I will start, as is customary, with wishing you all Blwyddyn Newydd Dda, Happy New Year but, it is with sadness and a heavy heart that I write this, my last ever Folklore column, after an unbroken run of 30 years, seven months.

Due to circumstances beyond my control, it has been decreed that, with this week's edition, Folklore will be no more.

It has been a pleasure to pen these weekly ramblings for you about all things folk, roots, acoustic and country, in all its many and varied forms.

At times I may have erred on the side of being self-indulgent, but I have always tried to be honest, even-handed and, above all informative.

It has also been a matter of some pride to me that, in all those years, and despite illness, hospitalisation and holidays, etc, I have never missed a weekly deadline. I even managed, on one memorable occasion, to fit in a quick triple-heart-by-pass operation in between columns!!!

I thank you, dear readers, for your indulgence, your patience, your interest, your encouragement and your support I will miss you. So, to the last chapter of this bleak midwinter's tale. As this is a magical and mystical time in the folk calendar, a time for reflection as we gaze into the flickering flames of our hearth fires, while the last of the wassailers wind their tipsy way home, it is time for one final story, that of Folklore itself.

It was a balmy May evening in 1989 and, during the interval at Wrexham Folk Club, The Lex Social Club, Regent Street, Wrexham, I was lubricating my throat at the bar, in the best folk traditions, when I was joined by Barrie Jones, then editor of the Wrexham Leader, who had come down to the club for the night.

He had a proposition to put to me about writing a folk column in the Wrexham Leader of about 500 words a week. In recent years this grew to over 1,000 words a week!

I suppose I should have heeded my old dad's words of wisdom, learned from his time in the RAF as a youthful and enthusiastic (but naïve) flight mechanic, "never volunteer for anything son". However, I did and, nearly 1,600 columns and one million words later, here I am. I'll listen next time dad - honest!

In those days the column was in the Saturday free paper, or the 'Big Leader', as it was known. In subsequent years it appeared in a Friday slot and a six-edition circulation but, as you can see, has ended its days in the Weekend Xtra section of this paper.

There were also no photographs in those early years, and I have Trefor Williams to thanks for that innovation many years ago. Trefor, of course, has long since retired, God bless him. My thanks also to those before and after him, including Kathy Woodfine-Jones, Jamie Bowman, Claire Pierce and Su Perry.

There has never been a big production team behind these lines, just a lot of hard work, hours of research and years of experience gleaned from a life-long love of the music, in all its myriad forms.

Also, I have been kept informed by many of the people who selflessly run the hundreds of clubs, concerts and music events, not only in North Wales but up and down the UK and, for their input, I am eternally grateful.

My greatest supporter, and the one who deserves the most thanks, as always, is my wife Ann who, on many occasions, has had to put up with my absence, either in mind or body, whilst I have been trying to meet the latest deadline.

Although the original purpose of the column was to inform people of local 'folk' events, I have tried to make this much more than a 'forthcoming dates' read. There are so many interesting and varied stories to tell about the folk behind the folk, and the history that is interwoven in the songs that will live, long after we are gone, through the singing of our descendants.

On my watch, many of those friends who left their own indelible mark on folk history have moved on to become paragraphs in the story.

Among them, Ewan McColl, Mary Travers (of Peter, Paul & Mary), Hamish Imlach, Glen Campbell, Derek Brimstone, Leonard Cohen, Pete Douglas (of The Leesiders), Tony Davis (The Spinners). Bridie O'Donnell (of Jacqui & Bridie), Nick Keir (of The McCalmans), Dave Swarbrick (of Fairport Convention et al), Bert Jansch & John Renbourn (of Pentangle), Danny Doyle, Bill Caddick, Lonnie Donegan, Johnny Cunningham & Andy M Stewart (of Silly Wizard), Joe Stead (of Kimber's Men), Ifor Williams (of Clochan) Nancy Whiskey (of Chas McDevitt Skiffle group), Tony Berry (of Houghton Weavers) and, The Godfather himself, Pete Seeger. The above list is not exhaustive, but it serves to highlight the heroes from those formative years who will never be forgotten wherever people gather to sing their songs.

On a more personal level I said goodbye to my cousin Ken, my musical partner from 1962 to 1970 (The Cousins, and The Cousins & Rosemary), who passed away in 2001 to be followed, a year later by John Evans (of Yardarm) and, in 2007, perhaps the cruellest cut of all, I lost my brother Ron who achieved so much but could have achieved so much more.

He will always be remembered for his time with the Strawbs in London in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and he became one of the best double bass players in the UK. In his later years his first love, jazz, reclaimed him but his is another story and I am mindful that the sands run swiftly from the glass.

My own story, I hear you say. Maybe, in my retirement, I will write it all down one day but, for now, suffice to say that it has served me well in my scribblings and I have indeed drawn on some past experiences in my writings.

I have been lucky to have lived and performed through those halcyon days of the Folk Revival and beyond, from my first gig in Chester in November, 1963 with The Cousins (see above), to my decision to stop playing at Wrexham Folk Club in May, 2017 (with resident band Offa), after a 28-year stint. I detect a pattern here!

Whether it was winning the Song for Wales (Can y Gymru) in 1972 (with Paddy & Sean - aka The Wild Geese), recording four albums, appearing on TV with Max Boyce and on Radio with Charlie Chester and Larry Adler, having my songs covered by contemporaries such as Bram Taylor, Anthony John Clarke, Joe Stead and Paul Downes, or those many folk club nights and the friends I have made along the way, it has been a blast! However, the biggest privilege of all has been to be given the responsibility of writing this column for you.

I hope you have enjoyed reading it and that it has given, at least, some of you the incentive to go along and listen to and maybe join in the music that will always be a part of me.

One final act of goodwill in the true spirit of the season, happened on December 19 at Wrexham Folk Club, when £204.60 was raised for Nightingale House Hospice and The British Lung Foundation at the club's Christmas Charity Night. Congratulations and thanks to all concerned.

At this juncture I would normally take out my crystal ball and have a stab at what you can look forward to but, it has become unreliable of late so, instead, I would ask you to look out, on the web, for the programmes of our local clubs and venues in Wrexham (Wrexham Folk Club), Ewloe (The Mucky Duck), Llandegla (All Styles Club), Ruthin (All Styles Club), Treuddyn (Dragon's Breath), Trelawnyd, Rhyl, Chester (The Raven) and Ellesmere Port (Hungry Horse), by Googling their Facebook pages or, better still, subscribe to Folk North West magazine, a quarterly publication of listings, articles and reviews, whose details I published last week.

It only remains for this January Man to stride out along his New Year's road and hope that, somewhere along the way, we can all meet up again. I will leave you with that eternal message.

Whatever you do and wherever you go, enjoy your music.

Goodbye to you all, diolch yn fawr.

By D.C.M.