So ..... Four years later

4th March 2019

Errr I am still alive.. still singing , still talking rubbish.

Two new albums, Summer Dancing with Andy Lewis,

 and Earth Is Sleeping

And a new dog after the sad passing of Betty... This is Jessie

and that will do :-)

It's here!!! and has wonderful reviews!!

Yes, my head is swollen and I am full of pride and probably heading for a fall!

The anthology is now out and is up for sale from my website
http://judydyble.bigcartel.com/

and from Amazon
http://tinyurl.com/pj2whf8

And there's this lovely 4 star review in the Daily Mirror from Gavin Martin

And just look at this 5star review from Dmitry Epstein at www.dmme.net

JUDY DYBLE – Gathering The Threads

Judy Dyble 2015

JUDY DYBLE – Gathering The Threads

Subtitled “Fifty Years Of Stuff,” a marvelous overview of lost gem’s of English folk rock first decades on the stage and behind the scenes.

She may be praised as a national treasure now, but only core followers were interested in what Judy Dyble‘s been doing in the time when her name didn’t grace the music press pages. And here’s a reward for the aficionados’ loyalty: compiled and issued by the singer herself, this 3CD-box offers a genuine continuity with a fantastic selection of Dyble’s album fare, rarities previously scattered across limited editions and collaborative efforts, and recordings that haven’t seen the light of the day before. More so, it reveals Judy as an intrepid experimentalist as well as traditionalist.

Although ordered chronologically, the collection ends with a recentconcert take on “If I Had A Ribbon Bow” which the chanteuse entered a public eye with, when she fronted FAIRPORT CONVENTION, and their fans will be happy to hear a couple demos from 1967. One of these is the deeply emotional “One Sure Thing” that Dyble would revisit in a crunchier, almost punk setting with THE CONSPIRATORS in 2008, on a single housed on CD2, yet there are earlier tracks – two home recordings from 1964, “Come All Ye Fair And Tender Ladies” showing the 15-year-old artist not afraid to infuse an Appalachian tune with her own, English personality. Yet in 1966, in the company of Richard Thompson, she went much further, for a riveting folk-tinged improvisation, present on the first disc in a much abridged form than is on the source tape and throwing a bridge to Judy’s later sonic adventures like solo “Seventh Whorl” or “Noh Kro Poh” that she notched for JOXFIELD PROJECT.

In such a context, the singer’s work with GILES GILES & FRIPP in 1968 feels only logical, tracks like “Make It Today” demonstrating Dyble’s talent at handling jazzier material, which is also manifested on 2014’s outtake “RadioWaves” – the duet with Jackie McAuley could have been a reunion of TRADER HORNE whose tapes are absent from “Threads” due to contractual reasons – and it was Judy who first recorded “I Talk To The Wind” that she updated on 2006’s solo album “The Whorl” to add magic and maturity to it. There’s a woman’s touch to this ballad, too, but the singer was enchanted enough with Greg Lake‘s approach to appropriate his “C’est La Vie” for her "Talking With Strangers" in 2009 and take it to crystalline heights. Judy’s ability to adapt and transform comes forth on a backing vocals job be it in the 2012 on “Weather Changes” for DODSON AND FOGG or back in 1970 on G.F. Fitzgerald’s “May Four.”

The ’70s saw Dyble disappear into family life, yet it didn’t deter her from singing, and Mike Batt was smitten with Judy voice, so one may only wonder why the richly orchestrated “Better Side Of Me” stopped in 1972 at a demo stage, as did the slide-adorned merry vocalizing on “I Hear A Song” from the following year. Still, there’s a gap between those and her psychedelic version of “See Emily Play” from 1982, when Dyle worked with Adrian Wagner, and then to 2004, when Judy returned to action to stay on. The comeback is reflected on “Going Home” from “Enchanted Garden” where the erstwhile folk sensibility gets married to a cosmic buzz of a soundscape before unwinding into an almost orchestral “Lost In Fingest” – and it was at this point that she opened up for epic compositions.

The artist breathes transparent fire into “Shining” whose “I am lost for words” refrain lingers in one’s mind long after its rays dissolve in vibrant silence, although her longest suites – LP side-long “Harpsong” and “The Sisterhood Of Ruralists” – aren’t part of the box. Scope aside, it’s nigh on impossible to imagine gentle Judy in a metal mode, yet here she is, grafting a second voice to “Every Sentimental Moment” on a KINGS CROSS single in 2009, but the title piece on “Talking With Strangers” finds Dyble in her very element – piano-backed and soaring, while freezing her flight down to a faux-fairy tale of “Wintersong” off 2013’s "Flow And Change".

High or low, though, Judy Dyble is so natural – an integral part of the nature – that she’s mesmerizing throughout. With threads gathered into a fine tapestry, this collection opens the doors to her second spring: she’s a treasure, indeed.

*****

I am still here! Honest!

It's February and I have still got the remains of a cold from December. Bleeeurrgh! Would you care to hear what's happening in the world of Jude? Going to tell you anyway...
For the last seven years or so I have been attempting to get together an anthology of music that I have been a part of or collaborated with. And it's finished. 50 Years of Stuff. Gathering the threads. Demos, odd electronics, recordings from 1964 - 2014, some released on actual albums, some released but not generally heard, and some rarely if ever heard at all

I am just waiting to get the finished (limited) amount of copies back from the manufacturers and then they will be available from my shop http://www.judydybleshop.com/ very soon. In other news I have three gigs in the offing

March and April will see me and my band playing at three places. Two in London and one in Oxfordshire

Here's all the info!

GIG 1

St Pancras Old Church

http://stpancrasoldchurch.wix.com/music

Pancras Road, London, N1 1UL

Friday 27th March 2015

at 7.30 pm

Tickets available from https://www.stargreen.com/a-z/judy-dyble-ex-fairport-convention.html

We are very lucky to have Steve Bingham to join us on violin on this evening

http://stevebingham.co.uk/

and we will be supported by the very lovely Bess Atwell

https://www.facebook.com/bessatwellmusic

 GIG 2

MANOR FARM Parlour Concerts

http://www.mfmf.co.uk/

Manor Farm,Somerton Road, Ardley, Oxon, OX27 7NS

Saturday April 11th 2015

at 8pm

Places are available by invitation only, if you would like to come please contact them

http://www.mfmf.co.uk/

It's a gorgeous converted milking parlour in a beautiful setting with charming hosts. Space is limited but it is a lovely intimate venue

GIG 3

HALF MOON PUTNEY

http://www.geronimo-inns.co.uk/london-the-half-moon/

93 Lower Richmond Road, London SW15 1EU, Tel. 020 8780 9383

Sunday 19th April 2015

at 8pm

Tickets £10 available from http://www.musicglue.com/half-moon-putney/events/19-apr-15-judy-dyble-half-moon--putney/

So lovely to be playing here at this iconic venue.

The supporting act will be duo SUGAR MAGNOLIA

http://www.bucketfullofbrains.net/artists/jack-day/sugar-magnolia-jack-day-bryony-afferson/

There may be another supporting act but I am waiting for confirmation :-)

Right! That'll do for now!

Catching up...

2012

So after the disasters of 2011, 2012 was the year I began to seriously work on the next new album with Alistair Murphy, which eventually became Flow and Change. This was once again started with no real idea of where how it would end up and what songs would be used, but as ever the songs themselves fell into place and decided amongst themselves which would fit and where they would fit.. Catherine Hyde supplied the beautiful cover artwork and most of the exquisite inlay designs along with one or two images from the splendid Jackie Morris and a photo or two from my childhood.

While all this was going on I managed to find my next canine companion - the oh so elegant Nyx, the goddess of Night and the Mother of Chaos. She was wonderful, but so terrified of everything, fine with women but scared of men and buses and trucks and banging doors and stairs and and and…. I never dared to let her off the lead, because I was not sure she would ever come back.. She was so fast when she did find somewhere to run but then she had won many races in her time.. gradually and slowly she began to be less nervous and to be more confident with everything. Here she is

I was asked to do a live gig in London in Dec 2012 to promote the reissue of Talking With Strangers on Tonefloat, along with other bands released by them so Alistair Murphy helped me to get a band together to play. It consisted of Alistair, Mark Fletcher and Jeremy Salmon, with the addition of Rachel Hall on violin and Phil Toms on double bass…with Tim Bowness singing with me on the Talking With Strangers tracks, but we also added a few tracks from Flow and Change…so that was the beginning of a very few live performances…

At the end of 2012 I parted ways amicably with my manager Paul. So now I was on my own, with decisions that were mine and the consequences of those decisions were to be mine also. Luckily I had good people to discuss plans with and so far (touch wood touch wood touch wood!) it’s been ok!

2013

The new album was completed and I arranged for Talking With Strangers to be released in the US by Gonzo Multimedia and they also released the new album Flow and Change for me so that was a majorly Good Thing. We have had lovely reviews for both albums from all over the world (have a look on the reviews page!)

Flow and Change introduced me to more wonderful musicians including Matt Malley (ex Counting Crows) who sang with me on Letters and the fantastic Phil Toms, whose string arrangements on many of the songs were so beautiful…

In July I was asked to play at small festival in Kent, ‘The Summer of Love Party’ and I agreed (Yikes!) So the Judy Dyble Band came into being. Alistair Murphy (keyboards and guitar) Mark Fletcher (bass) Jeremy Salmon (guitars) Phil Toms (more wonderful keyboards) Rachel Canning (violin and flute) (are all violinists called Rachel? J) and eventually but not till later Rich Nolan (percussion)

It was the end of the boiling hot summer and the weather was stiflingly hot till the last song, when it broke down into a massive thunderstorm. I was very pleased not to have been able to see the flash of lightning above the stage…

Nyx the beautiful was gradually becoming less terrified and was happy to stay in the same room as visitors as she gained in confidence. Sadly it became apparent that there was a serious problem with her liver and in October she was gently put to sleep.

Then later in the year we were invited to play at the WMJazz club at the WaterMargin restaurant in the O2 Arena in September and again in December. As quite a lot of people said they couldn’t get to London and we had the facility to record at the venue, we recorded the December performance and have released it in 2014.

In between all this I had recorded more songs for Oliver Kersbergen of Sleepyard,(released on Fuxa’s ‘Dirty D album  and Sleepyard’s ‘Black Sails’) Sand Snowman and Dodson and Fogg

In October I recorded an extraordinary song for Thee Faction called ‘Relentless’ Beautiful dreamy background strings and me singing a rather fierce denunciation of Political Shenanigans for this fine Socialist R’n’B collection of musicians. It was released as an EP with three other tracks under the title of ‘Songs To Remind The Class Of The Glorious Victory To Come And The Work That Must be Done To Get There’

Trailer for Thee Faction EP

So that was interesting…

2014

The year started well and is continuing to do so- another gig for the WMJazz people and 3 other gigs in other places, Nottingham, Norwich and in a Milking Parlour in Oxfordshire,.

 In July we released the Live at WMJazz Cd which has sold well and I am continuing to work on the Anthology which I am hoping to release this year as it will be 50 years since I started making music.

I have been featured on radio4 in a documentary on people and bands who failed BBC auditions J and in a BBC4 documentary on Fairport Convention.

I have been filmed nattering for two forthcoming films on music photographers in the 60’s. Wintersong has been used for a beautiful video by Francesco Paladino and has been entered for an International Film and Music festival in Nepal.

Wintersong Video

.And I have contributed to the Armistice Pals multi-singers version of ‘Where Have All The Flowers Gone’ in aid of 4 anti-war charities. 

Armistice Pals - Where Have All The Flowers Gone

Next up is a gig in a bookshop- The Big Green Bookshop- in Wood Green, London the area where I grew up and first tried out the musical things. On the 17th October.. Yikes! That's next week!
Big Green Bookshop

Oh and by no means least I have had the delight of welcoming the Beautiful Betty Blue (only she’s black and white and spotty rather than blue)  into my life and onto the sofas

Here she is J

It's ready!!! Flow and Change is ready!!

Ahem! Sorry, I've been a bit busy. Again!

But here is news!!!!!!

My new album Flow and Change, is about to be released on the 24th June 2013 (fingers crossed) by the lovely Gonzo Multimedia  people. www.gonzomultimedia.co.uk

It has wonderful people playing on it including Pat Mastelotto, Julianne Regan, Matt Malley and Mike Mooney. It has string quartets and thunder, french horns and cellos, dogs howling and dulcimers as well as many of the great people who played on talking with Strangers, Mark Fletcher and Jeremy Salmon. And not forgetting Alistair (The Curator) Murphy without whom nothing would have happened,. He has co-written and produced and engineered and played many of the instruments while keeping me from imploding at various stages in the creation of this album. Wonderful artwork by Catherine Hyde and two more Jackie Morris images, make it all brilliant. Well I reckon so anyway. And it's mine so I can
You can pre-order it from many places but here's one of them
Amazon - Flow and Change

Hooray!. And about jolly time too.

If you would like to hear an excerpt from one of the tracks- it's here
The Sisterhood of Ruralists (edit)

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!

Crikey! It's nearly July...

Sorry for being so lazy, I forgot about blogging...
News:...
My website has been revamped and made more beautiful

http://judydyble.com/


 and I also now have a link to my very own shop. You can buy either of the versions of Talking With Strangers (the original John Hurford artwork or the Jackie Morris artwork)  and I will send you a card with a message from me. Or you can buy a copy of Fragile the 7" vinyl picture disc (only a very few of these left now) again with a card, but a different one! The shop is here

http://www.judydybleshop.com

and more things will be added as I find them.

New album is getting closer to completion, Pat Mastelotto has added drums, Phil Toms has composed string arrangements for some of the tracks and Steve Bingham and his friends (including the very fine Mr Toms) will be adding proper strings very soon.. Just Mark Fletcher to do his bass bits, and me to redo a couple of the vocals and it will be all systems go for mixing and artwork and mastering and all that malarky..

New manager Paul is being very good and keeping me from falling off the edges by giving me tasks to do. 'Write that!' he cries! 'And write this as well!' he yells! (Not really as fiercely as that, just trying to gain some sympathy for my poor hard done by existence..)

I have a new addition t the household. Nyx the most beautiful black dog (with a few white bits). An ex-racer she is now living in a house for the first time and is trying very hard not to be terrified by the world outside kennels..

At the moment she is asleep on the sofa. Where else would she be?

More updates soon Toodlypip for now :-)