Solo Album-title announcement! "Attachment Theories".

A Headspace Holiday

Yesterday I returned to TLC studios, aka Tim Lee's place, to put some acoustic guitar tracks down for the album of great songs he is currently working on. 

Taking this "day off" from working on CD sleaves, thinking up promotional schemes and trying to figure out the best album launch event options (none of which comes easily to the average artist in my experience - we just want to make music!)... made me realise just how stressed-out about all of the above I have been lately.

It was a genuine honour to play on 3 of Tim's tracks, hopefully my bits might even make the final edit! Tim's a great singer-songwriter. If this had been 30 years ago perhaps a record label would have snapped him up and people all over the world would have been moved by his songs. The internet is both a blessing and a curse for music and musicians. I'm thrilled for example, to have people from all over the globe who are never likely to be able to come to one of my gigs, 'follow' me and say nice things about my music and what it means to them, but on the other hand you find yourself in a vast sea of people all shouting for attention, many of whom have money to pay for pluggers and other forms of influence. Anyway, i'll cut my rant off at this point just to say  If you look Tim up Tim HERE you have the chance to enjoy his music and check out where he's playing. 

You can also  buy Tim's current album HERE;  http://tjlee.bigcartel.com/product/blossom-t-j-lee-and-the-special-guests

Photo by Tim Lee.

A great little pub by The Railway.

I had a bit of fun last night in taking part in Dan & Pete's inaugural hosting of a new weekly Monday night jam/open mic nights. Quite a crowd turned up eventually and a fair few joined in before I had to get a train. The Railway Inn, Alsager is a great pub too with yummy beer!

Dan & Pete host the night.

Sefton Park, Liverpool, as part of the "Artisans in the Park" event.

A few mins before the start -my rather nice office for the day.

I'm never happier than when under a large banana plant :)

Liverpool seems to have transport about right, very little car-trafic,
a bike scheme, underground, trains.
This is the Catholic Church or the Shuttlecock as I call it.

The incredibly foreboding dark lump of rock that is the Anglican Church.
I used to be able to see this on especially clear evenings from all the way from Scholar Green, near the Staffs border.

Liverpool is beautiful, some of it on less-than-conventional ways.

Some "rock-guitar cases" outside of a LIPA building.

The Cycle Junction Return.

July 31st 2014.

Me in the foreground - Dan snuck into the corner!
Many thanks to Julie Bacon for this photo.

Some places do it so right!

If every town had a couple of places run by people with the same attitude as Mike and his family at The Cycle Junction, I have no doubt whatsoever that a culture of live, original music would be thriving. 

Some of the typical problems facing artists today are that all too many venues expect them to play as a sort of privilege, free entertainment for them but resulting in significantly increased bar-sales, with complete disregard to the many hours of work that go into that one performance let alone the countless hours in total that have lead to it. I think you, dear reader, might well be very surprised how little even household-name artists go out for, making a living yes but many are probably making a lot less than say a junior manager in an organisation - the love of, passion for and ultimately the undeniable compulsion to write, make and perform music is far greater than those to earn an easy, steady income for the musician, as with other types of artist. I'll stop moaning about this now but if this issue interests you, it's worth having a read here.

Back to the super-positive, and as I say the Cycle-Junction folk do it so right! Yet another sold-out show and as a headliner on my previous appearance here,  it was my turn to support this time as per another cool policy of the place. Once again Dan played percussion for me, bringing quite a large kit which he incredibly managed to wedge into a corner of the tiny space available, we were supporting the stupendously entertaining Baxter. As an opener, owner Mike as half of the duo KwalaParla with Ryan, played some of their engaging tunes, beautifully played and you can download them for free via the link below! The audience, as always here, listened intently, did lots of spirited joining in and were just bloomin lovely!

If you were there and are reading this, thank you so much! You are what makes all the effort that goes into this so worthwhile! xxx

Check out the hugely entertaining, brilliant vocals of Baxter HERE.

Free downloads and more from KwarlaPara here...