Party Central.

Rickety Rehearsal space.

Frogs and toads have their spring mating frenzies, the Easter Island crabs have their thing and the people of Cheshire and beyond have the Nantwich Jazz Festval, an incredible 5 day Easter Party that not coincidentally, generally comes along with the return of the warmer weather.
I played here again for Rickety Wireless, having not played together for months, so we booked out the afternoon for a rehearsal.
It was a great fun gig and we even managed to put some extra tunes in.











Thanks to Tim Lee for this photo, read more about Nantwich and this festival on Tim's blog post at https://timleesongs.wordpress.com/2019/04/22/nantwich-and-me-a-love-letter-easter-weekend-at-the-nantwich-jazz-festival/

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Hot #JazzFest vibes! Looking forward to playing with #RicketyWireless tomorrow (Easter Monday) at @crownhotelbargrill bar, #Nantwich from 6pm! Will even throw in some jazz chords for @nantwichjazz! . #MusicFestival #Cheshire #Spring #Feelslikesummer #guitarist #vocalist #UKband #festivalcrowds #markettown #rockband #popband #rockpop #rocknroll #festival #festivals #SoCheshire #bar #publife

A post shared by Jonathan Tarplee (@jonniegitahhr) on Apr 21, 2019 at 9:23am PDT

Exactly what it says here...

Chez @DayveDean working on an exciting musical project. pic.twitter.com/hwAQG7Bt0H

— Jonathan Tarplee (@JonnieGitAhhr) September 29, 2016

Plan, promote, prepare and PRACTICE.

#viewfromthekit in rehearsal today for my gig playing for Jon Tarplee at @nantwichfoodies . Sounding sweet! pic.twitter.com/8CZ4XR5VyV

— Daniel J. Logan (@theDanielJLogan) August 19, 2015

 A little gap between gigs for a self-managed muso' means time to plan, promote, prepare and practice, among numerous other things.

One of the things on the list is a rehearsal with go-to percussionist (not to mention producer), Dan Logan. Dan has recorded & performed with the great and the good including Thea Gilmore, Jackie Trent, Rod Clements & Mike Herron as well as performing live on Radio 2 a number of times and  playing major festivals (including headling Cropredy with Thea).

So Dan and I have a couple of gigs booked as a duet, the second of which I'll be able to announce shortly, but the Nantwich Food Festival comes first on September the 4th, shortly followed by my gig at The King's Arms Festival, Salford the following day - tickets available HERE.

Rehearsal was great fun (I hope for Dan too, even though he'd been playing all day) and it was first opportunity for me to play 'Red Severn' in anger. She is my newly purchased Vintage guitar, based on classic guitars like the semi-acoustic Gibsons, but having tried out a few semi-acoustics at Salop Music Centre, this was, to my fingers and ears, the best in my budget. Vintage do very fine copies of classic instruments and Salop Music Centre is a really big music store with helpful, no-nonsense staff, plus a cornucopia of wonderful sound-making stuff that will remind any musician that as long as such a place exists, they will never be rich, as there will always be that coveted instrument just out of your price range that you really need in your life. Playing music is a kind of real wealth that money can't buy anyway.

'Red Severn' from Salop Music Centre.