New artwork, new releases, new things...

Now this is such a cheating thing to do.. I have cut and pasted all the following info from my myspace blog. 

Talk about lazy......

 Well, to celebrate various releases of the album in different far flung places in the world, as you will see, the artwork for Talking With Strangers has had a complete overhaul. Thanks to John Hurford and Koldo Barroso for the lovely images on the first UK version (which is all but sold out now) and so the next UK pressing, and the Scandinavian release (Termo Records, Jan 25th 2010) now features the simply lovely artwork of the very talented Jackie Morris. please do check her website out -

The new version has an extensive booklet, featuring stunning gold leaf backed paintings, in the style of the front cover you can see.







Please do support Termo if you are in the wintry reaches of Northern Europe, and especially as that version has a currently exclusive bonus track 'Fragile'. You will be able to buy the album from all good record shops throughout Scandinavia.



Right, what else? Well, recording continues with Lee Fletcher and Markus Reuter, we have the beginnings of 6 songs now, which sound absolutely lovely, and we will be continuing to work on those over the winter.



Recording has also started in earnest with Tim Bowness and Alistair Murphy for the follow up to TWS, so far, we have one song written with Julianne Regan which is as wonderful as you might hope it would be, and 3 others in various states of readiness. I will keep you updated on progress...



Live shows in 2010. Yes, (gulp!) you read that right, I am likely to do 2 or 3 festivals next year, with a very special line up. More news on that early next year.



It is also very possible that Jack and I will reform for a one off Trader Horne reunion show, and that will be quite enough live singing for one year, thank you very much.



Finally for now, 2010 will see a re-issue of the Trader Horne album on vinyl, which rather wonderfully will include exact replicas of the two very hard to find vinyl singles. I am told this will be in March, and details of how to order will be available soon.

Oh, and the small matter of the 'single' from TWS, the Fragile box set, a compilation with a song of mine on for the very clever man who formed Creation Records, and TWS to be released in the USA, France, Australia, and Japan.

Retirement seems a very long time ago.....

'Best of 2009' -- well that's what it says

HMV in Manchester have got TWS in their Best of 2009 'Specialist music' rack!

Isn't that lovely!! I've got a picture of it if I can figure out how to post it.....

Last Week - Meetings and Songs and Workings...

Last week Markus Reuter and Lee Fletcher came to stay for a couple of days. I had met Lee for the first time at the 100 club launch, but Markus I had never met, although I had been exchanging emails and messages via myspace and facebook for a long time..

This was to be a pretty intensive recording and writing session with the hope of creating some interesting music, Lee had been writing music for some of my words and I had been writing words for some of Markus' music so this was a chance to put everything together and see what happened...

They were both delightful visitors and we got on famously (I think!). The Pink room was once again filled with musical instruments and bits of electronic machinery and cables and pieces of paper with scribbles and transpositions and extra additional words.

The end result was the beginnings of 6 seperate songs, one of which was a cover, but the others were all new.. I love this bit, when ideas are being formed and harmonies and dissonant chord sequences are being invented, taking shape and becoming surprising and delightful bases for the songs to grow on..
They both left on Friday to go to London where the album 'This Fragile Moment' was being launched at the Estonian Embassy. Produced by Markus and mastered by Lee, it features Markus, Toyah Willcox, Chris Wong (both from 'the Humans')and two Estonian musicians, Robert Jurjendal and Arvo Urb

It's lovely, as is the album that Markus has produced for Chrysta Bell

It's so good to be working with such creative musicians :-)

And I hope to start working on Jude2 with Alistair, very soon.
Coooo!

Updating..updating..updating

Right then, news and plans for the end of this year and next year (heavens!)

I have done a bit of singering on the forthcoming Kings Cross vinyl single Every Sentimental Moment available here

that's released on the 2nd of November

An ep of 3 songs that weren't included on Talking With Strangers, and one song of Sand Snowman's that I have sung on will be released in January

It will be called 'Fragile'

And my own single with Tim, Grey October Day will be released in October January as well :-)


Tim (the Crooner) and Alistair (the Curator) and I will be working on my next album currently called Jude2 until we think of something better! I expect there will be more collaborations with startlingly nice people.....

I have also just begun to work on a collaboration with the lovely Lee Fletcher and the fantastic Markus Reuter on music that will probably be extraordinary and different..

Talking With Strangers is being released in the US, Australia,France, and Scandinavia early next year

And we will be releasing a vinyl re-issue of the first Trader Horne album, 'Morning Way' early next year

And there are more odd things in the pipeline...to be continued

Sad

It is an uncomfortable thing when people fall out, as sadly I seem to have done with the creator of the illustrations in the inlay booklet of Talking With Strangers. He requested that he should do the illustrations and I was delighted for him to do so and very beautiful they were, although they were his interpretations of the songs and not mine. I was a little perturbed, that, having agreed that he could write in his blog about how the work was progressing, that he was posting the illustrations wherever he could on the internet, thus removing one of the nicer surprises of the release. But what was done was done. And a couple of times I had to remind him that it was my album and that the drawings were definitely secondary to the music and not the other way round.
So all was well and under the terms of the contract copies of the album were sent to him after release, many more than he had asked for, and because the first box didn't arrive, more were sent to him in the USA where he lives. No more was heard, so the assumption was that they had arrived. But they hadn't as I discovered from reading his blog of yesterday and he has been really quite unpleasant about me and this has been most upsetting. I have commented on his blog, but it probably won't be allowed to appear... As he was also really quite offensive to Jon the manager, and was not happy to have his work on the US release, I have decided to take all his work off the inlay booklet and replace it with something else for all future releases. So this is very sad when a working relationship goes wrong. I have tried to fix it, but c'est la vie....

Onwards and upwards eh?

It's......October..

...and I haven't written a thing for ages..

So what have I been up to? Well I got on a train and went to London one fine September day, I met up with the lovely Stuart E at Marylebone and we set off through the tunnels of the underground to Old St where I was to meet and do a short interview with Robert Elms, for British Airways. To go on the in-flight audio whatsit that gets played to all the passengers (if they're not watching the film, that is). There would be a review of Talking With Strangers interspersed with nattering from me.. I knew I should have made sure beforehand that everyone knew that Dyble rhymes with libel and not scribble, so I had to interrupt Mr Elms and say 'errrr sorry that's a bit wrong'. Hated doing that but there you go.... He seemed happy about it and we nattered about this that and the other, and then back on the tube and the train and home... Hope it was ok but I haven't heard anything more about it so no news is good news..

An old friend from my primary school days contacted me and came up to visit with her husband and have meal at the pub with me. It was lovely to be nattering after (good grief!) 50 odd years, but lovely too, our lives have some interesting coincidences.
Then another radio interview, this time with Roger 'Twiggy' Day at Radio Kent. He was very nice and it was only later that I realised just how far back in my radio-listening he had been a part of, Radio Luxembourg and the Pirate Radio Caroline and the early days of Radio One (I think) as well...

Through facebook I have been virtually introduced to Jackie Morris whose wonderful status updates just flow like magical streams of consciousness, but with the added piquancy of her wit and practicality. I swapped a signed CD for a copy of her latest book 'Tell Me a Dragon' and I think I got the best of the bargain because it is a totally glorious book. I think it is aimed at very young children, but I suspect it would become a favourite and would be a treasured book forever. When Freya gets bigger, I shall read it to her, but I might have to buy her her own copy because I love this one so much. And anyway Jackie has drawn me a singing dragon of my very own on the title page..
I hope to be collaborating with her in the near future. How lovely will that be?

I am also looking out songs and ideas for the next album, which feels odd because Talking With Strangers is only just out into the world, but that's how it has to be. The vinyl version has just been released as well and is now available from Tonefloat. There is a signed postcard in each copy and there are only 500 copies for sale of this beautiful thing..

The CD will be released in the USA and in Australia in January and talks are going on for Japan and France . And Scandinavia. Well well. Who'd have thought?

Oh yes.. I have done a bit of singing on a new single release from Kings Cross, called 'Every Sentimental Moment' That's released in November.. and somewhere along the line, Grey October Day will be released as a single. Should be in October shouldn't it? Well we'll see.....

Onwards and upwards... Whizzy sends a toothless snore to you all... :-)

Launch Gig at the 100 Club

Thursday...I woke early and twitchingly, got up and let Whizzy out..packed a bag with things to take...words (printed LARGE) and a music stand (blimmin' heavy) walked Whizzy, arranged for her to be fed and walked later and headed off to the station to catch the train to London. The train was cancelled due to something else happening somewhere else, but I caught the next one, arrived at Marylebone to find the Bakerloo line was closed for three days while it was being mended or something...walked to Baker st, caught three different trains and finally arrived at Tottenham Court Rd to meet Jon the M and Rachel Hall the violinist...

Now then that's all very ordinary and boring unless you know that I have emphysema/COPD due to years of smoking (DON'T DO IT) and that while I am usually ok, stairs and escalators and long walks leave me unable to breathe and fairly blue in the face. So with all this extra walking I arrived in a kind of gasping stressed state, unable to even say hello for a good five minutes... By the time I had returned to normal and had a cup of coffee, it was time to make our way to the Blue Posts and say hello to Dan the manager and his partner. They looked after us beautifully, and I spent the next hour signing the 500 postcards that were going to be given away with the vinyl issue of Talking With Strangers.. So one worn out aching wrist later, it was time to move on to the 100 Club..

I know it's historic and zillions of bands have played there and it's an icon of a place and I am honoured and all that, but it really did remind me why I hate singing live. Nothing to do with the people running it or anything like that, it was just umm not a very comfortable place... the dressing room was really a corridor and was full of stacked up tables and chairs, the walls were covered in signatures of all the bands that played there...and it was all very splendid, but nowhere to sit and have a quiet moment before playing..

Laurie the Sax player arrived as did Mark the bass and Alistair, Tim, and all of Tim's friends who were going to do a set of No-man songs in the evening.. I left them all setting themselves up and getting organised and returned to the pub where Simon Nicol was sitting, we nattered for a while and discussed bits of this and that and on our return to the Club, found Phil Dudderidge and Big Little Stephanie (too complicated, one day I'll tell you.)

Phil had been one of Fairport's roadies when I was in the band and had later gone on to be Led Zeppelin's sound man and then to be the founder of Soundcraft and later Focusrite both giant companies in the world of mixing desks and sound design, and what's more he was going to be our soundman for the day.. lovely man that he is! And he did make the sound fantastic along with Ray the house soundman.

So we sang four songs for the press part of the day, and in the early evening, Sand Snowman, David Hughes and Tim and his friends, all played short sets before the bit where I had to sing almost the whole of the album, (except for the main part of Harpsong). I have no idea what it sounded like,everyone played brilliantly and the audience all seemed to enjoy it , then it was natter natter, rush to get everything say goodbye, and grab a taxi to the station (with a couple of friends from the village) get on a train and go home at about 1am. And that....was that!

Well heavens...

Sorry this is a bit late...a lot of things have been happening so I shall just tell you some of them...

The week of the release was good fun if a bit talkative. I did 7 or 8 local radio interviews mostly be telephone and I wittered and waffled to the best of my ability about the album and my odd life..Seemed to go down very well, which was good. The weekend was Fairport's Cropredy Convention Festival which I started off by being interviewed at Radio Oxford, then dashed off to the festival with Jon the M who hadn't been to Cropredy before.

The weather was fantastic, the artists were all brilliant, Steve Winwood and Yusuf Islam in particular.. I wasn't singing but I was signing Cds at one stage and nattering to as many friends as I could find. back home every evening as I live fairly nearby and not a wellie was needed, or indeed any coats.

Friday evening I listened to old friend BP Fallon on Breakthru radio in New York who made me artist of the week and was just lovely about the album

Took Whizzy on the Saturday to see how she got on, but as she got a bit stressed by so many people,and the heat and the walking, I took her home again where friend Nancy looked after her. She soon went back to sleep on the couch... again..

Sunday morning was exciting, we'd had a message that the Mail on Sunday wanted pictures sent, but we weren't quite sure why and we were delighted to find that we had been given a really nice review in the paper.. Grin grin... and I did another radio interview via Skype with Vince and Daisy Font of the Prog'opolis radio programme that will be aired sometime soon.

The next week... more interviews and then suddenly the weekend arrived and along with it Alistair and Mark Fletcher (who played bass on the album and whom I'd not met before) we began to run through the songs from the album in order to prepare for the launch gig at the 100 Club, the following week. That went very well and we all went to the pub for supper, about 11pm Tim appeared, having been driven up from London where the newest No-Man DVD- Mixtaped- had been launched that evening. So Tim had been nattering and chatting to No-man fans and was quite tired, but we still stayed up nattering till around 2 am.. Then Sunday the three of us started rehearsing and in the early afternoon, Simon Nicol joined us, to run through everything that he was playing on.. All went well and everyone had gone home by about 6pm.

Whizzy had managed to damage a claw on the Friday night so was limping about in a big blue bandage looking pathetic all weekend, but the bandage was removed on the Monday and she forgot all about limping...

More interviews.. a trip to the hospital for my bi-monthly infusion of fearsome drugs to keep the rheumatoid arthritis beaten into submission and then....it was Thursday..... more tomorrow. :-)

Tomorrow is a brilliant day

Tomorrow is the 10th August 2009 and it is the day that my album, 'Talking With Strangers' is finally released. What shall I do to celebrate it?

I know! I will get up early,feed and walk the Whiz and probably drive to the Park and Ride in Oxford, go to Radio Oxford in Summertown and be interviewed there for about half an hour. Then I will take the bus further into Oxford (hooray for bus passes) and go to look in HMV and see if my CD is really and truly there.. And if it is I shall hug myself and want to tell someone, so I will go and have a cup of coffee with friend Chris and tell him all about it. Then I shall get back on the bus and return to Radio Oxford at 1pm to do another interview with Radio Suffolk to go out that evening. Then back to the park and Ride and drive home and back to the reality of walking the Whiz again

Look here! 4 wonderful reviews....
BBC Music Reviews written by the lovely Sid at DGM who have a copy of the album to give away here

The Progfiles. (I'm doing an interview with them at the moment)

Record Collector

and Netrhthyms

It's all going swimmingly !!

then it was Saturday

So. Awake, panic, have a shower, panic, clean teeth, get toothpaste everywhere. Now why was that? The ensuite bathroom to my room was incredibly elegant with a washbasin encased in a beautiful granite surround, But.... it was very high and the basin was set very deep in the granite. So I had to stand on tiptoe and I still couldn't quite reach the basin to wash my face..I had to kind of aim at my face and throw water at it..managed it in the end though. but hence the toothpaste everywhere as well.. Where was I? Ah yes clean teeth, panic, get dressed, panic,down to breakfast, panic...etc. I was a bit twitchy as you may guess.

Anyway Jon and I went out for a walk and found errr nothing much but concrete! Being the City of London it was mainly closed on Saturday..so more concrete walking and back to the hotel, where we had a cup of coffee and nattered to Iain Matthews while we waited for the transport to take us to the Barbican, where soundchecks were going on and lunch was waiting..

I was not hungry, so I ate a handful of liquorice all sorts and nattered to whoever was passing. Practiced my harping and my recordering and panicked some more..

Finally at 6 pm it was time for my soundcheck. By this time I was really twitching and everyone else was really tired, but the sound was set up for me and my harp and my voice as I would be on first..

So I changed into my stage outfit, and tried to look as if I knew what I was doing with eye makeup and the like.. and suddenly it was time. Ashley Richard and Simon went on stage and took their places followed by me. I was going to start off the whole thing by talking a bit about where I had met them and where we had played and then began play my autoharp and to sing 'Satisfied Mind'.

I haven't really played my harp properly on stage since the Trader Horne days and the swollen joints of rheumatoid arthritis had led me to believe that I wouldn't ever be able to play again. Luckily the fearsome drug that I am infused with every two months had suppressed the disease enough for me to play the harp once more. My wrists ached and I had bruises on my arm from where the tuning pegs were pushing into my forearm but....I did it.
And I remembered all the words!. Then off with the harp and straight into 'Time will Show The Wiser', then 'One Sure Thing' with a bit of recorder playing, and finally 'Jack O'Diamonds' with a sort of odd recorder solo.

Then I was done.. Off stage and then back stage.. to watch and listen to everyone else. Till it was time for the encores. I didn't go on stage for 'Si Tu Dois Partir', because I can never remember the words, but Chris While and I joined the rest of the band and singers for 'Meet On the Ledge'.

And that was that...what a fantastic night!

Lots of natterings and chortlings, the recorder was signed by Iain, Ashley, Richard, Simon and me and I have just auctioned it on ebay in aid of the Greyhound Charity from whence Whizzy and Flower came. It raised £210 so that will be on it's way to them very soon..
Then back to the hotel and fall asleep and it was all over..

Well. That was quite extraordinary.

I was going to write about this before I went but things kind of got away from me. You know. Nerves. Terror. Emails. Phone calls - that sort of thing. I'd decided to put my harp in a wheely suitcase to take to London. Came the day and the suitcase was 2 inches too short, and the only one I could borrow was huge so it got stuffed into a bag instead along with a few other bits and pieces. Jon arrived on Thursday and kept me from running away.

Friday morning..goodbye Whizzy, be good, Nancy will look after you see you Sunday. Ed and Angie drove Jon and myself and a million bags to the station(well five anyway) where we caught a train to London.

Arriving at Marylebone, I was surprised to find a heap of Cropredyites,filming a bit of The Dodge Brothers who are playing at Fairport's Cropredy Convention this summer. So we said 'hello' and 'how are you' and went to find the car that would take us to the hotel to leave our bags, before another car came to take us to the rehearsal studios where the rest of my Fairport were waiting for me to appear.. I was only a bit late..

After the usual 'haven't seen you for ages' and 'what you been up to thens' we had a quick run through of the 4 songs I was going to do with them. One song, Satisfied Mind, was one that we may not even have done together, but it was the kind of thing we had played before we were even called Fairport and it showed off the autoharp rather nicely, and as I was singing it as well it wasn't too much of a problem.. then out with the recorder and a quick blast of Time Will Show the Wiser, One Sure Thing and Jack O'Diamonds and that was my rehearsal over and done. Jon and I then went to have a cup of coffee and something to eat, until we were sure I wouldn't be needed again, then we were taken back to the hotel.
Nothing much was happening so we set off on a tube to Hertfordshire to meet Big Little Stephanie for a meal, then back to her houseboat and then back to the hotel. Old Street in the City of London is quite a scary place at night and as neither of us could work out where we were, internal compasses definitely not working, we got a taxi to take us back to the hotel. There is such a lot of concrete in that area.. and not much greenery. Then back to the rooms to fall asleep.

Right. More later

Not Long....

...before the Barbican show.
Should be most entertaining I reckon. Autoharp is tuned ready in case it's needed. Finger and thumbpicks are gleaming in the sunlight. Old plastic school recorders have been located and decisions have been made about which one to use..white?...brown?... should I find a wooden one? More importantly will my fingers play it and have I got the puff to blow.. I expect so, anyway it will be just like the olden days...

I won't worry about that till next week. Jon the M can do any panicking necessary..
Last week I was interviewed for one of the local papers..lovely lady Gill Oliver came for a cup of tea and a natter. I'd spent some of the day in the boilingness that is Oxford seeing my beautiful Freya, who is two months old, smiling and, as far as I can work out, trying to dance, judging by the waving arms and dancing legs.., so by the time I got home I was hot and bothered, but I think I answered all the questions properly. Or possibly improperly. I'll have to wait and see what I said..

Yesterday I had lunch with Richie Unterberger an American author and journalist. Lovely interesting man to natter with.. he is in England to promote his latest book on the Velvet Underground, a fascinating subject, that I should know more about than I do!!

What else? Ah yes, I recorded some harmonies and backing vocals for the probable next Kings Cross single, Every Sentimental Moment/Never Say Never , there are snippets on there, but from before I did anything.. They may of course not like what I've done, but that's fine

And we've been sorting out the artwork for the vinyl limited edition of Talking With Strangers, which will be released by Tonefloat records in September..

And we're sorting out the album launch gig thing which will be in London in mid August. .

So it's all been a bit busy and hectic.
Writing songs? What's that? I'll have to get round to a bit of that soon as well. I suppose..but for now I will feed the Whizz and make a sandwich. Oh no...not cheese again :-)

(strange spellchecker on here..it thought enrtetraining was a proper word...???)

Signings and Signposts

'Right then' I said to Mr SatNav man. 'I have to get to Brixworth Country Park from here. And no you can't take me via Silverstone, which we both know would be the easiest way to go, because it's the Grand Prix weekend and the roads are closed off. So take me there and don't get me lost'

Well. He did his best, poor Mr SatNav man, but sometimes I forgot to listen and sometimes I didn't quite understand what he meant by things.. He was very patient though and just kept changing the route till we got there. Mind you, he did take me through Northampton, which was a bit scary and my phone began to ring when I was in the middle of a triple carriageway bit. 'I can't answer' I yelled 'and just be quiet 'cos I can't hear what Mr SatNav man is telling me to do' Twice it rang and then there was a message beep, by which time I had 'reached my destination' as Mr SNM kept telling me. 'I know I'm here' I muttered, 'I can read can't I?'

(The phone calls, I discovered later, were from Alistair and Jon, because Alistair had forgotten where we were meeting, so had been frantically trying to contact me...)

And there was Alistair grinning at me. He and Tim had driven across from Norwich and Cromer to meet me so that we could sign the inlays together. And waiting for the inlays to arrive had been another heart-stopping tale, they had been supposed to arrive on Friday, having been sent on Thursday, but they somehow hadn't got picked up, so the couriers had had to send them to arrive on the Saturday. Which they duly did. At 8am but I only got them because I had seen the ParcelForce van drive by and rushed into the lane to find him trying to deliver the parcel to my neighbours house behind their electric gates. He'd have taken them away if I hadn't stopped him.

Anyway all was well, Tim, Alistair and I took over a table in the cafe and signed all our signatures and generally nattered. Over the course of the 2 hours, my signature got more and more idiotic, Tim's got more obscure and Alistair's stayed the same. and there was one that I signed upside down and didn't notice until I'd signed it a second time, so Tim and Alistair signed it twice as well. That will surprise someone I expect.

So signing over, back in the cars...goodbye, goodbye, see you soon and we went our separate ways home.

I got lost. I'd managed to tangle Mr SNM and he was trying to take me through Silverstone and getting really cross when I wouldn't turn round. I kept saying 'don't be silly I can't go that way', but did he listen? no he didn't. Well he is a machine. I found my way home, through some very pretty villages and I was a bit shattered but happy that we now had 500 inlays signed.

Tim took half of them and I sent the others off to Jon to put back in the CD boxes. All very lovely..

Did I say that it all looks wonderful and sounds even better? Well it does and I shall say it again. I think it is the best thing I've ever done.. yaaaay!!

Fetes and practisings

It's the village fete today and for an amazing change, it isn't raining. Well not yet anyway! It's a lovely thing to do, walk down the main street through the village and see and say hello to the people that I have known for years, but in some cases haven't seen for months, but Fete day, everyone comes out for a natter. It's also extraordinary how many people I don't know, who have moved into the village while I wasn't looking. 'Tis what happens when you don't have children at the village school any more, that is the place where many friendships start and continue till the children grow up and move away. Like many villages, sadly there is no way that the children can afford to buy houses in the village where they were born, thus some continuity is broken..

However, there will be cakes and teas and raffles and tombolas and bric-a-brac and plants and guess the weight or guess the name.. and there will be music and dog shows and all the things that a church fete should have on a beautiful honeysuckle filled summers day...

What else? Ah yes I have been practising playing instruments that I haven't really played for too many years so that if I should be called upon to play them I might be able to at least make a stab at it. And relearning songs that I haven't sung for, well,40 years or so.aarrgh! This is all for the Barbican concert in July. Which seemed to be ages away but now errrr isn't that long..but it will be lovely to be playing with old friends. And what's more I will have to be staying for two nights in that there London, on account of rehearsals and idiotic train times. Hopefully the Neff will be dogsitting the Whiz

Plus getting excited about the album which looks (and sounds!) wonderful and can be pre-ordered via my myspace . if you want to. The CDs should be sent out at the end of June/beginning of July.

More building work is going on around me, I wouldn't mind but it's not me that's going to benefit! Big concrete lorries and earth moving tractors outside my windows for the last three days. and because my house is a long old stable, there isn't anywhere to get away from it..hopefully they'll just be building now and not excavating any longer.. I seem to have been surrounded by building works for the last three years.. and I still think the worst thing are the radios blaring at full volume while the builders are somewhere else.. Right, that's today's small rant over :-)

Shall I mow the lawn again? No it can wait for a day or so...

A couple of very large pigeons have built a nest in the winterflowering honeysuckle tree near the kitchen. The crash landings into the branches make me wince, but so far nothing's fallen out of the nest. Not sure there's anything in it. Perhaps it's just a holiday home for them.. There was a panicky baby bird in the kitchen a couple of mornings ago, it must have flown in the evening before. Naturally it was squeaking and attempting to throw itself out of the window, so I had to balance on a stool and grab it (it's a deep windowsill, behind the sink)I caught it by its little feet and then carefully calmed it a bit and put it on the table outside. It flew away... a trifle grumpily I thought..

The honeysuckle and philadelphus blossoms are making me sneeze and my eyes itch. I don't care, it's worth it for the glorious scents :-)

It's a bit warm today...

....so I delved into the darkest recesses of the freezer and found a choc ice left over from last year. It's a bit chewy, but it is cold and that's just fine..

So where have I been and what have I done lately? Been cooing over the babe obviously.. She usually cries when I hold her, but I am assured that it is because the holding coincides with needing a nappy change or feeding, but when she isn't crying she is very very pretty. Of course..

Huge gateposts have been built opposite my window for huge gates to be hung, at the entrance to a big house over the lane. I feel a bit as though I am surrounded by people who want to be shut away behind walls and gates, not like the openness of the village when I first moved here, but I suppose people need to feel secure. It seems a shame though. Mind you the other house at the end of the lane has electric gates which have stopped working. Oh dear. I giggled a bit at that.

The album is now manufactured and I am awaiting a pile of them to appear. Somehow, Alistair, Tim and I will have to find somewhere obscure to meet, so that we can sign the first 500..perhaps a tea shop in St Neots, or a service station in Towcester..who knows where we'll end up? McDonalds in Kettering probably..

And the Barbican concert is beginning to loom as opposed to being just a thought on the horizon, Still not sure what I will sing, but I have every faith that Ashley and the others will make a decision for me. It looks as though I shall have to spend two nights in London. Cooo, haven't done that for many a year, have to get someone organised to look after the Whizzy though (whom I am seriously considering renaming Dozy).

Right then, what rock cult legendary thing shall I do now? Mow the lawn? Yes I think so...

Pre order Talking With Strangers

Now...this is cheating a bit, because I am going to give you a link to my Myspace blog where you will find that Jon the Manager has put all the information needed to enable people to pre-order the new CD and get a signed, numbered one..


And a bit of news about Trader Horne....


Back soon

Grannydom

Yup that's me. Granny Jude...

My son and his wife became the extremely proud parents of Freya last week. Let me just say this one thing..she is absolutely beautiful and I am besotted. Yes that's two things. I know. I don't care!!

What else has been happening? The artwork for the album is complete and the music is mastered and it all goes to be manufactured this week and then hopefully I will have the definitive release date and I can work out what I need to do.. I think I will have to have a launch party thing and I expect I shall have to do a bit of singering for that... I will worry about that when the time comes..

I am waiting to hear what the plans are for the Barbican thing, what songs and when rehearsals are. I really hope I am allowed to sing one of the songs that hasn't been sung for 40 years...that would be really nice, but I suppose it's not really up to me.. I might get pushy though...

I thought I would pull up some stinging nettles yesterday, but put the thin gardening gloves on instead of the old motorcycling gauntlets (my favourite for nettles and brambles)and, sure enough, ouch ouch ouch! stung hands and tingly fingers.

That'll learn me.. Someone was supposed to come and remove mounds of ivy and brambles from the side of the little stream, but he didn't turn up. I hate it when people don't let me know when they aren't coming. I think I will look for someone else to help. Unfortunately the rheumatoid arthritis, COPD and the back problem that I have mean that I can no longer do very much gardening and then only for a very short time, and it has all got a bit overgrown. Looks very picturesque, but will look just plain disastrous if it's not cut back a bit soon. Never mind, I will find someone..

I am reading Mick Farren's book - 'Give the Anarchist A Cigarette' It's set in the era and the place where I lived in the late 60's/early 70's, all around Notting Hill Gate. I used to bump into him at various gigs and watering holes in London, when the Deviants played the same places as Fairport. It is bringing back a lot of memories...
I recommend it to anyone who wants to know what that whole hippy era was really like, he is an excellent writer..

Right then.. another cup of coffee I think... I wonder how Alistair's gig is going?

Alistair's solo gig

Alistair Murphy who has helped to make my new album such a wonderful thing is making his solo debut next Tuesday 12th May.

Accompanied by Laurie A'Court(sax)and Mark Fletcher(bass) who also appear on my album, Alistair will be a special guest of Dan Reed at The Musician venue in Leicester. He will be on stage at 9.30, and if you are anywhere near there, you should go and see him as they are all fantastic musicians....


The tickets are selling well (and they are cheaper in advance!!)

Now just remember...12th May 9.30pm The Musician Pub Leicester

Grannytobe(wellalmost)Jude says go on.........

New snippets

are up on my myspace now

A little bit of Grey October Day with the silky vocals of Tim Bowness.. this will be a single I think
and a tantalising glimpse of the Harpsong - the 20 minute epic- this is a small section just before it all goes a bit bananas :-)

There will be more and different tasters over the next few weeks.

That's so mean isn't it?

:-)

Barbican 18th July

I have just been asked if I would like to sing at the Fairport concert here..

I think that might be quite fun to do...

Lovely day today and what has made it even nicer is that the masters have arived. Y-a-a-a-y!

Changes...

I thought it was time to stop wittering and have decided to meander instead.

What's new this morning?

I have been looking at the places that I look at every day. DGMlive for instance, Robert's diary and stuff within the world of King Crimson....and Sid Smith's blog. Which is always really fascinating, reviews and natterings and updatings, plus the most fab photos of the mornings around his house.

Oh and have a look at Julianne Regan's myspace. There are some lovely bits of song there and she's a wondrous person..

and now I am going to deal with the ongoing illustrations kerfuffle and the plots and plans for releasing this album.

Oooh it is jolly interesting...

New album track snippets.....

you can hear them on my myspace

a little bit of 'C'est La Vie' and a little bit of 'Jazzbirds'

I hope you like them!

The album 'Talking With Strangers' now has a release date of July 20th 2009

Yippee!!

Patience, patience, is a virtue.......

....but I am getting to be so very tired of being patient.

Especially patiently waiting.

And extra-especially patiently waiting for things that should have been finished and dealt with months ago and shouldn't need to be patiently waited for any longer....

Enough of that...it's making me very cross and grumpy and I really don't want to be that...

Right. Where are we? April and more exactly Good Friday...since I stopped working in the library I find these public holiday things creep up unannounced and startle me. I always found it interesting that when the children were young they always developed some kind of illness that needed to be sorted out by a doctor on the Saturday afternoon of a bank holiday weekend. Uncanny that..

I have a lot of beginnings of new song-words floating around in my head these days. I haven't been able to pin them down to anything definite mainly because I would like to get the current album sorted out and completed before I start drowning in new songs. So phrases are just dancing around my days, tantalising glimpses of new tales that I can't quite get hold of...

I spent quite a while over the last couple of weeks answering some questions for someone who is writing a book on Acid Folk. Really interesting questions, quite simple and straightforward as questions but the answers needed a lot of thought because they led me back down the backways of memories that I hadn't thought about for many years. And of course none of us realised that the music that we were making was acid folk... it didn't feel like any kind of folk at the time...it was just what it was.. Fascinating to find so many different kinds of labels attached to one's music but I suppose it all needs to be put into context. I am really quite flattered when people want to know why and what and when and where. I so wish I had kept a diary....

Not long now before I become a granny. woohoo...

A gardening man has been doing some work in the garden over the past couple of weeks as well. There are things that have been sidetracked and untouched for the four years since I have been unable to keep the ivy and brambles under control so parts of the garden have become neglected. I have been trying to sort parts of it out, but I am very limited in my ability to pull fiercely rooted things up now, so I finally gave in and found a Person with his Own Shredder to come and do in a couple of hours things which were taking me weeks. And especially to do the pruning of pyracantha and holly trees which were trying to take over the universe. Hah! not any more..... it will look ok when it's finished..but I have to work out what to do with the dog decimated lawn..hmmmmm..

More later....

Must Write More Often...

I keep saying this to myself and then I don't... Not sure anyone reads it anyway!

A lot has happened this month, the saddest thing being that Flower, the older of my two greyhound ladies, was put to sleep last week. Her back legs collapsed, I think her spinal nerves stopped working, whatever it was she couldn't get up and was in great distress. The same thing had happened to Tiggy, my previous dog, so I knew that it was the kindest thing to do for her. She was 12, she was clumsy and she tripped over me and I tripped over her, but she was such an affectionate thing and she did at least have 6 months sleeping on the sofa in the warm instead of being in a cold old kennel.

Whizzy looks a bit lost and sad, but I don't think I will look for another companion for her yet. I will see how she gets on as a single dog..

The album has now been tweaked and twinkled and is being mastered in the US as I write.. hopefully Tim, Alistair and I will be happy with the result and then that will be that! The lyric illustrations have been completed by Koldo, so now it is just up to Michael of Urban Art to pull it all together and that will be that bit done.. Jon the manager can then get on with everything else that has been waiting for the finished album and that will be that. As well! And I shall say hooray and have a celebratory biscuit..

With Anji (and lots of other nice people) I was part of the Artist Liaison team at the Oxford Folk Festival this last weekend. It was huge fun, but vastly tiring. Made lots of tea and coffee and made sure all the artists were comfortable and happy.. I managed to see a bit of The Dhol Foundation - how fantastic are they? (well they jolly are!) and a minute of Kate Rusby and a song from Spiers and Boden and also a song from Cosmic Aubergine. They were all excellent!

Caught up with lots of people I haven't seen for ages including my son and his wife and the bump which is nearly ready to be born. Anytime now....

I have been looking after my daughter's zebra finches while she and her husband have gone on a belated honeymoon to Canada. We had a pair of these very cute little birds when Neff was young and they were most entertaining (and noisy!) and I am now remembering just what a strange little song they have. And four of them sound like a whole factory of little machines. They are very sweet, the sitting room is now full of feathers and seed along with the usual dog fluff..

Right then.

Time to feed the Whizz who has been watching me with one eye open for the past five minutes in case I should head off to the kitchen...

Good Grief! It's March!

...and I am officially elderly. If I were to be knocked down by a bus (heaven forbid!) the incident would be described as an 'elderly female pensioner was hit by a bus. eyewitnesses have stated that she appeared to be trying to balance on a skateboard...' or something like that..

However the upside is that I now have a bus pass, can have my eyes tested for free and don't have to pay for prescriptions any more. Yippee!! Where shall I go on the bus? How about Haverford West? (Where's that? I dunno, be interesting to find out.....I expect..)

I was bored one day last week and decided to google the address that I lived in when I was a child. We (my parents, sisters and brother) moved into a newly built block of council maisonettes, one of four similar ones, from the soon-to-be-demolished prefab where we had lived since I was born, (and possibly longer).

We had a lovely garden at the prefab, it seemed huge to me anyway, but the maisonette just had a piece of ground divided up into squares, one bit for each family. Enough room for a washing line and a bit of grass and some flowers. My dad soon took over the next door's bit of earth as they didn't want to grow anything and soon after acquired an allotment to grow vegetables.

The blocks of maisonettes, functional, but truly ugly as only late 50's council buildings could be, were end on to the railway line, the London/Scotland line (whatever that was!). It was still the age of steam trains and the Flying Scotsman was a regular passer-by and shaker of windows and rattler of walls.... In the summer the sparks from the engines would set light to the grassy sides of the rails and then we'd have the added excitement of watching the fire brigade come to douse the flames..

We all went to different schools, mine was Minchenden School in Southgate, which was quite a distance from home in Wood Green so I either took a bus, a train or a tube depending on how much walking I wanted to do. During the summer I would quite often walk home from school, I think it was quite a long way but then that was what we did in those days in the last century!

Now why did I get nattering about this? Oh yes, having googled my old address I discovered that all those maisonettes are now desirable places to live and sell for £250k. Well they did before this current credit upheaval..

Anyway, enough of all that, I had a fantastic birthday, going out to lunch 3 days on the trot with different bits of friends and family, only slightly marred by Whizzy slicing her foot while running in the icy woods and needing stitches and anaesthetics and bandages and a huge mortgage to pay for it all.. I had thought about pet insurance, but because the dogs are so old, the premiums would have been £30 per month each and that is quite a lump. Even then it wouldn't have covered all the treatment. So I just paid the bill and told the dogs they'd better not have any more disasters for another 6 months (touch wood!).

Whizzy's all better now...and is asleep on the sofa. Flower is also asleep but on the floor. I vacuumed about a ton of dog fluff from the sitting room the other day and there's probably as much again now. I should put the fluff outside for the birds to build nests with, but I'm afraid they might suffocate under the weight..

Right that's enough for now, the album continues to continue and I am beginning to believe it's all a figment of my imagination and will never be ready. I expect it isn't and it will though!

Illustrations of wonder

How lovely is this?

Koldo Barroso is creating wonderful illustrations to go with the lyrics for the new album. If you look at his blog on his website, you can follow what he is doing for me.

And if you look at his portfolio you can see more of his wondrous creations... some of them are kind of whimsical but with a slightly sinister edge..... but his little animals are so sweet they ought to be cuddled.

Cold here and going to get colder, but the witchhazel is flowering and snowdrops have appeared so there is always something to say 'ah!' to.

The dogs are watching me, each with one eye open...obviously in case I rush off to the kitchen to find them something edible... they have been here for 5 months now and I am at last getting the hang of them,

Whizzy is a bit of a nervy thing, doesn't like to be left behind and would like to attach herself to me permanently so that I can't go anywhere without her...
Flower is like a lollopy colt, the muscles in her back legs are not strong so she does a sort of flailing run if she gets left behind. She is so long that she can't turn round quickly and I keep treading on her toes by accident - yelp! yelp! I am so cruel..... She hasn't put on any weight, her bones are still very prominent and I guess she is just one of those dogs that gets very thin when they get old... Whizzy however is getting to be quite plump. Well -plump for a greyhound anyway. but they both seem happy enough...

Right then. More later :-)

Hooray hooray!!

The album is just about finished and ready for mastering. It will be called 'Talking With Strangers' which is something that I seem to do quite a bit..

If you look here , you can see who has been kind enough to play for me. I am just so delighted with the end result. It makes me grin every time I hear it..

Next step is to let it out into the world and hope that others enjoy it. Gulp! Always the difficult bit. But no use writing all this stuff and making all this music and then hiding it away in a cupboard is there? Tempting though the thought is....

I may have to sing live somewhere. If I do and you see me, I will be clutching some screwed up bits of paper containing the words. Absolutely terrified of forgetting them and going blank... I think I will worry about that later...

What else? Pensionerhood and Grannydom are beckoning in the first part of this year. That's going to make life even more interesting. I shall claim my bus pass and go out for discounted meals. Yippee! It's funny how each new decade seems to bring a new change to my life. I expect it happens to everyone though..

I did a bit of a garden clear up yesterday, just tidying up the japanese anenomes, which seem to have become bullies here.,taking over every bit of spare garden.. Very pretty though in the autumn. And the little witchhazel tree has begun to flower. It is usually out fully by my birthday and has a wonderful smell.

Oh yes and I had the roof fixed. There was a little leak where the previous repair to a flat roof hadn't been properly joined to the main roof. It only leaked when the wind was in a certain direction and it was pouring with rain, but as it was above a doorway and the door was beginning to warp, I really had to do something. So I did. The trouble with having stuff done to a roof is that it doesn't look any different when it's mended. Ho hum..
But the roofmen managed to knock a few of the crystals off the crystal tree so I had to thread them all again and rehang them.

Dear me! This is turning out to be a boring old blog isn't it. I'll try and do better next time..

Jude xxxx