Glaedelig Jul!

Glaedelig Jul!

'Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas...'

Gud Yule

juːl

noun - archaic term for Christmas.

Can you see the reindeer?

Yule or Yuletide ("Yule time") was and is a festival observed by the historical Germanic peoples. Scholars have connected the celebration to the Wild Hunt, the god Odin, and the pagan Anglo-Saxon Mōdraniht. It later underwent Christianised reformulation resulting in the term Christmastide.

'Jewelled quiet times...'

Hello Folks!  It really is that time of year when the magic of the season twinkles and catches you by surprise.  I'm still a big kid at heart and have some wonderful festive memories, but the older I grow -  the more I love Yuletide! It must be the Viking in me. Although, I realise that it isn't the same for everyone and I have my own private wishes and thoughts for the troubled, the lonely, the homeless, the sick and the oppressed, particularly at this time of year.  So may the cheer and magic of Yuletide drive away the cold and the sorrow from your festivities...

This is what my Christmas looks like...

...warm yourself by the fire...

Take time to reflect...

Ahhhh! Christmas...

So, with the recording all but finished, I am now waiting on Sean Kenny at Ten21 to add the finishing touches to the mixing and editing and hopefully soon in the new year - I will have my first folk ballads album.  It's been an exciting and inspiring project - one I am looking forward to repeating later in 2018 with a second album.  I am already scanning around for new material and have a huge bundle of music to choose from, including some compositions of my own.

Here are a few video clips as a taster from the final recording sessions at Ten21.

Now I have to focus on pressing, marketing and performing.  I have venues booked in the Spring of 2018 around the South East and South West for 'Classi-Folk' an eclectic mix of  music from all over the globe and I am already looking at venues further afield for later in the year.

On a much needed day trip, James and I headed off to St. Margaret's Cove for inspiration and to blow away some cobwebs...

Always looking out to see what I can see...

Planning something...

On the edge...

This fantastic boat shed on the beach was designed and built by local student architects.  It has inspired me to re-think an idea I have had for years to build a boat porch at home - I was going to use an old boat - but now...

And with all the magic that this month brings, also comes the madness:  On the first day of December - I put up two trees and decorated two sitting rooms with festive cheer (as you have witnessed in some of the photos), I got tickets to see Cara Dillon at the Gulbenkian - an excellent festive show - with great visuals, beautiful singing and fantastic band.  The dry ice was a tad too heavy though! We spent the afternoon sipping hot chocolate, mulled wine and tramping the Dickensian cobbles of the narrow streets in the old part of town. A lovely prequel to Christmas.  Then comes the crush, the constant shopping for loved ones, the lists to be made and executed, visits and logistics, traffic...  It can and does get one down.  In fact I succumbed after a 600 mile round trip for a concert gig up near Chester after a whiteout blizzard on the winding roads of the Peak District and fell foul to a really nasty throat virus, in which I completely lost my voice.  It came with no warning and wiped the floor with me for at least 10 days - in which time I had given it (though luckily with less venom) to those closest to me - Sorry guys!!!
One good thing to come out of the two days I spent in bed with a high fever was that I have written two new songs - I think I have enough material now for an album of my own music.  As usual when I seem to grind to a halt, something takes over and just rolls.  The inspiration for one song is a local true story of John Dyke, the last man to be publicly hanged on Penenden Heath, here in Kent.  The tragedy of this tale is that he was innocent... The other song is a Lullaby.

I'm heading off to France with my folks for the festivities, to snuggle down in the country and try to blow away the last traces of the bugs and stresses in the glorious tracks and trails that I have come to call my second home.  I will be a land-locked Islander, but the sea will never be far from my thoughts - but I do need a break and a change of scene.

'Mistletoe and wine'

'The Holly and the Ivy

'Skye Time'

'Play-time'

'In the bleak mid-winter'

So this week in arctic conditions I had an idea for the designs of my album cover - I won't reveal the album title just yet as it is still gestating in my mind, but there are clues in the photos we took down at the shore-line on Saturday morning in minus 4 weather conditions.  Certainly a case of suffering for your art though, we dashed out nearly one hundred images in about 45 minutes  - I lost the sensation in my face and fingers in the end and James, with the camera, categorically declined skinny-dipping! But it was a beautifully sunny morning and just the right kind of crisp light that I wanted.

'Wave to the ocean...'

'My love will keep me warm...'

'Had enough...'

But this time of year is mostly about hunkering down and recalling the memories of before and hoping for the brightness of tomorrow and of course - it is about love.  So I'm going to leave you with a few words that I wrote for a recent Yuletide and hope that its light will warm and cheer you.  I wish you and yours a bright, beautiful, cosy and joyous Christmas, followed by a prosperous, healthy and a completely 'Folky' 2018.

Winter White

The purity of winter white curls around your head in swathes

and makes stars of your eyes.

Your voice in rhythmic tones lifts the frosty air in clouds

and perfumes the silent snow with song.

And a smile that shines and glistens bright

melts my heart again, with love.

That's all for now Folks!!!