January blues

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Sorry I’ve been a bit quiet.

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My right shoulder hurts a lot when I move my arm and of course when I play guitar so I’ve been writing a lot, putting together the next release (end of the month, more soon) and trying to organise some concerts. I hope to feel a lot better by the time the first comes around at the end of the month. I mean, I can play but it’s uncomfortable.

I also have tennis elbow in my left arm and you can imagine how much tennis I play.

In regards the booking shows thing - I would really appreciate some help or ideas with that.

Anyone else have the January blues heavy as a fucking mountain or is it just me?

Moving

I’m moving house this weekend - not leaving the town I’ve been living in for the past couple of years and only relocating a little further up the street - but moving my camp and my sleeping place just the same. It seems I have somehow accumulated a lot of objects which I’ve spent the past few days trying to pack into weak, tired boxes. I was advised not to move them, but the time it would take to sort through everything is so much more than the minutes it takes to simply pack them into the boxes. It’s books, leaves of paper, boxes from valuable phones and audio devices - non specific stuff for the most part. I thought I was simpler than this.

Aside from this physical move I’ve also been moving digital materials from one place to another - building a basic site here that I hope to be able to manage and call my home on the web. I’ve done this before a few times but in recent weeks, and for reasons unknown to me, Facebook has flagged my web site as being against their community guidelines and simply erased hundreds of posts, photos, videos and messages from their Facebook and Instagram platforms. I am bewildered by this and am trying to get the flag removed, but in the meantime I think I would rather spend my efforts keeping anyone that’s interested in my music updated through other channels. Simpler channels. Things like a mailing list and this blog. So here we are.

I appreciate it doesn’t have the bells and whistles or the sheen of social engagement that we’re used to - it’s less public and perhaps less sexy to some people. But I’ve never been so comfortable with the constant twice a day posting habits that I’m told is essential for ‘putting your music out there’. I like to write these songs, I like even more to go and play them to people. I’m not educated in social media marketing but in recent years, and in weird flashes of delusion, I’ve often believed that I could be. It’s not true and it doesn’t come easy to me.

Like everyone I used to keep a blog. Over on my Tumblr there’s dozens of posts I wrote when I first started playing concerts in Europe. I’m going to transfer them over here soon, people have told me they used to enjoy reading them. That means the world to me as they were fun to write and even more fun to live.

Anyhow, I’m rambling. I had some clever idea about how I was moving and this is a new home and all that, but it’s not really. It’s just the stuff that’s necessary to making work but I hope it can be a bit quieter and more personal.

So, hard sell - please join my mailing list . I will send emails every month or so, it will include music just for you, news about shows and the such and I like it very much when people write back to me.

Otherwise, please check back here every now and then. I’ll post as often as I have half a thought or a scrap of something I’d like to share.

Be well,

Stephen