It’s nice to hear
the old songs,
sung the good old
way…


It’s nice to hear the old songs,
sung the good old way…

Welcome to
Openhouse Studio
Folk Music Legacy

Created by Brian Jones, with daughter; Samantha, this website is a legacy project designed to bring ‘folk up to date.’

Explore the website, listen to the music and read the stories starting from the 60’s revival through to present day.

Welcome to
Openhouse Studio
Folk Music Legacy

Created by Brian Jones, with daughter; Samantha, this website is a legacy project designed to bring ‘folk up to date.’

Explore the website, listen to the music and read the stories starting from the 60’s revival through to present day.

KEEP FOLK TALKING

PODCAST

KEEP FOLK TALKING

PODCAST

We want to ‘keep folk talking’ in our NEW Openhouse Studio Podcast with a new special guest for every episode including stories and songs from past to present.

OUR latestPODCAST

KEEP FOLK TALKING

Brian Jones with Barry Evans

Brian Jones welcomes Barry Evans – folk club organiser, festival co-founder, and master of the mic – for a rich and entertaining conversation. From a first folk night at The Loft near Wolverhampton in 1968, to running Chester’s Bull and Stirrup club and helping bring Scottish legends like Barbara Dickson and Archie Fisher to the North West, Barry shares a sharp, funny and deeply affectionate look at the scene that shaped his life.

KEEP FOLK TALKING

WITH Barry Evans

Brian Jones welcomes Barry Evans – folk club organiser, festival co-founder, and master of the mic – for a rich and entertaining conversation. From a first folk night at The Loft near Wolverhampton in 1968, to running Chester’s Bull and Stirrup club and helping bring Scottish legends like Barbara Dickson and Archie Fisher to the North West, Barry shares a sharp, funny and deeply affectionate look at the scene that shaped his life.

I live in a tiny Welsh village.  Let’s call it Llandrover, (pop 400), to protect both innocent and guilty.

Saint Drover was the Celtic patron saint of SUV’s and 4×4’s.

 My wife Kath and I have run an ‘all styles’ music club up here for the past 15 years  Over those years it has changed venue three times, mutated from a full on, pub hosted,  Monday night folk club,  to a winter’s monthly sing around, in the village hall, on a Sunday afternoon. Here, some twenty of us, average age 70, I guess,  sit in a circle, often in freezing temperatures, for two or three hours, drink tea, knock out the occasional song, but mostly discuss the weather and the NHS. 

READY TO TELL YOUR story

We would love to hear and share your stories from the folk scene,
get in touch to feature on our next podcast.

The Resident

He’s always there week after week he puts up with a lot
He does what’s known within the trade as ‘The Kamikaze Spot’
He’s there to warm you buggers up and try to make you sing
But the highlight of the evening is when he breaks a string!
Folk don’t always listen they’re busy at the bar
Or chatting to each other and drowning his guitar
Sometimes he thinks he’s cracked it
When some open mouths he’ll see
But it’s only some old friends he’s brought
And they came in for free!
Why do we do it? I don’t know, we masochistic band
Maybe one day we’ll find that never, Neverland
Where an audience has ears and sings just like a choir
When you ask them to join in they raise their voices higher
Like some Eisteddfod winners far removed from any pub
Why then I’ll know I’ve really died and hosting Heaven’s Folk Club.

OUR song OF THE MONTH

We’re excited to reveal this month’s song of the month is, “Folk on the Dee in the Day” — originally written by Ian Chesterman back in 1980, and adapted by Brian Jones in 2025. This song comes as celebration for our upcoming concert on the 8th July, so make sure to learn the chorus so you can sing along with us! 

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