Well, this is the first post to the session diary.

It's a funny old world, playing in traditional music sessions. You meet all sorts. You know people for years, what they play, what they drink, but you only know their first names. The Irish session was once described to me as an exclusive club. You can go anywhere in the world and drop into a session and be accepted. Not the same with English ('lumpy') sessions or the 'mixed-lumpy' sessions (choose from a mixture of English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Shetland, Belgian, French...........).

Then there's session etiquette - when you don't crash back in from the bar while a set is being played (or leave a set for that matter). I wish the etiquette would extend to bangers and graters so that they would only play when it was in time and in key. Ho hum. And session politics of course. Whose seat is it anyway?

Now there will be stories from the sessions in the weeks to come but just recently we've been celebrating a birth and lamenting a death, welcoming old friends and finding new and trying desperately to learn some new tunes!