THE Alice Hawthorn is playing host to a monthly blues and country music club as part of the revival of the pub at Nun Monkton.

The promoter behind the venture is resident Brin Bendon, whose love of the blues, jazz, American country and folk music was forged in the Cambrdge music scene of the 1960s, when he was a founder member of the Crofters Folk Group and the Crofters Folk Club.

“Having retired as a management consultant after 25 years as the managing director of Vector Training, I find I now have the time to indulge my passion for live music again,” says Brin, who fondly recalls his Cambridge days.

“My love of the blues began when bluesmen such as BB King, Reverend Gary Davis, John Lee Hooker, Jesse Fuller, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee came to town, and I went on to promote blues and jazz concerts with line-ups that featured some of the greats: Muddy Waters, Otis Span and Champion Jack Dupree.”

When the Grade 2 listed Alice Hawthorn was threatened with closure in 2008, an action committee was set up to save the pub under Brin’s chairmanship.

“We carried out some market research with the residents and visitors to the village to identify what they wanted from their pub,” he says. “Apart from good pub grub, a selection of real ales and lagers and a pub quiz, occasional live music was requested as something that would add value to the visiting experience.

“The committee is pleased to report that under the management of new landlord Tony Hunter, the pub is now thriving again.”

The Alice Hawthorn Blues and Country Music Club will feature mostly amplified acoustic blues and American country styles such as Old Time and bluegrass music with occasional jazz and traditional folk events.

So far, Gypsy Bill Williams and Dell Potter have performed in February and TC And The Moneymakers in March. The Hokum Hotshots, the veteran blues duo of Jim Murray and Pete Mason, are this month’s guests on Saturday and North Yorkshire bluegrass musicians Moonshine Creek are booked in for June 22.

Murray and Mason first met in short trousers in the late 1960s at the South Tyne Folk and Blues Club and have been playing together, on and off, ever since. Pigmeat, Mr Charlie and The Shinola Boys are names that have adorned their guitar cases over the years, but they are happiest to be The Hokum Hotshots.

Their influences range from field hollers, through ragtime, vaudeville, country blues, jazz and swing, to the urban blues of the 1940s, and they combine these in their own compositions, adding a large dash of humour too.

Over the years, the Hotshots have shared the stage with Mississippi Fred McDowell, Johnny Shines, Diz Disley, Martin Carthy, Larry Johnson, Long John Baldry, Jo Ann Kelly, Eric Bibb, Aurora Block, Kieran Halpin and Martin Simpson.

They have played everywhere from the Highland Festival in Inverness to a forestry festival in Holland and have appeared on Paul Jones’s blues show on BBC Radio 2.

Saturday’s gig starts at 9pm; tickets will be available on the door at £5.