Been a bit busy......

Honestly! I have!... so here is an update. The new album is just about finished and is being mastered probably right now. There will probably be a few odd bits that will need tweaking though, but it will be beautiful. It's going to be called 'Flow and Change' because that's how things are. On my website http://www.judydyble.com there are  tiny tasters of four of the new songs and there is also a new video created by the lovely Jane and Paul Merrick of a shortened version of another of the tracks
'The Sisterhood of Ruralists'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWfUqSI7jSo

This song is really four songs, one for each of the artists who make up 'The Sisterhood of Ruralists' a loose collaboration of different disciplines..
Catherine Hyde, a painter who has illustrated books for Carol Ann Duffy and Saviour Pirotta and has had many exhibitions
Jackie Morris who has illustrated and written many books for children and illustrated for many other authors, Ted Hughes, Robin Hobb, James Mayhew and many more.
Hannah Willow creator of silver jewellery and icons and
Tamsin Abbott who works in stained glass.
You can see examples of their work on the video :-)

Now how did that all come about eh? Well there is an Art Show every year near where I live called Art in Action, where some of the best artists are asked to demonstrate their work and one year both Jackie and Cathy were demonstrating. As all the artists live distances away it seemed sensible that they stay with me  for ease of travel.. Err you must know that I hadn't actually met any of them in real life.. just virtually in the world of Facebook.. Jackie had very kindly let me use her images for the Talking With Strangers album (which has just been properly released in the USA and Canada. Today in fact :-))

So anyway the four artists came and stayed at various times over the four day exhibition and there was an evening when all four were staying at the same time, including a mutual, if virtual, friend of all of us and Jackie's lovely partner Robin. Well the wine flowed and somehow the Sisterhood of Ruralists was created and has burgeoned and blossomed. I had written a poemsong for Jackie and wrote one each for Cathy, Hannah and Tamsin.. Alistair put the songs to music and Phil Toms arranged the beautiful strings for the songs I added the words for a beginning and an end and there it was and is.. I hope you enjoy listening to it. I promise I will write more soon. Honest!