Different Times

I didn’t manage to post in March for a number of reasons and also have no new song to add this month , but I’m sure we’ll catch up in a few weeks !

March began badly with the news that our good friend from Sarasota , Tony Neubroch sadly lost his battle with Cancer after more than 7 years. Tony and I shared a certain camaraderie 2 years ago as I was going through my treatment and I am honoured to have known him. For those  who didn’t know him, he was a poet and would often appear at Open Mics to read  a selection of his work. To quote from Tony’s 2015 book :

” It has often been said that our time here is short and to make it as meaningful as we can. We cannot know what lies beyond today or all our tomorrows. With this thought I am reminded that our life is nothing but a feather’s touch”

The latter part of March saw the world change with plans altered and lives put on hold as we face the biggest global crisis of our lifetime . It’s a time of great stress, hardship and worry for so many people and for an ever increasing number personal tragedy.

We have limited ability to change things personally , and it times feel pretty helpless. I have resorted to playing music to keep me sane during this period of “lockdown” and whilst not writing new songs , have been revisiting old ones, and started recording the occasional live video to put out on facebook and Youtube, to stay in touch with people both in the UK and US . The Four songs posted to date are:

Rose Tattoo

Learn to be Still

Labour Day

Sally

I decided to delay releasing the Wildflowers album for a while as I certainly won’t be playing live anywhere soon ,although I may make it available on-line only in June as a starting point. All the tracks are recorded , mixed and mastered and Josie is finishing off the artwork so we’re pretty much good to go.

As an additional pastime I’ve been recording some bonus tracks with Ted Fordney ( with 2000 miles social distancing) and at some point soon studio versions of Twelfth Night, Gemini, and an alternative take on Wildflowers will appear here.  This has given me the chance to learn bit more about the lap steel guitar and play the recycled lap steel I built in February which has been good fun .

This was built from a 25 year old plank found in my garage, plywood, aluminium angle and a pickup and controls from an old electric guitar. It sounds suitably sweet and is great fun to play.

That’s all for a while but a new post will follow shortly with the stories behind some of the songs from the new album.

Stay safe and for now at least stay home !

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