Dear Folkies,

on the right-hand side of this blog, there are a few interesting links for you to enjoy. One such is the Mike Harding Folk Show. It is exactly what it says "over the door", or if you prefer "on the box." "The very best in folk, roots and acoustic music."

Here it is a two-hour podcast for you to listen to, for free, and at your leisure:

https://mikehardingfolkshow.com/category/podcasts/

Mike Harding is quite a character, and who he doesn't know in folk music and the songs that he doesn't know, are frankly not really worth knowing.

You can read more about him here on his Wikipedia page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Harding

Quite a remarkable man. After many decades as a successful folk singer/songwriter mainly playing the guitar and the mandolin, but indeed able to play most instruments known to man and a mean Blues harp player too. An author, a comedian and a rambler through the dales of northern England. Later on, he took a job with the BBC Radio 2 and ran his own weekly half-hour radio show there, "The Mike Harding Show", but in 2012 after 15 successful years as a disc jockey, in a remarkable naive case of ageism, somebody at the BBC noticed that he hadn't retired at the customary age of 65 years and had well overshot the mark, even though Mike wasn't complaining in the slightest. So, they decided to unceremoniously "put Mike out to grass". Mike though, in classical renegade style, had noticed that technology had sufficiently shifted the old tectonic plates of the radio music world to such an extent that a somewhat slightly angry and determined older man could now significantly take on a long-established traditional institution such as the behemoth that is the national radio broadcaster in the UK, ever since the radio was invented, and even win! Mike Harding speedily set up his own "new radio" show as an internet podcast as a new two-hour show, and literally ran rings around them and duly left them standing! What a wonderful story of a folky "David and Goliath!" Mike started the weekly show from January 2012 just after folk club Bonn started in 2010. By doing weekly shows as opposed to our monthly reality German folk music shows, it wasn't very long until he overtook our numbers. Finally, in 2017 it finally dawned on Mike that the BBC might have had a point after all, and perhaps it was a good idea if he slowed down a little, so he took a short break, but before long he started up again, but this time on a more reasonable leisurely monthly rather than a weekly basis. You can now listen to show number #285, as usual, a wonderful diverse platter of the very best, both old and new, folk, roots and acoustic music. Please enjoy! If you enjoy it, do feel free to contribute "a few Bob" or whatever you can spare, as Mike has licencing fees to pay in order to continue doing what he does so well. All previous 284 shows are also available for your perusal and enjoyment. If you look on this site under "Folk Clubs and Sessions" and look under the searchable site and insert "Germany" you will also find "Folk Club Bonn" there.

For more information on Mike Harding, you can visit his regular web page here:http://www.mikeharding.co.uk/

A man who ticks all of the folk music boxes, with a vengeance, and then some!

Keep up the great work Mike and never cease to let us hear the best music ever to come out of a stone Yorkshire shed. There really are some incredible people in the world, who keep the music flowing, sometimes against all the odds, especially in these most difficult Coronavirus COVID-19 times, that seems to have stopped so many wonderful musical events dead in their tracks, with hardly any current reprieve.

Here are over two hours of Mike Harding's most recent show:

Click below on the orange arrow to listen, or find the podcast on iTunes.

I can certainly recommend it. Do try it and let us know in the comments below what you think of it.

Many thanks in advance.