[tboswell]

That's thoroughly charming, Derek 

[Skub]

yo del,i'm diggin. 

[delb0y]

Thanks guys! 

This thread has turned into a bit of a Del's Diary thing. So, writing some thoughts down for me rather than for anyone else, here's some more rambling.

Firstly, I did a gig with my boogie-woogie / swing / rock'n'roll band last night. It went down a storm. The band is so good (even if I say so myself) mainly because all the players are red hot. Only trouble is, it acts like a massive magnet that I can feel pulling me away from the solo finger-picking singer/songwriter stuff that I'm trying to develop. Nothing wrong with that per se. The plan for the acoustic stuff is to get it to a position of readiness for when I'm 60 and (hopefully!) retire, so there's no rush. At 60 I won't be wanting to cart electric guitars and big amps around and scream out rock'n'roll tunes - so some sedate finger-picking blues/ragtime/country will be in order. When I turned 50 I made a 10 year plan to get this acoustic stuff to a state where I could play / sing / write / perform / market / record / entertain to a reasonable local level. I'm less than three years into that plan so time is still on my side but I don't want to lose focus. But damn, that band is so good, and going out with the boys is so much fun, and when the whole room is bopping it's something to behold.

Secondly, I can feel myself weakening in this place too. In fact it's already happened and I realised it snuck on me, blindsided me, if you like. My intention was / is to learn how to write better songs - more specifically with that focus on singer-songwriter solo finger-picking stuff that I can take out and perform on my tod. That's where I started. But you guys are so great at the whole big arrangements thing. There's such inspiring stuff here that it has become as seductive as those night out with the  band. I realise that my last three shared songs have all seen me moving to bigger arrangements, and I've also noticed myself looking on line at loops and samples and... whoah! Hold on there tiger. Back to basics, son.

Thirdly, I'm picking up gigs with other ensembles, too. Couple of duos, and an Americana band. All of which are great fun, and it feels like gigs are coming in weekly. Which is brilliant and I've no intention of stopping them. But again, I find that there's a slight discordant vibration buzzing somewhere inside, that warns me whilst this stuff is great for the here and now, I need to be careful that it doesn't over-power the plan and the good intentions.

That's it. Just a couple of thoughts from me to me on a Saturday morning before I start the chores. As with everything, it's all about balance. It's good to get these thoughts down on 'paper' because it lends them a little clarity. I can see that musically I'm in a good place, have a whole bunch of great musical friends, and audiences and pub/hotel landlords seem to like these various ensembles - which is wonderful. Just need to ensure that I keep enough time back for the ten year plan (and for chores, and family, and the dog!). Plus of course, it's scary, that one day I could back off from all of these other things only to discover that the solo stuff doesn't fly. Ah well, there's always eBay. Then fishing. Hey ho...

Cheers
Derek

[pompeyjazz]

Del's diary is a really interesting read. Keep us up to date Derek. It's really interesting to see all of the angles that people are coming from.

Cheers

John

[delb0y]

Cheers John.

Today's diary entry would be this:

Saturday - spent several hours working on solo fingerpicking guitar
Sunday - mowed the lawn, walked the dog, and spent several hours working up arrangements of Irish songs ready for a gig next Thursday (St Patrick's).

It's been a very guitar orientated weekend 

[delb0y]

I learned a lost from this week's gigs.

Some of it is pure GAS - with me now gassing for a rather expensive acoustic guitar amplifier (I do have an acoustic guitar amp. I don't need another one, especially an expensive one, but...).

I was really pleased with my singing - starting to get a bit of confidence around the vocals now. The work I'm doing in the car on my commute is paying off - but it's still only the first step on a journey of a thousand miles (a bit like my commute).

I'm yet to do a full solo gig (i.e. me, on my own, my own gear, all night, on my own, me...) but I've now done a solo set many times and the confidence is growing that my fingers will do what they're meant to. It's a world away from the first few times I stood up to try solo finger-picking stuff when I figured I couldn't pluck a guitar string to save my life. With that confidence comes the space and time to focus on other things - like engaging with the audience, and improvising, and having a laugh. To get to this stage is, I think, a real milestone.

It's interesting watching other performers, watching the audience watching the performers, figuring out what works, and what doesn't, what I need to add / change / remove. Some of it is venue dependant - whether people are watching / paying attention / talking etc. What works on night # 1 mightn't work on night # 2. But definitely opened my eyes to what I need to do with some of the songs. Which leads me to...

From a song-writing perspective I think I need to write a few more happy songs, some more singalong (or at least less lyrically dependant songs), some songs that just stomp along rather than needing all that clever thumb-picking stuff. I actually have a few of these - at Thursday's night gig, which being St Patrick's night, and in the middle of race week was pretty crazy - we did one of my songs called "I Like To Drink". I guess the title says it all. We have a big piece of card featuring the chorus lyrics and we get someone in the audience to hold it up and everyone (hopefully) sings along (I'll post the song here one of these months). It's basic stuff but probably goes down better than any other of my songs, so a big lesson to learn there.

Hey ho. There it is. Nothing next weekend - I've kept Easter free so as to have a rest. But you never know, if I come up with a singalong song I might sneak out to an Open Mic...

Cheers
Derek

[CaliaMoko]

I don't plan ever to do a solo gig, but I'm working on a solo show (or maybe two) for "some day". I like reading what you're doing, so I hope you keep posting in this "diary" for awhile.

[delb0y]

No gigs this weekend - although I turned one down. I wanted to keep the Easter weekend free to spend with the family. Did take the opportunity to record this little piece. It's all part of the plan - need to get the playing up together as well as the singing and writing and performing. Still a way off were I want to be, but it is edging forward, and this was a fun exercise to work on.

https://youtu.be/4Y8aOrkQ9NU

[delb0y]

Played a little gig up in the Cotswolds last night, lovely little country pub and an excellent night. Great fun, lots of laughs, and I managed to sneak in a few solo pieces amongst the general mayhem of other folks tuning up and getting cramp.

Original song-wise, I played Drag You Back live for the first time and it went down very well - I'm hoping that the folks in the audience swaying gently with their eyes closed were listening intently to the lyrics and following their own memories back in time, rather than falling asleep... Also sang a motorcycle song that I'm yet to post here (again, first time out live for that song), but there were a few riders there so it seemed apt, and I also did my old standard I Learned To Walk.

What's most pleasing of all is that somewhere in the last few months I've gone beyond the point of reticence and nervousness about playing solo and now I just love the opportunity. Still a way to go before I do a whole night of it on my own - but there's no rush (and no PA system either) and I'm currently having a blast being out with the boys.

Still, the plan feels like it's very well on track!

Keep on picking!
Derek

[Skub]

Played a little gig up in the Cotswolds last night, lovely little country pub and an excellent night. Great fun, lots of laughs, and I managed to sneak in a few solo pieces amongst the general mayhem of other folks tuning up and getting cramp.

Original song-wise, I played Drag You Back live for the first time and it went down very well - I'm hoping that the folks in the audience swaying gently with their eyes closed were listening intently to the lyrics and following their own memories back in time, rather than falling asleep... Also sang a motorcycle song that I'm yet to post here (again, first time out live for that song), but there were a few riders there so it seemed apt, and I also did my old standard I Learned To Walk.

What's most pleasing of all is that somewhere in the last few months I've gone beyond the point of reticence and nervousness about playing solo and now I just love the opportunity. Still a way to go before I do a whole night of it on my own - but there's no rush (and no PA system either) and I'm currently having a blast being out with the boys.

Still, the plan feels like it's very well on track!

Keep on picking!
Derek

Go del. 

What's the biker choon,Richard Thompson,Black Lightning,by any chance?

[delb0y]

One of my own, Skub - a cheerful little ditty called Roulette In The Rain. I'll post it up here oen of these days...

[Skub]

Cool.

Sounds like any of the bikes in the 70s I rode,that were the first to get disc brakes. They suffered horrible brake lag in any sort of rain!

[delb0y]

I currently ride a ZRX1200 which looks like a bike from the seventies but has brakes and suspension from the nineties. My dad still goes out on his Velocette 350 once in a while. He tells me he has to start braking today if he wants to slow down for a roundabout tomorrow!

[Skub]

I currently ride a ZRX1200 which looks like a bike from the seventies but has brakes and suspension from the nineties. My dad still goes out on his Velocette 350 once in a while. He tells me he has to start braking today if he wants to slow down for a roundabout tomorrow!

I love my Kawasakis. My first big bike was a 900 Z1 back in 75,I've been through loads of stuff since then,GPZ900r,ZZR1100,ZX9R and currently the one below,an 04 ZX10r. All my money went on bikes and music and her indoors took care of the rest! 



We need a bike thread!

[delb0y]

Went to almost the perfect gig last week. Wizz Jones - one of the original sixties blues / folk acoustic guitar players, from the Bert Jansch / John Renbourne / Davey Graham world. An influence on many of the blues players that came later (Clapton, Keith Richards and others cite him as an influence) Wizz was there right at the beginning when even hearing those old blues records was a task in itself.

The gig was in a little studio room - maybe fifty or sixty people. Me, and the boys in my acoustic trio, were all in the front row (despite staying in the bar until the last moment - Wizz was still in the bar, too, so we knew we didn't have to rush) and I could have reached out and touched his guitar. Wizz played his 1964 Epiphone through an AER Compact 60 (I want one!) but the room was small enough that he could have played and sung acoustically. I love these little gigs - I went to one in Bristol last year to watch Jeffrey Foucault and he actually did sing acoustically at one point.

Wizz plays a finger-style thumb-picking folk blues style. Charming, a great story-teller, a brilliant picker and a fine singer. Lovely songs, too.

But there was a surprise, too. Wizz had been recording a CD with Pete Berryman in London and Pete was on his way back to Cornwall - so he stopped by to play a few tunes, both solo and with Wizz. I have a number of Pete Berryman CDs so it was a lovely addition to the gig.

I got to speak to both performers after, and shake their hands - just on the off-chance some of the magic rubs off!

As an aside, at half-time someone sought me and the boys out to tell us how much he enjoyed our gig at a wine bar a few weeks back. So we have a fanbase of one, thus far    He did say that he understood why I was there - he said "Wizz is clearly your boss." He's not wrong.

Next week it's back to performing again. Three gigs - one on Saturday and two on Sunday. Looking forward to it. Must go and learn some songs...