S4 8 "That Just Floors Me Every Time!"

Thank you.

Hello, and welcome to this, the eighth episode in the fourth series of The Parson and the Songmen.

I was back again at Halsey Manor at the end of June for another week of mandolin workshops run by the mandolin maestro, Simon Mayer.

In this annual week of his mandolin workshops at Halsey, last year I interviewed Simon, who talked about his interest in playing the music of the Irish harper, Tolo Akaralan.

You can hear that interview in the sixth episode of the third series of these podcasts.

In this same week, for several years now, Simon has been joined by the highly regarded Ben Walker as guitar tutor of his popular workshops.

Ben has a way of finding and adapting old traditional folk tunes with improvisation that enhances them while not losing the flavour of the original tune in his skilled guitar playing.

As an admirer of serious solo guitarists, I have enjoyed hearing Ben play in recent years at the Halsey Tutors' Concerts and was pleased that he agreed for me to interview him about his playing while we were both at Halsey this year.

Just one more thing, folks.

Although a serious solo guitarist, Ben sees himself as firmly part of the folk world.

And as I found out immediately when we had our chat, does not wish to be classed as a classical guitarist.

Stop calling me a classical guitarist.