Bell Inn, Chittlehampton, South Molton, Devon mainly traditional English tunes session second Monday of month rocked!

Rarely have I been to a traditional English tune session that had so many excellent traditional English musicians as when I visited the second Monday of the month traditional English session at the Bell Inn, Chittlehampton, Devon this week (14th December 2009).

The great news is, with the kind support of Bell Inn publicans Mark and Lynne Jones, they are doing it all over again on the 21st December 2009, as a special Christmas treat (with added carols).

In addition to the session at The Bell Chittlehampton on 21st December 2009, there is also the one on the 29th December (Tues after Christmas) at Ring o Bells Prixford.

After a really busy day (being retired), I thought I'd arrived in good time at 8pm but I was one of the late comers and the session, led by excellent session host Rob Jenkins, was already in full swing.

There was a splendid mixture of instruments including violins, guitars, banjos, melodeons and of course, when I had found a space to settle myself down, my soprano sax.

Hardly had one traditional English tune finished before another one was immediately started and the session flowed beautifully, mainly due, I believe, to the high quality of the musicians present.

Although I understand this is mainly a tunes session, Carol Henderson Begg, who lives in the village and is very active promoting folk events there throughout the year, joined in and sung a wonderful traditional carol which went down very well.

This was followed, at special request, by that fine local folk musician and singer Martyn Babb who led the singing of one of the popular greats accompanied by a great deal of fun improvisation from the instrumentalists.

Were you at the session? Your comments are welcome below. Just click on 'comments' and I look forward to hearing from you :-)

So, if you like listening to or playing in traditional English folk music sessions and you can get to the Bell Inn at Chittlehampton, near South Molton, in North Devon, for one of Rob Jenkin's mainly traditional English tune sessions, judging by my experience, you are in for a treat.

Bye for now

Rob

(Rob Hopcott - online author and folk musician)

P.S. If you are travelling far, please call the Bell Inn, Chittlehampton, South Molton, North Devon to confirm the session is taking place just in case of changes to arrangements.