We had the pleasure of John MacRae's company this week and, as usual, were entertained by both his wit and his music. We heard the contrast of Steve Earle's "Ellis Unit One" with a ballad setting of "The Wild Rover", which John learned from his father who'd picked it up from seafarers at Greenock.

Dick dug out a couple of songs that we hadn't heard for a long time (and I can't remember the title of), along with the Innocent Hare.

Sting couldn't make it to Marlow Bottom this week, so Steve sang his own song about messages in bottles, as well as Garth Brooks' "Every Now and Then".

Richard Thompson couldn't make it along either, but he reclaimed his natural position as most featured songwriter, with Beeswing from John and Dimming of the Day from Karen and Steve.

Bob's own "Hamster on a Wheel" song summed up how many of us feel much of the time. We also heard his distinctive version of "You Are My Sunshine".

Rosie sang "Crippled Inside", John Lennon's tribute to his one-time song writing partner, and the deceptively titled "Happiness", popularised by Alison Krauss.

We finished with a couple of joining in numbers led by John MacRae, starting with Leadbelly's Midnight Special, which has an interesting background as a prison song. Both of these numbers were great opportunities to dig out Karen's bag of shakey eggs and other miscellaneous percussion.