Well I’ve decided to take some action to try and get my music mojo going again. I know I can’t force anything but I can hopefully help it along and try and re-inspire it at least.

If it means driving to Bristol  a bit more often – well so be it. Tonight I’m going to the open mic I used to go to – it’s its second birthday and there’s a special bash. And I’ve enrolled on a once a week Vocalisation course with someone I know. It’s a freestyling, improvisational fun one evening a week thing for just four weeks.

I’d hoped to find local things here (near Banbury) and who knows, maybe I will – but in the meantime I’ve got to do something creative or I’ll go barmy.

I love my new life out here in the country but I’m finding it harder than I expected to find people to do music with locally so till I do I’ll have to bite the bullet and do some driving!

I’m not sure what to write today – I seem to have got out of the habit of regular blogging for a while and then when I do it’s not really about my feelings as such but about what I’ve been doing, where I’ve been and some nice photos!

Nothing wrong with that of course and I’ve been to some beautiful places and done loads of wonderful things this year.

In fact I’m just back from nearly a week in France on a dutch barge while P was doing some work on the engine I just mainly lazed about and enjoyed the water and the views, good food, good company and card playing. Without wishing to boast – I did keep winning ha ha.

I’m now spending a few days in Bristol catching up with friends.

My problem is that I seem to have lost my musical inspiration at the moment – it’s a year since I wrote a decent song and where we live now I don’t know any local musicians to get together and play with. I know this will change and that it takes time but my confidence (musically) is seeping away a bit at the moment. I find it hard to promote my album  – I need someone to help me sell it – it’s hard work trying to promote oneself and very difficult to get anywhere with it.

Anyway – just wanted to get that off my chest – I know I can turn it around and I’m very happy in my day to day life but I don’t want to lose my music mojo – there must be an answer *scratches head*…………..

Some of you may remember a song I put up here before (lyrics) called Shadow Puppets about insomnia.

I’ve now worked out a melody and rough arrangement with my keyboard player. For those of you interested in hearing the tune for this song click this link

Shadow Puppets

I always welcome feedback at this stage before it’s finally recorded!

Here’s a little video of the rough idea of my latest song called No Friend Of Mine which I wrote at the beginning of the week. Sorry if you’re on dial up!

It needs a few more chords and I’d like to record it with bass and simple drums – really bluesy! You can hear the tambourine rhythm which I do with my foot while I’m playing!

Last night I played flute and djembe for a friend at a great little gig in Bristol. We were on first and there were a couple more bands then a DJ and I had a great night dancing my head off and it was good as I needed to let off a little steam though I have bad headache this morning – I didn’t drink a lot really but it hasn’t done me much good – I had two pints of Guinness actually!

Today I’m having coffee with a friend then will do some more practice of my songs for Friday …the days are ticking away now. Tonight I’ll do a couple of open mics – that’s all I can do now.

The last couple of evenings I’ve gone out with various pals to a couple of gigs. The first, at the Prom, was a folk rock band whose name escapes me. Last night I had a band practice for MY gig then we went to a punk gig at The Croft.

Very noisy, so I used earplugs, that way you can actually hear the words surprisingly and not end up deaf for two days. The band was called The Disseminators and are very good though not my favourite kind of music. The drummer was very good (and fit ha ha) and the lead guitarist is a friend from songwriting and is extremely good!

The practice went pretty well though it’s hard to imagine what it will feel like on the stage as we’ve never played together before – I think it will be alright – and if it isn’t – well all I can say is I couldn’t have tried harder to get it the best we can.

Just got back from a great gig at The Cube – an old arts cinema in Bristol which also hosts music gigs.

I’m not sure of the name of the first performer but after her was Bela Emerson, an amazing cello player who generates extraordinary sounds using loop and effects pedals. Following her was the amazing Emily Breeze who is a very raunchy rock musician and she did a great set despite breaking a bass string and appalling feedback – I’m half deafened and am glad I had some earplugs with me to protect my ears!!

A great night all round. Here’s a link to some photos of the evening.

Gig at The Cube

I thoroughly enjoyed today. It was the first Songwriting Group day of 2008 after a 6 week break due to the guy who runs it having a big gig before Christmas and not being able to run it, then Christmas and New Year and last week he had a cold.

It was a big group today and high energy! Everyone was excited to see each other and hear about each other’s gigs and new ideas etc.

I then had a practice with the people playing at my gigs (it’s a kind of temporary band consisting of a guitarist (my producer), a keyboard player, a couple of backing vocalists and a djembe player). It went pretty well and hopefully will be fine by the 1st – we have two more practices.

Here’s a copy of the new flier for the gig which the person doing the visuals for the gig designed based on my original idea. I’m hopeless at graphics but good at ideas!

After the practice, I came back here with one of the backing vocalists as I’M backing HER in a gig on the 26th playing flute and drums and we had a curry then a run through of her songs. Finished at 10pm!

No rest for the wicked – but a great way to spend a day.

Just got back from a great gig at The Prom with a brilliant live band called Tail Feather strutting their stuff. They were an EIGHT piece with drums, guitar and bass, trumpet, trombone, sax, keyboards and a great, very large female singer with a big voice to match. They were playing really old soul tracks like Heard It Through The Grapevine, Preacher Man etc and got everyone dancing their socks off. I don’t usually like covers bands but they were great!