Leading exponents of Old Time American music Matt Gordon and Leonard Podolak are on tour in the UK this month – and they’ve booked in a date at the Baldock Blues, Folk & Roots Club as part of their busy schedule.

Steve Knightley of legendary folkies Show of Hands is a fan – he calls their show ‘an irresistible brew of all-singing and all-dancing Appalachian mountain music played by two genuine flatfooting, fiddle and banjo virtuosos’.

And you can see if you agree at The Orange Tree in Baldock on Wednesday, September 30 – tickets are £10, with £9 concessions and under 16s getting in free. Leonard has been on the road for the last two decades. building his reputation as a five-string clawhammer banjo player, and he’s known for putting together wonderful combinations of musicians, often creating a full, but new, sound in whatever project he touches.

Matt is a fiddler, clogger, hambonist, and harmonica player and in earlier forays to this side of the pond he was involved in the London debut of Riverdance.

Together they serve up an exciting show of old-time traditional fiddle and banjo music, clog and do hambone. You can find out more about the show, and the rest of the programme, online at www.madnanny.co.uk.

The new season at Hitchin Folk Club is now under way, and this weekend’s headliner at the Sun Hotel is Martin Simpson, who can claim to have been nominated for prestigious Radio 2 Folk Awards more times than any other artist.

Doors open at 7.30pm on Sunday with the music starting at 8.15pm. Tickets are £12 for members and £14 for visitors