March has been and gone-
I had a great few days on the road with Karen Chalk- gigging in Brighton and Bournemouth. We drove through brilliant sunshine, rain, hail and snow all in the space of a few hours, managed to hook up with some other excellent artists and interesting folk on the way and indulged ourselves in cream teas in the oh so fine town of Chichester (not very rock n roll I know but very delicious!) Bournemouth was a particularly fun evening dedicated to female singer songwriters run by the Solid Air promoters- There was real variety in the line up including a snazzy harmonica player called Si who I got up to jam with us in our final song Find Me- he was excellent and I must admit to feeling a little disappointed when I had to return to my own harmonica playing for that song in my next gig!- The Green Note in London was packed- great venue and a great atmosphere that night- I was particularly impressed with the guitar skills of Canadian born Damien Etherington who was on after me that night...

April-
Radio sessions on BBC Wales where I managed not to say anything too ridiculous live on air and got to play 4 songs... Easter was very relaxing and then I spent the following weeks helping Bill paint a 160foot Mural in a primary school- arms and back have been aching ever since as we were painting from 8-5 each day- it's looking good though...
The Zac's Place benefit gig this Friday went well- It was really nice to have Bill back on stage with me and we also got to play some songs from his new album Scratch The Sky... Speaking of which we are expecting that to be with us as of tomorrow- very exciting... Bill's website is still under construction but in the meantime you can check out his myspace- www.myspace.com/sirsilenceandthehush

Off to London to play at the Perseverance on the 24th and Birmingham to play the Sunday Sessions this week... and then will be in the Studio over May- at present I am wrestling over which songs to work on as I have a big back catalogue as well as some new material and of course I just want to work on them all!

Gigs and reviews

Some interesting gigs lately... The Go Club in Birmingham definitely deserves a mention for being one of the most bizarre nights I've had in a long time! No promoter and no sound technician so I ended up doing sound for the other band- Small Existence (an acoustic indie/ rock trio) and they for me. there was also a confusion in who was supporting who- I thought I was meant to be on before them but they thought the opposite- I discovered this when I thought I was sound checking them and they had suddenly started their set! All of this to a friendly but minuscule audience- one member who drunkenly shouted his appreciations all though both sets- It was one of those nights where you just have to enjoy yourself regardless- and hey I got to play a nice long set too! Small existence were a good and solid band with some interesting arrangements and loads of energy- nice lads too-

Completely different sort of gig last week on St Davids Day as I was able to accompany Bill into a local primary school to do workshops and sessions- Very Fun! We created a 12 bar blues jam on a song bill had written about St David and recorded all the kids performing it. Sometimes it is just so nice to not focus on me and my music and remember what a gift the whole process of creativity is and should be...

Fantastic review came in today from Spiral Earth- also a great website- check it out
www.spiralearth.co.uk

And finally... This week looking forward to opening for The Queensbury Rules in Pontardawe, and off to see the iconic Joan Baez with Bill on Thursday!

Feb- gigs next week- and Megan

So it's February already - A couple of gigs next week- one in London Feb 13th at The Twist and one in Birmingham at the Go Club Feb 16th (see my gig page on my website or myspace for more info) I just found out that i'm sharing the bill in london with an old friend of mine from years ago when we were both based in Watford for a season- her name is Sarah Hamlin and she has a stunning voice and writes beautiful songs- so I'm particularly looking forward to that one...

January gigs were great fun- all really different venues but I'm hoping to get back to all of them sometime in the not too distant future- especial thanks to all who came out for them and particularly braving those storms on the 18th- That was a nightmare journey getting into London from Colchester- roads were closed, lorries over turned and what should have taken an hour and a half took 4 and a half hours!

But the real highlight of the last few weeks has of course been Megan the puppy- who has turned our lives upside down- sleepless nights- cleaning up poo and watching puppy training videos! (I take my hat off to all of you out there who have kids- how do you cope with the sleep deprivation-) but she's so damn cute and look I'm so damn sappy writing about her here... see pic...

I also saw a fantastic film the other night- Little Miss Sunshine- one of the best movies i've caught in a long time...

Listening to a lot of Bonnie Prince Billy- was sorry to have missed his recent tour dates...

And Bill's Scratch the Sky album has been mixed by Mr Martyn Joseph- who has done a great job with it- so watch this space and we'll let you know when that's all official...

October/November

October has been a busy month- Really enjoyed the trip to Belgium with Martyn Joseph. Met lots of lovely folk, ate and drank very well, (the first night I was there a lady named Rosemarie gave me a bottle of champagne- and that was before I’d even sung anything!- I could definitely get used to that!!) We were looked after by some fantastic hosts and the gigs were in such great little clubs- oozing with character… but I left the tour early to be at my other brothers wedding (as a bridesmaid) this time in Liverpool. A really beautiful day and good also to hang out with my Aussie brother Kim and his new wife Kate- (they did the same as me in August and just came over for a week- and spent most of the time empathizing with the jet lag situation- oz is just so damn far away!) After that was a brief excursion to Loughborough and Barton on Humber for some gigs, unfortunately by that time I’d managed to come down with a flu type virus and had to croak my way through the sets sipping hot honey and lemon on stage just to cap my already un-rock'n' roll persona off!

So now heading into November and the main project is getting demos and recording underway for a new album- at last!! I’ve spent a lot of time doing first sketches on our home studio the last few days- and hope to put some demos on line in the next weeks and months. We have also finished recording Bill’s album and are now into mixing it- I think it’s great and am very excited about its release next year.
Listening to the new Ani Difranco CD Reprive, and The Be Good Tanyas, Hello Love and Lou Rhodes Beloved One. Finished Haruki Murikami’s Wind up Bird Chronicle and Paulo Coelho’s The Zahir –And looking forward to seeing my friend Mr Duke Special on Jools Holland on the 3rd of Nov! (now a few days post that event and he was great!)- Oh yeah and any time this week the new puppy that we are about to own is being born! A chocolate Labrador- how fun!