Have YOU Got The Balls?

A Tennis Ball of luminous yellow

Had made a great escape

He’d always wanted to play the cello

The Tennis thing could wait.


His heart was lost to music

And though he still liked sport

He didn’t want to bounce through life

Upon a tennis court.


But if you say: “that tennis ball

Is probably not welled suited

To playing in an orchestra”

Well, go on then, refute it!


For there he sits upon a stage

The Cello between his………..Um?

Yes, OK, a point well made.

Ta Tumty, Tumty Tum!

Do You Want Fries With That Song?

I saw an interesting thread on Facebook where someone was offering a formula to write songs faster. The argument being that the more songs you write, the more likely you are to write a good one. 

I definitely thing it helps to get efficient at aspects of the processes, but in my experience that happens naturally by...um sitting down and writing a song.

The more time you spend trying to find the right words or the right notes, the better (and quicker) you get at it.

It’s not rocket science. I suppose it’s a formula of sorts.

And there is, of course, a place for formulas if you want to produce something in a consistent way. Like a Big Mac. I like a McDonald’s burger sometimes.

And sometimes I like a McDonald’s song. 

But mostly, and far more these days, as we become more automated, more binary, I like something with that human touch. 

The added extra which can never quite be captured in a formula.

Everybody’s Favourite Alien

For the longest time I’ve been releasing an original song every month and sending a copy to everyone on my mailing list. Today is song no.111. 

And for the longest time I’ve had around about 100 people on my mailing list. It’s not gone up or down.

Until just recently. Recently I decided to give my dedicated mailing list a little bit extra than the one song a month. Now, every Tuesday, they get    a Tuesday Tunesday where I record a live video of a song, and write about how it came to be. And on Fridays they receive a fun little feature (it’s already gaining cult status in some eyes!) called The Iron Chicken.

And yes. You guessed it!

The numbers on my mailing list have…

…started gradually decreasing. In a drip, drip fashion.

94 now. And counting!

I’m telling you all this with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek. I’m very happy in fact that people who don’t want to continue to receive my missives are unsubscribing.

Who on earth wants obligated listeners?

But I’m proud of the work I do, and I get some fantastic feedback. And though it’s always important to pay attention to the “voting with their feet” contingent…it might be a message I need to hear…in this case I’m going to keep on keeping on.

And if you’ve kept on to the bottom of this blurb, then have a listen to this month’s recorded tune Everybody’s Favourite Alien.

If you REALLY like, then feel free to push me back up towards that magic 100 figure.  

Smiley Face Emoticons

We creative people can be notoriously creative when organising our lives.

One of the best things a creative person can get in the habit of doing is simply to keep a note of information given, so that the person who gives out the information, The Organiser, doesn’t have to give it out on several occasions.

It stops us having to ask again. It saves them from unnecessary extra work. 

Win, Win. 

And smiley face emoticons all round. 

Sharing

It’s good to share. 

But when something good is shared online tens, thousands, millions of times, it can sometimes start to feel a little mundane. 

“Been there, seen that, got the T-Shirt”. 

A live Homesong gig is also for sharing. But usually only with the people who are there, live, in the moment. 

Something unique. 

Shared but unrepeatable. 

A Field Of Possibility

Music has been with us for ever. But with the advent of modern technology and media and the political revolutions of the sixties something happened.

A massive musical Field Of Possibility emerged. Suddenly it was possible to reach huge audiences AND to be be in touch with and influenced by the rest of the world, it’s cultures and its music.

And of course creative kinds quickly started to wander, open mouthed into this realm of songwriting potential. They began creating new music like horny rabbits.

Some artists like Bob Dylan (lyrically) and The Beatles (musically) really didn’t waste the opportunity. They explored a LOT of that Field. And since then the rest of us have been trying to find the gaps, still available but seemingly ever decreasing, to create something original and popular.

In my opinion it’s impossible today to write and release songs that could ever have as much impact as that which those earlier writers and performers achieved.

But there will always be gaps.

And perhaps, unseen by us, that Field Of Possibility is expanding. Stretching to distant horizons, just like the universe.

In this universe it’s never going to help us to sound too much like somebody else.

And why would we want to anyway?

Thank You For The Music

It’s a blessing to have a relationship to a song that is made stronger through a relationship with the person who wrote that song.

Many of my songwriting friends have been recording and releasing music over the last couple of years, and those songs hold as much resonance for me as the more lauded ones I listened to as teenager do.

I want the best for my friends, and for the success of their songs. And some of those songs are brilliant, and deserve a wider audience.

But whether or not that happens, thank you for the music.

It’s A People Thing

When I go for a walk in the woods, I love to be alone.

When I write a song I prefer to be alone.

And when I’ve performed my music I’ve almost always been alone.

But I’d prefer not to be.

My most enjoyable gig to date was a Homesong I played alongside my friend Les Oman in our manifestation as The Strunts. It was so much more relaxing to have someone to bounce off. To be in it together.

Perhaps a lot of this is subjective and personal to me.

But I really don’t think anyone in the room should be feeling "Alone” when music is happening. Above anything else, music and songs have the capacity to bring people together.

I think that’s their best quality.

Putting The Laurels To Bed

I don’t know the statistics but I was getting the impression, even before this Covid business, that many people, and I include myself among them, were less inclined to go out. There is so much entertainment now, and it’s available immediately. In fact it’s sitting right there in our pockets.

It’s just easier to stay in.

Two thoughts emerge. One is more of a question. After the some what claustrophobic experiences of Lock Down, is Going Out going to get big again? There are signs that may well be the case, even if it is only a temporary surge.

The second thought, whatever the answer to that last question, is that those of us who are trying to provide a reason for folk to go out, need to really make that experience a good one. Something memorable and unique.

There is a lot about Homesong gigs, to my mind, that already makes it an inherently better “going out” experience. And that’s been the feedback I’ve had from those who have taken part in them too.

But as a host, and as a performer, I firmly believe that any laurels gained are not there to be rested upon.

Let’s Get Digital

It’s a brave new world in which the digital interacts with the physical.

One of my foster sons is meeting up with a girl he’s been “going out” with online for more than 2 years. They’ve been speaking together almost every night during that time. She lives over 2,000 miles away and now they are meeting for the first time in the flesh in Glasgow, as I write. Now that’s romance.

I’m enjoying getting to know lots of other musicians through online means. Though not for romantic purpose I hasten to add. And it’s great to meet up. Two days ago H4Lifer Davey McCallum was visiting Kintyre and played his online set from the house of another H4Lifer, and his friend, Les Oman.

Les happens to live about 200 metres from me here in Campbeltown. So after watching the performance from my house I popped over to Les’s house to meet Davey in the flesh.

It’s all a little bit surreal. But very nice too.

Au Naturel

For online HomeSongs4Life it’s been my pleasure to have a front row seat, so to speak. Although technically, I’m just the guy (along with Chris Annetts) who presses the Go Live button, and does their best to sound like a sound engineer. I'm behind a computer as I watch, like everybody else.

But sitting behind that screen, having just spoken to whoever is playing that evening, feels like a very privileged position. It feels like I’m in the same room as each performer. And the variety, quantity and quality of original music I’ve heard has been a revelation.

But it has also been an insight for me to see the way everybody deals with speaking to a computer webcam as though it’s a live audience.

It’s a hard thing to pull off. Some of us, me included, find the “in between the song” bit the most difficult, even with a proper live audience. It’s good to get a close up view of the natural performers among us, giving it their best banter. Definitely a learning experience.

Anyway, it’s my turn this evening. I’ll be trying to fake that Au Naturel style. And then, like a crab running sideways looking for the safety of a rock, find refuge in singing a song.

Real People Are Scary

It’s been good to see signs of life on the playing live front. Various people I know doing what they do best. Still haven’t managed it myself yet, but my time will come, and there are irons in the fire.

I’ve personally never been able to play regularly enough to become as comfortable as I’d like performing to an audience. It’s always a bit of a “wing and a prayer” and a “faith over sight” kind of experience.

Maybe for that reason the first time back won’t feel any different than normal, despite the long wait.

Playing to a computer screen is surreal.

But real people can be scarey.

Consistency

I have sometimes confused creativity with unpredictability in my own work.

Unpredictable can be good…SURPRISE!… for the listener. But I don’t think it’s a good thing for the performer or creator. However late the decision is made to play a particular note, or use a particular word, or improvise a particular riff, that “unpredicability” should be deliberate, not accidental.

Of course every writer and performer has at some point done something accidentally which seems to enhance a creation or a performance. And we want to hear risks taken in which deliberate creative decisions, could potentially back-fire.

But I’ve come to believe that the vast majority of the creative work and performances we admire, are born out of one thing. Consistency.

A reliable, repeatable technique, and a confident knowledge of what works and what doesn’t work. And it would have been easier to have sorted all that out at the beginning, I’m finding.

But whenever we do it, it’s always worth taking time to work on the consistency.

Sharing The Same Stage

A friend, and H4Life singer, Tina Pluchino is releasing a lovely album of mainly, self-penned songs, with some co-writes from songwriting friends, including yours truly.

Producing an album still remains an exciting thing for any songwriter to do. In terms of commercial possibilities though, most of us are happy if we manage to cover costs.

Most songwriters and performers would much to prefer to focus on the creative side of things, and I’m always impressed with those, some of whom play on our online shows, who manage to keep spun the many plates needing spinning, in order to earn a living from music. And yet they still remain incredibly creative! Amazing.

I personally used to shudder to hear my songwriting described as a hobby. It felt far more than that to me. But recently I have embraced that label, and consider myself lucky to be able to make music, but not depend upon it for a living.

I believe Homesong gigs have the wonderful facility to cater for both the professionals and the hobbyists. And the various in between stages. And yet all of us playing on the same stage. Not distant from the audience, or each other, but making our music together, out of love.

At the end of the day, a good song, is a good song.

Support The Supporters

One of the nice things about the online experiment we call HomeSongs4Life has been the support given by artists to other artists.

When our focus is, understandably, on attempting to find a new audience who GET our music, it is possible to see things in a negative light when the room is full of known faces or other artists.

But those known faces are still an audience who choose to listen. Sometimes very dedicated ones. The “low hanging fruit” is still fruit.

We shouldn’t take any supporter for granted.

Changing The Normal

It’s not always easy to cross the threshold for a gig in someone else’s home.

Some people find it difficult to go to a house, even that of somebody they know, for the purpose of listening to music. Sometime’s it’s because of shyness, and sometimes it’s simply the fact that it is still a culturally unusual experience. Why leave the comfort zone of your own home?

There isn’t always an easy solution.

For naturally shy people an invite from a friend can help.

But culturally, it won’t feel normal….until it’s normal.

Not For Profit

Homesong is a building site. We’re trying to build a way of networking home gigs.

It doesn’t really matter to me whether individual Home gig venues are part of that network or not, as long as they happen. It does matter to me that Homesong is, and remains, a not-for-profit affair. We all need money to live, but when money is the main motivation it tends to have a corrupting influence.

So we encourage music to happen in homes with people from the local neighbourhood in attendance, and for artists to be suitably recompensed for their efforts. And we encourage music lovers and community orientated people to start using using their homes to welcome people in for this purpose.

I’m excited that all of that will soon start happening again.

That’s it.

Less Digital, More Physical

There are some ugly things that happen at football tournaments, outside of the football. And, sad to say, as a fella from England, often when England fans are around.

But one of the nicer things that happened at the recent Euro’s was the adoption of Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline, as the anthem of the English fans. It was quite moving to be honest, leaving aside the right’s and wrongs of football fans being allowed to have such close contact at this time.

And I’m sure it’s no coincidence that the words leading up to the main chorus are the ones that stand out, and caused the song to take off in this way.

”Hands, touching hands
Reaching out, touching me, touching you”

We’ve missed being able to get close to people, and a new appreciation of that sense of touch is a good thing, I think.

A little less digital, a bit more physical, will do none of us any harm in the long run.

Make It Happen

This is how it could happen:

You get the urge to hear some live music after one too many youtube vids.

You find that there is an original singer/songwriter, in fact lots of them, all wonderful in their diverse ways, who would like to play at YOUR house.

Then you put a page on our Homesong website just like this one (No Charge!).

Next thing you know, live music and lovely people in your front room…and hopefully the chance to gradually, and of course as safely as possible, move away from a world of digital screens and face masks.

Why not make it happen.

Wherever I Lay My Hat

We watched a film, Nomadsland, last night, about the growing culture in the US of folk ditching the house of bricks and mortar (often because of the costs and living expenses ) and choosing to live in motorhomes and vans. RV’s, as they call them in the States.

The central character was accused at one point of being homeless. To which she answered: “Not homeless, just placeless”. It struck me as a both a great retort and an ageless truth about what a “home” really constitutes.

It’s also paraphrases the Paul Young song Wherever I Lay My Hat (that’s my home). Which is a nice chilled song for a Sunday morning, I think.