Today, I'm on a train heading north to work on Modern Fairies again -- a day-long ride from Devon in the south-west to Newcastle in the north-east. We're reaching the end of Modern Fairies -- a year-long research project into the intersection of folklore with modern folk music and other contemporary art forms -- so it's time to present our work in four public performances at the Sage Theatre in Gateshead this weekend.

Where did the year go? The old tales say that time passes strangely in Faerieland -- and indeed, it seems just a short while ago that we had our first meeting at St John's College in Oxford...while at the same time it feels like I've known my lovely colleagues on this project forever. The first performance of the show is tomorrow night -- bringing changelings, selkies, whist hounds, witch-hares, green children and other elements of the old British fairy tradition to life -- in a concert hall that couldn't be more urban, iron-bound, and contemporary. Yikes. Wish us luck.

I'll put together a proper long post about the show when it's all over, and I've caught my breath. I've been remiss in writing about our work on the project over the winter -- I've been dealing with health issues once again, and blog-writing takes a back seat when that happens. But I do want to share the experience here, and reflect on the journey we've just been through. I feel changed by this work in ways both large and small...and it's not even over yet.

If you're anywhere near Newcastle/Gateshead, please join us for this presentation of works inspired by British fairy lore -- an assemblege of music, spoken word, visual art, performance art, projections, shadow puppets and more. I can safely guarantee that you won't have seen anything quite like this show before...and the show might never appear in this form again. Blink, and like fairy gold, it's gone.

Catch it if you can.

To learn more about the project go here, and read the posts from the bottom of the page upward.