I’m typing this in the lounge of a Boston Massachusetts airport. Pauline and I are off on a five week tour of the US.
I’m thinking that if you’re not careful, its easy to get stuck in a rut. All you need to do is not change anything. But as someone once said, a sure sign of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
In January this year I played a show with a harmonica blowing friend. We had fun. It was different. I played old songs that I haven’t played in years like Crush and a large number of brand new songs that I may never play again. It was very intimidating and challenging airing new works that had only seen the four walls of my bedroom previously. I wasn’t comfortable but I wasn’t bored in the least.
Since christmas I’ve moved all my recording gear out of my house into a loft location in the centre of Belfast. It’s a dream come true. I’ve always wanted a place like this. The new location means I’ve had lots more time to experiment and try new things as I’m not trying to avoid annoying my family with noise and endless retakes. I’ve recorded lots of covers of other peoples songs like Bruce Springsteen’s Thunder Road live on Facebook.
In three days last week I recorded an entire albums worth of Hank Williams songs. Just me, my harmonica, guitar and recording machine. On Friday morning I spontaneously called dog house bass playing friend and he agreed to come over Friday afternoon and play bass on the12 songs I’d laid down. HE did an inspiring job. Will it be released? I have no clue.
As some of you know I recorded a worship album of acoustic songs in one day in December. After a lot more tracking I even worked this up into an album and pressed it to CD but haven’t put it out. Folks very kindly donated to help me with this and their contribution gave me great freedom to try something without feeling the pressure to put it out to pay my bills.
Am I struggling with a crisis of confidence or am I simply trying to find my direction? Truthfully I don’t know. I guess I’m trying to find fresh inspiration and I don’t want to repeat what I’ve already done. Hey, I bought a synth. Yikes!!!
All I know is 2018 is the year of new beginnings and I’m certainly looking for one. I’m thinking I’d like to do more acoustic shows and leave the blues trio thing behind for a while. But I may change my mind about that too.
I’m hungry for fresh. I’m hungry for new and I’m as full of energy as I’ve ever been. I’m gonna try to keep you posted as to how we get on on this tour. Will do my best. Thank you for your love and support.
hugs Brian
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