June what's on in Dorset - live music entertainment sessions at Kings Arms, Weymouth and Tom Browns, Dorchester in pre Wessex Folk Festival warm-up

If you enjoy live music entertainment, you will know that live performances can have that special zing that sets the spine tingling and raises the hairs on the back of your neck.

If you are a musician, you will know how special it is to get together with other musicians and make music together in a friendly setting.

The live music joining in open sessions at Kings Arms pub in Weymouth and Tom Browns pub in Dorchester on Bank Holiday Monday (26th May 2008), in the lead up to the Wessex Folk Festival, had a wonderful standard of singing and musicianship and warm and appreciative audiences. My spine just kept tingling and the hairs on the back of my head just wouldn't lie down.

For me, the sessions were particularly rewarding because they provided an excellent opportunity to meet and get to know some amazing musicians I had not previously come across.

Kate Carpenter (above), a multi-talented musician who seems as much at home on the harp as she is on the violin or folk whistle, was a very special find and is doing some exciting things as a violin teacher running the Aminor Fiddle Orchestra when she isn't playing with Jim below in their band.


Jim Lush (above), who plays piano accordion, continental chromatic accordion and fiddle with Kate, is simply one of the finest musicians I have ever met in terms of speed, rhythm and precise execution.

Kate and Jim tell me they are available for bookings and contact details are on their Swing Your Partner web site. If you are in or around the Weymouth, Bournemouth, Poole or Wimborne area or even perhaps further afield, check them out for Barn and Scottish dances (Kate is a caller too).


Paul Openshaw (above) and Mike McDaid (below) are both heavily involved in organising the Wessex Folk Festival and also will be performing in Hope Square as the Tree Fellahs during that music festival. Paul is a great singer and guitar player and Mike proved the equal to Jim Lush in fine musicianship as they duelled Irish tunes on their squeeze boxes.


There were many other great singers and musicians who added to the texture and character of the performances, some of whom I will mention later this week.

If you are wondering what's on in the way of live music entertainment in early June 2008 in the Weymouth, Dorchester, Bournemouth, Poole, Ringwood, Wimborne, Dorset or South of England area, these fine live folk music pub session performances were just tasters of what people can expect at the Wessex Folk Music Festival in Weymouth on the weekend of the 6th - 8th June 2008.

Pub joining in sessions are a very important part of the ethos at Wessex Folk Music Festival and the Kings Arms, Weymouth will host many more pub folk music sessions over the festival weekend.

Perhaps I'll see you there!

More about the interesting musicians and singers I met down in Weymouth tomorrow :-)

Comments welcome below.

Bye for now

Rob