Red Velvet Shoes

Here is my own monthly release - Red Velvet Shoes

I had a dream, I was at the fairground
Riding the waltzers with nothing to lose
And she was there a carousel cinderella
Telling the fortunes, the fortunes of fools
And i stared at her like a starving beggar
Would stare at a feast of food
But when I awoke
All i remembered.
Was her beauty and her red velvet shoes

I'm a wave on an ocean
In search of a beach
And I thought, I thought I could catch her
she remained out of reach

I took a walk through the hall of mirrors
She was everywhere but nowhere at all
As I grew smaller, she became bigger
But I wasn't scared I recall
And I longed for her like a word dry writer
Would long for his very own muse
But when I awoke
All i remembered
Was her beauty and her red velvet shoes

I'm a wave on an ocean
In search of a beach
I thought I could catch her
she remained out of reach

I'm on a tube from Waterloo Station
In the piccadilly circus show
And i stare at my feet on the bakerloo line
Coz my dreams have nowhere to go
Then I glance up and see her as she leaves the train
Like a thief leaving too many clues
But when I awoke
All i remembered
Was her beauty and her red velvet shoes
But then I awake
And all i remember
Is her beauty and her red velvet shoes

A Matter Of Trust

Truth, for those of us who seek it, is a very elusive creature. All the more so now that the internet allows everybody, their uncle and me, to spout out his or her own version of The Truth upon Radio Internet.

Truth is becoming elusive. Perhaps the more important issue is now A Matter Of Trust.

Who do we trust? And why?

Our instincts can only take us so far with this. Because instinct can be led astray by our preconceptions and prejudices. I find this out about myself, whenever I allow my opinions and other people to spend a bit of time in each other’s company. It’s an eye opener.

Instincts, and the opinions they lead to, can sometimes be a helpful shortcut.

But trust … giving it and earning it … takes a whole lot of time. It involves seeing someone in action, consistently doing what they said they would do. And also being open and honest about their failings.

Today it matters more than it ever did. We need some solid ground to stand on. And it will take a lot of hard work and honesty in our relationships and our communities to find it.

Mud, Blood and Bones

We had some of the boys around over Christmas. Always good fun. The conversations go everywhere. And back again.

Inevitably ours talks together turn at times to the future of technology. The boys have a lot more knowledge and expertise about all of that than I do, because they have grown up during times when lots of the modern technology that will influence all of our futures was establishing itself. Particularly the influences of the internet, social media, and the wee pocket computers that we all now carry round with us everywhere we go.

I’m very positive about a lot of that technology and it’s potential for making our lives better. In many ways it already has. But I also come from The Before Generation. The fogies who were around when a digital world was mostly Sci-fi fantasy, and when physical contact and activities were so much more important and prevalent.

Having the boys here was a great reminder of the two ways we now have of interacting. We played physical board games with the boys in the room, and online digital games with the boys who happened to be in other parts of the universe. It was good to be able to do that.

And I believe we need both the physical and the digital. But particularly at this time I think we need to learn to nurture and maintain the part of us that comes from a physical, mud, blood and bones planet Earth.

It is that which keeps us grounded and human, and helps us to stay sane. And it is our physical connections that are most vulnerable. Because of a certain apathy, the “convenience” of life in front of a screen, and the recent fears rooted in a combination of realistic safety precautions and generalised paranoia.

I’ll go on flying the flag for live music. Particularly the kind of live music that happens right where we live.

We need to be with each other. And we need Homesongs.

To Friendship

Friendship is the one thing I would wish for everybody in this new year. It comes in many different shapes and sizes but it can make even the difficult times a little bit easier.

Friendship isn’t a given. It doesn’t come in the ways we would necessarily look for. It is often something we have to be before we have. It involves work and time. It involves compromise.

But here’s a good resolution to have at any time - be friendly.

Being friendly doesn’t guarantee friendship. But, my word, friendliness alone makes a difficult world a much nicer place.

In that thing we refer to as 2021 I was blessed to find a whole heap of new friends, or at the very least, friendly people, whom I met through Homesong. As well as to experience existing friendships growing deeper.

I wish you the same during this thing we refer to as 2022.

Have a very happy and friendly new year.

The Thing You Just Made

The grand weans are running around as I write, with all the beautiful chaos that brings with it. Young children are THE most creative beings in the universe. That’s how they find out about the world. It’s how they grow.

Being around children is great for anyones personal creativity, because in their presence you forget for a while about crazy notions like perfection and technique and finished works and finding an “audience”.

Instead all that matters is the story. The new worlds you are discovering and building together. The entertaining noises and wild fantasies that emerge and disappear and mingle and crash and fade.

Living Life. And then onto the next thing, without a care for the thing you just made.

Banding Together

More from Get Back, the film about The Beatles by Peter Jackson.

Once again I’m struck by the benefits and disadvantages of being in A Band as opposed to creating and performing as an unadorned solo artist.

It clearly is a thing that makes moving forward in any direction, whether musically or otherwise, a lot more complicated. John Lennon comments about how great it would be to have the wonderful Billy Preston as a fifth Beatle (poor George Martin!). And Paul says: “To be honest, it’s hard enough with the four of us”.

And yet so much of what is great in the Beatles songwriting and recordings seemed to come out of the tension and uncertainty that made the path difficult. At that point in their careers, they were a lot closer to giving up on all the hassle. But they still pushed through.

And for them, as a team, it was the pushing on through that lead to the joyful explosion of music. Music that becomes a joy to share, and to experience.

I enjoy the freedom to be the boss when I write and record. But something about watching this documentary makes me envy the band experience all over again.

At the end of the day though, whether alone or together, it’s the pushing on through that makes the music come to life.

Out Of Thin Air

I’m watching the fascinating film about the Beatles, Get Back, produced by Peter Jackson.

There is an amazing segment when Paul McCartney is playing a riff, which materialises before our eyes into the song Get Back. It’s amazing because we know the song so well. We hear McCartney mould the melody line to the verses before our eyes, and the hooky title line emerges whole soon after. We watch it all happening.

The cool thing is, that most songwriters will recognise the process. Messing about with tunes and words, that sounds like nothing much to start with…until they start to sound like something.

You and I might never write a universally famous song. But we, like Paul McCartney, can proudly call ourselves songwriters when we produce something that previously didn’t exist, seemingly out of thin air.

It’s magic.

Taking A Break

I am a big fan of daily habits. In case you hadn’t noticed.

But sometimes I’m forced to be without, for instance, my guitar for a while.

In the case of the guitar, I actually think a little break does my playing good. It allows everything to settle. The muscle memory I’m developing in certain areas seems to enjoy the rest and comes back cleaner and refreshed.

And the fact that it’s usually a daily habit means it’s not difficult to get back into the routine after stopping for a few days. In fact it is a joy to get back together with my old friend.

That’s the guitar I’m talking about.

Perhaps “joy” would be the wrong word for the moment I restart the daily cold shower habit. lol.

A Lone Bugler

At Christmas his spectacles had disappeared, and there was a search.

As they searched they listened to songs. Carols about The Little Baby Jesus and Sacred Holy Nights. Along with rocky celebrations of drunken, merry festivity as An Antidote to Uncertain Times and The Certainty Of Endings.

Eventually the spectacles were found, lying in front of the wooden nativity scene on the windowsill. That was where he had left them.

And somebody said as a joke: “Hey, baby Jesus has found them”.

And somebody else said that that might actually be the truth.

And The Truth, as it always does, tried to take sides. It was looking for a fight.

But the music, a lone bugler in No-Mans land, called everybody to share a few moments of peace.

Christmas Dinner

Christmas Dinner.

It can be a multi tasking challenge that takes you to the very limits of your psychological, emotional, and cognitional capabilities in order to provide a feast that fits particular social expectations and (perhaps) a half hour of fun and merriment before most of the evidence is gone and the creator collapses inward upon themselves, like a dwarf star drained of its last photons of light.

Or it can be just another meal on another day.

Whichever yours was, I hope it was a good one.

And I hope today is a good one too.

Happy Boxing Day!

Stuffed

One of my boys says that when he’s home it never feels that Christmas has started properly until he has heard me sing a certain song. So, if it’s good enough for him…

Stuffed

Sometimes

Sometimes it’s better to be there, performing your song, with the risk, even the likelihood that it’s not going to be seen in its best light, than to bail out.

Sometimes you’ve just got to keep on looking for ways in which the show can go on, even if it’s not going to be the best show you’ve ever done.

Sometimes the audience turns up and engages simply because it’s you, and you were prepared to be there and to try.

But it is not always clear whether that is, or was, the right decision to make.

Sometimes it will all be a mess. Sometimes it will be a success.

And sometimes it will be a combination of the two.

That’s what Rosie and I learned (again!) in last nights Homesongs4Life.

Good News

I woke in the night with a sense of unease and foreboding. It occurred to me that I hadn’t had that experience for quite a while.

And that thought was the very thing which brought me back to a sense of calm. Because those unnerving, unpleasant feelings used to be a regular part of my life. And they aren’t anymore. Which is good news.

Other good news: I used to spend all day (even all week) dreading playing at a gig. And that too is a thing of the past. I often even look forward to them now.

Positive changes can happen. Bad things can become good things.

We’re never as a stuck in a rut as we sometimes feel.

Tokyo Godfathers

Today I would simply like to bring you a Christmas film recommendation. It was in turn recommended to me by one of my sons.

Tokyo Godfathers is a Japanese anime with noodle bowls full of soul, humanity and humour. For me it is a perfect seasonal film and we will be watching it with whoever happens to be home on Christmas eve.

However, I don’t know how or where you could get hold of it. You might need some of those tricky tricks that the young guy and gals possess, like some kind of automatic generational inheritance.

It’ll be out there somewhere though. Worth finding.

Like a Christmas star waiting to be seen for the very first time.

How To Become A Zillionaire!

Ye Auld Christmas Song is a genre in itself.

Sleigh bell like sounds? Check. Children’s choir if possible? Check. Snow references? Check. Santa, Wisemen, Robins, and/or Reindeer? Check. Appropriate levels of either, a. Celebration, or b. Wistful Melancholy? Check.

There are a lot of these songs around. Some people hate them. But Humbug to them I say! I love them. As long as I don’t hear one outside of a 3 week period in December.

It is very hard to start a new “Specific Time Of The Year” genre of course. Alice Cooper tried it with School’s Out, but didn’t get very far. Although possibly he spawned the musical film Grease. Not sure. I wonder if he get’s any royalties on that?

Anyway, these are my business tips (because I know that’s what you read this blog for!) as we approach the end of the year and A New Beginning:

Write a Christmas hit! Or start your own Genre!

Come on you merry Homesongers! I believe in you.

I’ve Been Songed

I discovered this song yesterday, one I’d not heard before, by way of a search for travel guitars. It’s always lovely to hear a new one (new to you) that pulls at the heartstrings.

For me it is always that certain combination of a lyric and a melody that does it. I can enjoy, appreciate, even love, a great piece of music or a fantastic lyric in isolation.

But it is a special combination of the two that causes the earth to move for me.

That’s when I know I’ve been Songed.

Stop Breathing!

Taking a break from lifetime habits. Accidentally or intentionally, it can be a good way of breathing new life back into a thing.

And speaking of breathing … have you heard the Frank Sinatra myth?

Allegedly he would swim lengths underwater (holding his breath!) as a way in which to improve his breath control while singing. It seemed to work out quite well for him.

And there were we thinking that Breathing was the one thing we shouldn’t be taking a break from.

Avant-Garde It!

Cutting Edge.

It refers to something that is at the forefront in its field, breaking new ground. When it comes to music we’re talking about something that sounds like nothing you’ve ever heard before.

To most of us there is comfort in music that has familiarity and accessibility. Cutting edge music can sound jarring. But, the musical line from Very comforting and Familiar to Completely Out There, covers a huge distance.

Where does a Homesong kinda song fit on this spectrum?

Well, in truth, anywhere. Me personally? I’m a middle aged guy playing acoustic songs with a few jaggy edges. Maybe I’m typical of a “Homesong Artist”. But I’d like to think that, in the long run, I won’t be.

Because a HomeSong kinda song could be anything you want it to be. It just has to be a song that is played in a home. If you can find an audience for it, fill your boots!

Avant-Garde it!

They Are Still There

I walk quietly in the woods. I am at one with nature.

Well, that’s how it felt yesterday as I stopped and watched a roe deer, which ran a few metres away when I came into view, but then stopped and looked at me for a while, as I stayed still and watched myself being watched. And then the young buck seemed to relax, and started eating.

It was magical.

After a while there was a bark (yes, a bark!) from another deer further down the hill. And “my” deer ambled away in that direction. But not just that deer. It turned out there was another deer I hadn’t seen, closer even, within 5 metres of me. It also wandered away, and I couldn’t believe I hadn’t spotted it.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, please allow me to hammer an encouraging music related little metaphor out of that story:

Because for songwriters who perform and/or put our music out on the internet, it might sometimes seem like nobody is paying attention.

And yet still they are there.

We will not see everybody who IS paying attention, because not everybody will comment or applause. Or be visible in any way.

But they are still there.

Appreciating what we do. Maybe even loving what we do.

We are oblivious to them.

They are still there.

The Finger Gym

My fingers are thicker than they used to be. All muscle, mate. Hand digits like Schwarzenegger on steroids!

I exaggerate, but honestly, I used to have such skinny fingers.

All down to the amount of time I play the guitar, I’m sure.

Welcome to The Finger Gym!

Wish I had before and after pics.