton and I am looking forward to checking it out.

Do you have a local folk music instrumental session? I would love to hear of it in the comments below :-)

Watch this space for more news of folk musician sessions!

Bye for now

Rob Hopcott