Tuesday, November 28, 2006

3 gigs and other stuff

An extremely busy week again with the 3 live shows, plus 2 further with the function bands and a whole host of other stuff. In no particular order:

GIGS:
First up was visit number 4 (only counting the recent upsurge!) to Dr Wu's. There were no loonies this week, other than the regular harmless ones(!) and I took the opportunity again to play some new material. The set was 'It Will Pass', 'The Prisoner', 'Gods and Angels' and 'Cold Cold Day'. The first 3 songs are all fairly downbeat-as is most singer-songwriter material-and that's something I'm watching out for. I don't want to depress an audience too much! Anyway, all went well there, which moves us on to Wednesday:

The Grove Open Mic night is much more communal than Wu's. It has an intimacy and character and this it has to be said leads to better results for me. Even if the piano needs to go to the elephant's graveyard! I did 2 of Cath's songs this time, 'I Don't Need' and 'Life'. The former is something of a forgotten track which I'm aiming to release some time in the future. I still love that one, it perhaps does my voice the most justice of any song. I did a quick plug for the late Tim Rose in the latter song, as it was in Leeds where I saw him perform just 6 months before his death in 2002.

On Saturday afternoon I performed something of a more structured gig, with a 30 mins support slot at Dr Wu's supporting Gary Stewart (just him and not his band as advertised!!). Gary sounded superb to me, a little like Cat Stevens, very strong songs.
I learnt a few things from my set: Firstly, I discovered my phone has bluetooth (thanks for the video Vicky!), and secondly that I need to learn the words a bit better! However the sound was superb and it was great to be performing original material for a longer set, long may it continue. The setlist was: 'These Eyes Of Mine', 'Even', 'Whiskey Coloured World', 'The Prisoner', 'Gods And Angels', 'I'm Coming Out', 'Cold Cold Day' and of course the obligatory cover of 'Rocket Man'.

This week will be slightly quieter, I'm missing Wu's this week but doing a new venue on Thursday: The Primrose, again in Leeds. Tune in next week to see how it all went.


2ND ALBUM: In between all this excitement, I met up with Jon Strong on Thursday 23rd to do some more work on the 2nd album. Things are starting to move forward on that front more rapidly now, so it hopefully won't be long before the results are realised. It sounds great.

WEB HITS UP AND CDBABY: My web 'hits' are well up this month, certainly the best month I've had so far since I lurked into cyberspace in late March. I seem to be getting hit upon from the search engines more often, which must be good. Even if they were searching for something entirely different in the first place! Just in case they fall off a bit: SEX PORN MP3 EBAY

My album is available at CD Baby of course, so please feel free to have a look there. It's worth it almost for the customer care alone. British companies take note...

And finally, I also went to see Shawn Colvin on Sunday night in Manchester. A great night's music, and also interesting to hear another acoustic cover of 'Crazy' by Gnarls Barkeley. Perhaps I should have a go!

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Be My cdbaby

Well blows me down, as Popeye would say, it's been a hectic week. Yes, week 3 has seen quite a bit of action....read on for action.....

ALBUM NOW AVAILABLE WORLDWIDE

Yes, it's taken me a long time but finally I have my album 'Lost In Love Town' signed up on cdbaby

This means that anyone anywhere can now purchase the album, and it's cheaper too! Many of you will have received an email about it this week, but to sumarise it's just $12.97 plus a bit for p&p and there's a 30% discount for buying 2 or more copies.

As well as hoping to sell a few copies, I'm also immediately struck by the increase in traffic on this site and on my soundclick page. A big thank you to Chris Breen for re-jigging the website front page to accomodate the new happenings.

All that now remains is to wait for the digital distribution companies (napster, msn, itunes etc..) to get their downloadable copies online. This is being handled by cdbaby too, so anyone who prefers the comfort of their mp3 player can then purchase the tunes too.

It's early days yet, but it's been such a thrill so far to get a response from people, all those who have been in touch-some I know some I now know! Thank you, and I really do appreciate it so much if anyone is willing to buy the album.


LIVE STUFF:

The live side of things is of course the other major way I'm promoting things. This week saw 2 shows, Dr Wu's as usual on Tuesday, and the aforementioned fully unplugged show at The Grove. Both are Leeds venues.

Dr Wu's on Tuesday saw the live debut of 2 new songs: 'Even' and 'Gods And Angels' are both going to be on the new album. The set was bookended with 'Whiskey Coloured World' and 'Cold Cold Day'.

There was a rather good band on before my set too. They were Go Cadenza who were extremely talented, and even seem to have mastered the art of promoting themselves on the channel 4 website! They also had a couple of loonies to deal with in the audience, who were luckily evicted by the bouncers before I came on. I have deep-seated fear of loonies, which comes from playing to almost exclusive loony audiences in my Working Men's Club days. By the way please don't run away with the idea that Dr Wu's is rough. Firstly because it isn't and secondly becasue I need you to support me when I play there!

The second show was on Wednesday night. The Grove is something of a cult venue in Leeds, as it's an old real ale pub surrounded by ultra-modern buildings. It's bang in the city centre but might as well be in the middle of nowhere, such is the initimate atmosphere generated by the small concert room!

As mentioned it was purely acoustic. That means NO PA, NO KEYBOARD and NO MICS! I played the rather out-of-tune piano and sung loudly over the top of it. It's such an intimate show that everyone does listen. There were literally people sat next to me, including a girl in a short skirt, which inspired concentration...her boyfriend bought a cd though, so I'm not complaining. I played 'Gods+Angels' and 'Cold Cold Day', and the former took on a rather spooky quality with it's emotive lyrics set to a honky tonk piano. To be honest, if they tune the piano it will be the best venue for me. The people listen to what you are doing, and appreciate the quirkiness and genuinity of acts such as mine. They appreciate good music, I hope, and this was reflected in the number of Cds sold, not bad for just a 2 song blast! There's also a definite 'vibe' there, and this is conducive to networking with other artisitic types-both fans and performers.


EP:
In the midst of all this I'm still finishing the EP. Only one song remains to be mixed, the finished tracks are wonferful. They sound so much fresher than the first album and I can't wait to get them released.

WHO IS THE MYSTERY GIRL SINGER???
I have already promoed one of the tracks on mixposure and soundclick. You can listen to and read reviews of 'Drinking My Way Down' here.
Many people are wondering who the singer is, one person even went so far as to accuse me of rudeness for not naming her! Well when the EP is finished I will be naming everyone who has been involved. The song is getting great reviews so far.


THIS WEEK:

I could go on, but I'll wrap things up by promoting this week's shows:
Tues 21st November:Dr Wu's-9pm
Wed 22nd November:The Grove-9pm

and, more importantly, Sat AFTERNOON 3pm: Dr Wu's, I will be supporting the GARY STEWART BAND with a 30 minute set. This is part of the venue's Acoustic Revolution shows. This will be featuring original material with copies of the album available. Note the unusual start-time: A chance to do some Christmas shopping and see some live music! Speaking of Christmas shopping, my album would make a wonderful present!

Time for the pub.

Thursday, November 09, 2006

Last Dance With Whiskey Coloured Mary Jane

Week 2 of the big push has been pretty busy, which was the general idea although much more like hard work than I thought, much more than a musician should be prepared for anyway...

LIVE IN LEEDS

I was at Dr Wu's again this Tuesday the 7th. For those of you keeping score this week I played 'Whiskey Coloured World', 'Cold Cold Day', 'Life' and 'I'm Coming Out'. There was a slightly better turn-out this week, although I'm still waiting for that mythical 'packed' night. Still, it's becoming a regular night for me, a good base for trying out new songs, and now that there's a booked band on later it seems it will continue to gain in popularity.

This week.....
I'll be back at Wu's on Tuesday the 14th and the following night I'll be at The Grove. This is an acoustic night with a difference, in that it is purely acoustic-no P.A., so just piano and voice. Stand by for an intimate performance, I've never done anything like that before and I'm told the audience actually do shut up and listen! I've played at The Grove a few years ago and been to many other gigs there. It's the most unlikely setting, tucked away from the main road even though it's practically in the city centre. The concert room is tiny, lord only knows how we managed to work a 7-piece band in there! I do hope it is as intimate as people say next week, because it's much more the sort of show I'm after.


NEW SONG!
The upcoming EP took another step towards fruition this week with the mixing of one of the tracks finished. It's called 'Drinking My Way Down' and features Beth on vocals. I'm so impressed with the final result that I've posted it on the various sites straight away. You can listen and download it here and here.

I'll tell you a bit more about the background when the EP is ready but for now let's just say I love it-it's very very close to sounding as I wanted it in my head.


Garageband.com reviews Whiskey Coloured World

This is the second track I've had forward for reviews on this site. To read what people had to say please view this link.
At one point the song was scoring 4.1 stars but then dramatically slumped to 3.2! This leaves it a little short of Cold Cold Day, but again most of the reviews have been great. Ok, yes it does sound like 'Last Dance With Mary Jane' but I did say Tom Petty was an influence!


Have fun. Is music fun??

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

November is rocket up the a**e time

November is here and Global Warming has finally relinquished for the time being after autumn missed out September and October. Did I mention Green taxes? Of course not.
I decided as we are close to bonfire night that I would take people's advise about which part of my body to stick a rocket to and become more productive. Did that make sense? Probably not.

PLAYING LIVE

First up is the news that there will be more frequent live performances coming up. Last night was my first original material gig for a while. As it was Halloween I decided to scare a few people by going to Dr Wu's in Leeds and playing a few of my songs.
For the archives (or Room 101?), the songs played were: 'These Eyes Of Mine', 'Cold Cold Day', 'I Can't Believe The News' and 'Life'. It was a quieter than average night, but the little set went well and I even managed to sell a copy of the Cold Cold Day single, to a woman as well....
I always seem to appear on the 'quiet night', on numerous occasions I hear people say, 'it was packed last week'. Even my own pub quiz that I run is busier when I'm not there. Perhaps they're trying to tell me something, or perhaps I'm being somehow prepared for a switch to Jazz, where the smaller the audience, the cooler you are.

In case you are wondering, I'll be going again next week (Tues 7th November) and all upcoming shows are posted on my myspace page and on my garageband page.


Read what the public says...

Speaking of garageband, I've just submitted 'Whiskey Coloured World' for a grilling from the mainly musician reviewers. My first track, the single version of 'Cold Cold Day', received some interesting comments, mainly nice, a few not so. A couple of the reviews are pasted below, and the song ended up with a rating of 3.5 out of 5, sadly not enough to push it far up the charts, but not bad. After all, it's 70% which means that if seven out of ten people liked it that's pretty good. Or am I missing the point? Perhaps.

EP nearly there.

I'm beginning to follow the long-established tradition of delaying releases, but the EP 'Get The Drinks In' is almost upon us. All the parts are now down and it's just a case of mixing them. By 2010 I'm hoping to have copies available.

The Big Push.

Finally, I should mention that I'm having a bit of a big push at the moment on moving things forward. This partly involves doing more gigs, as mentioned above, but also in terms of internet presence. It may also involve the jewel in the crown, my personal nemesis, a four-letter word. No, not 'Jazz' (which is a four letter word) but word on the street is that Paul Jeffery may be putting a band together to perform his own songs. These rumours are un-confirmed and may simply be weapons of mass destruction. But a strong pulse was felt on the richter scale and it is feared he may have the vital ingredients almost in place to build the band.

I should be writing for Private Eye. Perhaps not.