Young, Lost and Hopeful to be garageband.com Track Of The Day!

Yes, as the title suggests, the main news this week is the progress of 'Young, Lost and Hopeful' on the garageband.com review/charts system. As I mentioned recently, the song had been getting some belting reviews, mainly from other musos too-which is never easy! The song's star rating has enabled it to progress into 'round 2', which means more reviews, and a higher chart placing.
But the big plus is that the track has been chosen to be garageband.com's 'Track Of The Day' on Monday 21st May!

This puts the song on the front page of the site on this link.

The song also had it's live band debut last night at Carpe Diem, where we were performing a set for NoTitle magazine's Leeds Acoustic Showcase. The set went very well and I think was well received. The standard of the other acts was good too.
Of course, being a scrote magnet, I had the pleasure of a couple of close calls, but thankfully there was no full scale pitch invasion-well it was Leeds after all.

The previous night I'd done a little set at Doctor Wu's, where again there were a couple of paralytic nobs, but again thankfully no infiltration of the stage area. I played 'Your Shadow' and 'How Do You Sleep', and also a couple of covers: 'Stuck in a Moment' and 'Boys Of Summer'. The latter especially helped to endeer me a bit more to the audience.

Last week I just did the Grove on Wednesday the 9th, which was a good do. I did 'I Don't Need' and 'Rocket Man', and managed to sell a whole album in the process. Not bad for a gig that means I can leave my keyboard at home!

This weekend it's cabaret time with a double helping of Morris followed by on Monday night a slot at Wu's. This one is a proper music night, with poetry, comedy and even films thrown in. It promises to be interesting for sure.

Thanks to everyone who found this link on their way to playing the new songs from the new mini-album. Last week there was a rush of excitement when 'These Eyes Of Mine' and 'Words' went high up the charts. Still no downloads, but we live in hope.

MINI ALBUM RELEASE

OK, it's been at least 3 months since the last cd so....I now have a 6 track mini album availble!

The track listing is as follows:

1.These Eyes Of Mine
2.Words
3.I Don't Need (Look At Me)
4.Take It Back (Original Version)
5.How Do You Sleep
6.Breathe (Featuring Ema Dane)

You can link directly to hear 3,5 and 6. The other 3 will be uploaded shortly. All songs are available as mp3 downloads for just $0.75.

A bit about the songs.......
'These Eyes' and 'Words' were both part of a publishing deal which finished last year and thus are now free to actually be heard by people. They are both produced by Marc Barnes of Angelstar who also did the remix of 'Whiskey Coloured World'. 'These Eyes' may be familiar to you from gigs, both solo and the band. It's my normal opening song solo and the band has played it at every show so far. 'Words' has been drafted into the solo set recently, it's an uptempo track which helps.
'I Don't Need' is one of my favourite tracks. I think along with 'Young, Lost and Hopeful' it's my favourite melody. I love doing it live as it builds well after a quiet start. On one famous occasion it got an audience's attention, turning the rest of the gig into a tear-up. A real turning point.
I'm really trying to push this track because it deserves to be heard.
The original version of 'Take It Back' was recorded in August 2003. It's similar to the version on 'Lost in Love Town' but without the guitars and including Cheryl Barnes' backing vocals.

'How Do You Sleep' was written way back in 1998 and recorded at the same time as the 1st album. It's a lovely song with a great mini moog lead line and the guitar capoed high so it sounds a bit like a mandolin. I think you will find it was mentioned in a blog last year.

'Breathe' features another special guest, Ema Dane, on the vocals. I've worked with Emma for a few years now. She's a superb singer and 'Breathe' always works well for her. We first recorded it acoustically in 2002, and finally got round to doing a more polished version. Again, a song with a long history, I'm keen to get them out in the open and heard by everyone. Which is the general idea of songwriting.

There is of course an actual CD too. And this is the good bit....It includes the fantastic artwork by Carolina DaRoch from Chile. I'm happy to say she's a friend of mine and I think the artwork is very striking. I've got the first copy of the CD sitting at home and I just keep looking at the front cover, I'm really impressed by the pictures!

These CDs will be onsale at gigs for £5 starting very soon.

As far as gigs are concerned.....last week I was in Leeds 3 nights running. On Tues 1st May it was Doctor Wu's open mic. Very quiet this week and as is usual there a very small number of listeners. However it did feature the debut live performance of 'How Do You Sleep' and also another run at 'To Heartache and Back'. I also played 'Young, Lost and Hopeful' to finish with.

Wednesday was the best one, perhaps the best solo gig so far. It was my first time at Sandinista playing for the Grain Division's 'Late Night Colour' showcase. Kris Messerman and Gary Stewart were the other 2 acts, and I thought the overall standard was very high. The venue is small enough to be intimate and enough people listened and enjoyed the music. I was very pleased with my set, especially as I noticed a reviewer present, scribbling away, who turned out to be from Sandman. There should be a review of the show in June's magazine which will be my first and also good publicity.

Thursday was my opening slot at the Primrose Cloth Cat night. This can only be described as 'challenging' given the lack of audience! For the second time in a row the Primrose was virtually empty and whilst this didn't distract me, the inclusion of a token nobhead did! Not to worry, I played 'Dare' again, plus 'Heartache' and 'How Do You Sleep'. I can only hope things are back to normal on the Thursdays when my band plays there on June 7th.

On Friday I went to watch the aforementioned Adrian Burns perform in Bingley. He really is worth checking out. An acomplished guitarist with a great voice and some fab arrangements of well known songs. In common with my gig the previous night, there was a token nobhead interfering there too! It's not a bad pub, but it does make me wonder what planet people are on when they can totally ignore someone of Adrian's talent. To be blunt he's way better than that type of venue.

This week is quiet on the gig front, as O'Donoghue's is still being refurbished, so Thursday's gig has been postponed. The following week it's the band's first acoustic showcase at Carpe Diem, Leeds on May 16th-can't wait for that.

'Young, Lost and Hopeful' is still showing 5 stars with all it's 1st round reviews now in on garageband.com. You can read them all here. I'm hoping it will progress to round 2 thus gaining further reviews and a higher chart placing, all very exciting!