Here I am in the sunny bay area. My wounds are nearly invisible apart from some bruising still above my right eye and a long scar down my nose. I Can actually touch my nose now although the right side is still tender. 

Wel I'm in Holland at the moment and was leaving a venue after doing some music. The entrance drive wasn't very well lit and consequently I didn't see the piece of metal sticking up out of the ground. I fell very heavily and mostly landed on my nose. There was alot of blood and I looked a hideous mess until I could clean myself up.

Not necessarily in the above order. Whitby festival was with The Fraser Sisters and The Jo Freya Trio. I enjoyed all the concerts and it was particluarly nice to be on the song side rather than the dance side. I love doing concerts and there's something about performing with Jude and Neil in particular which actual makes me feel I might even be quite good at what I do - if that doesn't sound too arrogant.

Well it was a quick turn around for me. Flying back from the Saga thing and then leaving the next day for Holland. Once there, we rehearsed on the Friday and then did a local gig in Haarlem, mostly for family and friends. You can see the photo's.
The setting was lovely, an old chapel in a communal building. Because it was relatively small we could use the acoustics of the room as well as the P.A. and, although the balance wasn't perfect, it was Ok. The audience were great and made the evening very special, culminating in a standing ovation which was very touching. I particularly enjoyed singing that night.
We then had a day off so Michel and I worked on a duet piece for future gigs. We are re-doing an old Jo Freya and Kathryn Locke number and it was great fun to do. That won't get an airing until the autumn.
Sunday arrived and off we went to the festival. Two marquees and an out door main stage. The festival had a lovely buzz about it and the weather was gorgeous which always helps.
Our sound check was at the same time as a large band on the main stage. Shall I stress that further...a large loud band.. on the main stage. So there was no sound check really and when it came to the actual performance it was a case of get stuck in and hope for the best. In this setting the singing was the least comfortable part because the balance of what you could hear was really strange throughout. The sad thing is that you get no real idea of how it's going. However the audience again were a great help here and seemed really appreciative...with another standing ovation.
Overall between the two gigs there was a fantastic feel good factor. The knowledge that yes, we definitely have something good here and it's different and happily, people like it is a great beginning.
We made the Dutch national press so the next morning before I flew out this is what I was greeted with:
National newspaper de Volkskrant wrote: 'Just before the finale on Sunday the Dutch quartet Maalstroom and Scottish singer and saxophonist Jo Freya produced the most delicate/sophisticated surprise of Folkwoods 2009: wonderfully arranged and sparkingly rendered compositions for reed-instruments (clarinet and sax), fiddle, guitar and percussion. With their mainly self-written work new grounds are covered on the borderline between folk, jazz and classical.'
Well - I am offically Scottish. I mentioned this to Sheila Wellington, a wonderful traditional Scottish singer who said the Scots are always happy to claim quality as their own........well now I am feeling very good indeed. looking forward to more Maalstroom.

What fun what fun. We flew to Aberdeen and then onto Lerwick and joined the boat there. Having been up since 4.30am Fi and I needed some rest after a fine luncheon in the main restaurant. That night was our first gig. Well it was a little strange to say the least. One lovely thing was that Martin Simpson was still on board and came to the concert to give his support. That was fab. According to him and some passengers that had befreinded him, we did really well as the audience was a reasonable size, hardly anybody left and nobody vsisbly fell asleep. That may sound uncharitable but this was what other people told us. From our point of view the experience was very strange as I played a grand piano squashed into a corner 20 feet behind my sister with some very strange reverb on the P.A. I can't say it was our best performance as we were very nervous and the circumstances were odd. I suggested to our entertainments manager Neil that instead of doing a concert the following night we should do a Ceilidh to which we got a very enthusiastic response. When we announced it at the concert we also got a favorable response from the audience.
So, the following day in Orkney the boat had the Wriggley Sisters on for a lovely concert in the afternoon. Due to their wonderful humour Fi renamed them the Giggly Sisters. That evening Bella Hardy and Lori Watson joined the boat so for the Ceilidh we had a 3 fiddle line up with me doing most of the calling, a bit of sax and a bit of piano and great fun was had by all. We left the next day from Stornaway and Bella and Lori were to do a concert the following night. It was a treat for us to have them play along and made the music great and obviously much fuller than it would have been with just two of us - so thanks to them. One lady said to me the following day that she had felt ten years younger the previous evening and another couple of ladies who couldn't dance said they hadn't laughed so much for years. Neil the manage turned out specially for the occassion in a quilt, sorry I mean Kilt and that helped the humour along. So, all in all a very interesting experience. Would I do it again yes.
I got up one of the mornings on the boat at 6am to go Whale spotting. I didn't see any but it was still lovely looking at porpoises and sea birds etc

I love my trio with Jude and Neil. It is such a pleasure to play and sing with these two people as we seem to blend so well together musically and personality wise. We had great comments at both gigs including a woman who said it was her highlight gig of the year so far.
The only disappointing thing about the trio gigs - our 45 minute set in the Bedford was cut to 30 mins and our 1 hour set in the Manor Pavilion Theatre was cut to 40 mins! I do find that frustrating as there are so many songs and tunes I want to do.
The Old Swan Band gigs went well although I should be honest and confess to being a little jaded after the trio gigs. I just put everything I have into those performances and there's not much left at the end. But as the Old Swan is an 8 piece band I can coast a little bit even if we were playing for 3 hours the first night and 2 the second.
On Thursday before I left I was invited to be part of a scratch band in the anchor gardens. It involved people like Saul Rose, Paul Sartan, Paul Downes, Ralphy Jordan and many more. As it was a non paid gig and definitely under reahearsed it was great fun to do and had some truely magical moments. I had such fun that instead of leaving after an hour to drive home I left at the end.
I was also pleased to have sold 8 Folk Against Fascism T'shirts in that lunchtime alone as well as others elsewhere so that's more  money to go back into the pot of this very important cause.
The festival looked after us really well with lovely accomodation and transport and help with instruments etc where necessary. So overall a very good feel good factor.
Next thing up is that I am playing on a Saga cruise with my sister i.e. 'The Fraser Sisters' next week, so I'll let you know how that goes.
Love to all. Jo

It was a few years ago now. I had been asked a few years running to play at the Robin Hood festival up at the castle in Nottingham. Apparently my medieval metal saxophone had gone down well on previous occasions. So one year I wrote down the dates they told me for the second year. The musicians for the following year were myself, Kathryn Locke on medieval cello and Ralph Jordan on guitars and bazooki.
 I was dressed as an aristocrat in full length purple dress and a foot high whimple, kathryn as a milk maid and Ralphy as a hang man including mask.
We parked, walked through town and through the gates of the castle. All was quiet apart from a couple of gardeners. I said , very brightly, 'where is everyone?' and the gardener in full Nottingham accent said, ' what d'yer mean. If ye mean t' robin hood festival you've got wrong week'. I of course laughed and in my best aristoctraic voice said 'don't be ridiculous'.
So, we had to walk back to the car, in full costume looking like complete dorks and me with a very red face to boot.
I swore I'd never turn up on the wrong week again for any gig. That was until yesterday!!!

There are two things that pop into my mind whislt working with this extraordinary and wonderful cellist and composer. One time we were doing some venues on Dartmoor and we decided to leave one car near Salisbury plain to save petrol. We found an unused gateway at the side of a small road and made sure within the lay by that her car ...one of those lovely old 2CV's at the time...was not actually in front of the gate.
The venues were great and we had a fab time. Got back to the rendezvous location to find her car door full of BULLET HOLES. I'm not joking! We didn't hang about just in case if you see what I mean.

The other story that popped into my mind this moring was when we did a lovely club in Bude I think it was. Gig went well, we got taken back to the organisers house, had a little refreshment and then were shown our rooms and where the bathroom was etc . Just before we all went off to sleep Kathryn stood in the doorway of her room and with a totally baffled expression on her face asked 'Are there any stairs?' ......somehow she'd failed to realise we were in a bungalow. Well you had to be there really but it proved to me she is delightfully barking mad.

Having done a gig with the trio at the Southbank club in Bristol I met up with Tony Slinger who said he used to call with the Old Swan Band a long time ago. Whilst I remember him I don't remember him calling (calling is a term for those who call out what to do at barn dances...just in case you don't know). Anyway it got me to reminiscing about other places I have played in Bristol and my first memory was the Nova Scotia folk club. This was with The Old Swan Band and there would have been about seven of us playing in this tiny club room upstairs. Martin Brinsford, percussionist and  mouth organ player, was playing so enthusiatically that on one whip across the notes the mouthorgan left the side of his mouth, flew out of his hand and dissappeared. The only possible place it could have gone was out the open window immediately to the side of him. Well we couldn't look for it until we had finnished and by that time there was no sign of it and we assumed that it had been picked up by some passer by wanting to change profession.
Three weeks later, my sister, in an uncharacteristic fit of annoyance about not being able to find something in her tardis like handbag. Tipped it out........and guess what was in the bottom. She'd been carrying it around for three weeks and hadn't noticed!!