Mahoney insists that my birthday present for him this year is to buy myself a ticket to join him at Willi Carlisle’s gig at the Louisiana a few days before the big day itself. Who am I to say no? I run out of time to do any prep work for this, having never listened to Carlisle before, and looking at recent setlists, there’s be a lot of ground to cover first, so I decide to go in blind (deaf?). Mahoney tells me that I should expect something almost akin to an Edinburgh show, and that intrigues me. He’s not wrong. Carlisle is an affable performer, long motor-mouthed monologues between songs in a country drawl, amusing without trying too hard. He moves between traditional folk songs and his own material, from solo vocals to banjos and guitar. It’s a rallying cry for acceptance, of queer identities and the van life. His new album is out at the end of June, and I very much look forward to getting to listen back to Big Butt Billie, a song that manages to rhyme “great satan” and “never seen a finer they/them” on falling in love with a non-binary server at a diner. It’s good gear! Shame about the crowd, including the guy who decided that cheering wasn’t sufficient to express his enjoyment and instead alighted on barking. Support from Ags Connolly, a man from Oxfordshire with the voice of a proper honky tonk country singer. Enjoyable stuff.