Rock City Cafe, Rockport Maine

My trip down to Maine to visit Nikos Appolonio and his cittern-making workshop happened to coincide, luckily, with the twice-monthly Thursday night trad session at Rockport's Rock City Cafe. The gathering was as fine a pub session as I've attended - and Boston, it is generally agreed, is a hard act to follow - boasting a full complement of top-notch musicians, and being hosted by the affable and most welcoming owner of the cafe, Suzanne, herself a fine piper.

The evening was pure joy. I love being able to walk into virtually any trad session in the world and be able to sit down and play music with total strangers; magically, even though we live hundreds - sometimes thousands - of miles apart, drawing from the same repertoire. The world's greatest religions have very little over a good Irish session as far as I'm concerned.