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!!!

Autumn Glory

"lest we forget..."

Hello Folks!
I can't believe that we are already mid-late November.  'Who knows where the time goes...'  Night's are long and getting longer - the mornings are crisp and stark.  It is a time for hearty meals, roaring fires, warm clothes and cosy beds.  I love this time of year though - I find it magical, beautiful and inspiring - I love that although nature begins to slow down and sleep, the promise of renewal is everywhere.  My garden is still full of colour from autumn flowering shrubs and we will be eating the fruit of our orchards labours until the spring.
I'm out at first light all togged up and scavenging the beach for something interesting, watching the birds, or busy clearing the garden and lighting bonfires of leaves and twigs - that smell is so intoxicating.  Puts me in mind of the poem by John Greenleaf Whittier.

Before my driftwood fire I sit,

And see with every waif I burn,

Old dreams and fancies colouring it,

And folly's unlaid ghosts return...

From 'Burning Driftwood'

or

The evening fire whispers and puffs
Its flames, crackling its secret tales,
And you, I know will watch and let
Your fancy fashion a hearth-side yarn...

From 'Drifting home' by James McOran-Campbell

And it gives me an idea for the setting of another music video to go with a track from my Folk Ballads album.  It doesn't however, give me any inspiration as to a title for it...

Fire-side tales

So this last few weeks has been busy with concerts and travel, my bread and butter, but rather excitingly, more recording sessions at Ten21 recording studio.  Evenings have been spent sitting in front of the fire working out backing vocals, or working in my music studio on arrangements for keyboards and percussion along with my keyboardist James.  After one session I met up with James at my local folk club to hear 'Gilmore and Roberts' - they are an awesome team and I was so inspired by their unique sound and finely crafted songwriting, I came up with the lyrics for a new folk tale and arranged it into an uptempo folk-song.  So keep an ear out for that...

'The engine room' at Ten21

The tracks for the album are really coming together and sound great, but I didn't expect to find the process so nerve-wracking and exhausting, especially recording my own backing vocals, but Sean Kenny's energy and enthusiasm is insatiable!  The last session was particularly exciting because James and I were finally laying down the final four tracks for the album that we had rehearsed with keyboard and percussion (an uplifting detour from the tracks with just guitar and voice), one of the tracks is a duet.  James adds a touch of grandeur with strings, piano, ethnic flute, oboe and a mix of woodwind and of course, his dulcet baritone - it sounds wonderful! 

James and the 'Tyros'

Sitting pretty...

On one particular track, I was looking for a very haunting martial bass drum and snare.  After playing around with my Bodhran and a home made beater that I carved from a hazel wand cut from my woods in France. I hit upon an idea - literally...

Bodhran and home-made beater (carved Hazel wand, sheep's wool and the rags of an old shirt) 

I beat the distant war drum for the track, but was stumped when it came to the military snare sound.  Fortunately Sean Kenny is a drummer, and a very good one...

Sean Kenny at Ten21 - a paradidle-diddle

Setting up takes ages, so we drown ourselves with tea and coffee...

Soooo rock and roll...

Rack and stack...

Taking a break

Testing...

Testing...

One, two, three

And so with all the main tracks laid down, it just remains for me to finish working-in the backing vocals (I had a great idea for one of the tracks and have worked in a backing line of a different folk song over the top - so two for one - never let it be said that you don't get good value with Islander), and James and I will join forces again to complete the keyboards on the rest.

James duetting...

with me...

This weekend was meant to be putting the finishing filming touches to 'The old churchyard' music video - but time and weather got the better of us and the underwhelming response to my invites to over 20 local drama groups to help me with a few group scenes has forced us to retreat into the studio to rehearse -  and a great session it was, with some lovely touches accomplished and ready to record at the beginning of December.  At least we are being productive!

I'm itching to get back into my art studio and get started on some new projects, but for now here is a selection of archive artwork...

'Periwinkle'
Media: Poster paint on plasterboard

'Chakra Angelis'
Media: Poster paint on plasterboard

'Autumn Glory'
Media: Acrylic on Canvas

'You push all my buttons...'
Media: Buttons, poster paint on Plasterboard

'Stonehenge' A copy on Thomas Gainsborough
Media: Pastel on pastel paper

Keep warm and wrap up.  Look to the skies for the glory of Autumn Sunsets and keep 'folk-ing it up', for folks sake! 

That's all Folks!!!

Gud Samhain!

Gud Samhain!

Samhain (31 Oct) -- Irish Gaelic for "summer's end." The standard Irish pronunciation is "sow-in" with the "ow" like in "cow." Other pronunciations that follow with the many Gaelic dialects include "sow-een" "shahvin" "sowin" (with "ow" like in "glow"). The Scots Gaelic spelling is "Samhuin" or "Samhuinn."

Hello folks!

Super effects from the Sahara sand storms in the skies over the Island mid-month...

Sahara sand blown skies... 

I went straight down to the beach...

And look what I found!

So, I had a good break in France. It was a quick dash to prepare the house for the coming cooler seasons and cut the grass and weed the terraces. All very invigorating and exhausting. Our trip was hot on the tails of a dash to Little Venice, London to sing two duets (L'addio - Donizetti and An Eriskay love lilt) at a memorial concert for our dear friend and singing teacher Sylvia Rhys-Thomas. It was a cold, blustery day, so wearing kilts was out of the question...

'In memory of Sylvia' - Little Venice Festival. London

We then dashed back home to pack and load up the car and head off to Shirley Hall, Canterbury to see Mary Black in concert! It was unfortunate that Mary's concert clashed directly with Tim Edey's concert at the Gulbenkian. I will get to see him one day!

A quick pint - waiting for Mary Black

Mary Black and her band was, as expected excellent. Then off we set through the night, fighting sleep to cross the Channel and head down to our house in France.

One of the other reasons for the trip was because we have a brilliant barn that we have been renovating - with a little help from a friend we re-roofed recently - it was a mammoth job, but needed doing!

Before Renovation.

During Renovation...

Almost there...

We still have to renovate the interior and hope to set it up as a venue for small 'ClassiFolk' soirees in the future. But as it is there is something wonderful in the decayed elegance of this inspiring space. So we dressed it up and staged a set for an Islander/ClassiFolk photo shoot - Here is a sneaky peak...

Remnants of the past...

Original lime rendered walls over local stone. Most of this stuff was lying in the dust - not the guitar though!

Looking very 'Heathcliff'

It was the most gloriously, sunny day and the beams of sunlight streamed through the open doors and windows Illuminating the fire smoke and years of dust... Not great for singers - but a beautiful effect.

Decadence

The fire in this fire place hasn't been lit for probably 70 years and although we had refurbished the chimney when we re-roofed - It seemed to resent the smoke (or was it because of the complete lack of even a breeze to create a draw?)

Islander

We got such good footage with the light and the space working together, we messed about for hours.

Islander and James - 'ClassiFolk'

I even got to play and sing - the acoustics are great - So a gig in there is definitely on the cards.

Table for one...

Smoke gets in your eyes?

So, until sometime very soon we locked up and headed back home.  I had then to dash up to Leicester to sing with Wigston male voice choir at the Little Theatre.  What a great event!  I was singing a mixture of Opera duets with Soprano Michelle Carlin from La Traviata and La Boheme and a couple of solos by Tosti and Handel.  Fortunately, I had my guitar and for the first time ever - I accompanied myself to a full house.  With slightly shaking hands I performed 'Lady Franklin's lament'.  I survived!

No time for new artwork pieces but here is a small collection from recent sessions and the archives:

'Spring wild flowers'
Media: Pastel on card

'Moosey'
Media: Poster paint on Plasterboard

'Summer Chorus'
Media: Acrylic on Canvas

'Amalfi'
Media: Acrylic on card

In celebration of 'All Hallows' here are a couple of pieces in honour of the 'shadows'...

'Dark Isle'
Media: Poster paint on Canvas

'Einsam'
Media: Carved wood, paper and Ink

 I've had a cold over the last week and a cough (which I think I picked up from London - Cheers! for that...). But hopefully I will be in fine fettle to return to Ten21 recording studios this week to put down some more tracks for my folk ballads album.  A visit to my local folk club mid-week too, perhaps I'll give them a tune...

More news again soon, meantime I hope you are adjusting to the changes in the season.  I will be down at the beach to see what the tide has to offer, playing by candle-light, making 'Jack O' Lanterns' and pumpkin & apple soup and Devils cauldron cake.  The veil between worlds is thin at this time, so look into the shadows and listen to the silence, there's where inspiration speaks...

'The tea-garden'

Candle-lit folk...

That's all for now Folks!!!