A Great Night at The Wee Folk Club

A Great Night at The Wee Folk Club

Dave and I kicked off the year with a brilliant gig at The Wee Folk Club, held inside The Royal Oak — a 200‑year‑old Edinburgh pub with a lot of character. We played to a full house, with a lovely mix of familiar faces and new listeners, including visitors from Italy and France.

We mixed older favourites like Beyond the Tennessee Line, Dark Valley and Long Black Train with newer songs such as Idaho, Broke Down Town and Trapdoor. Dave’s versions of Townes Van Zandt’s To Live Is to Fly and Junior Brown’s Girl from Oklahoma were real highlights. We were called back for an encore and finished with Barstools and Booze, a song I always enjoy performing live.

Thanks to Dave Francis for singing a couple of songs in the interval, and to Marianne, Charlotte and Christine for keeping the club running so smoothly — it’s one of the real high points for performers in the city.

The Royal Oak has a fascinating history. Infirmary Street takes its name from Edinburgh’s first infirmary, and the old morgue once sat just below the pub. Rumour has it that Burke and Hare used the underground passages for their grim work. These days, it’s known for its regular live music sessions. We were delighted to have Sandra Adams — former star of The White Heather Club and one of the pub’s former owners — in the audience. The Royal Oak even appears in Ian Rankin’s Set in Darkness, and he’s said the scene set there is his favourite of all the pub moments in the Rebus novels.

With all that history behind it, it’s still very much a living, breathing music pub, and it was great to be back.

More updates soon.