Westy’s Blog

26Mar2019Blog, News

Update

It’s been a while since I posted, and I have no real excuse… Folks that have been following on Instagram have been getting the most spoils, and there’s a column feature from my instagram feed on the right of the blog page (or scroll down if you’re looking at this on a mobile phone).

Basically, I decided I wanted to try and master one platform at a time, and specifically Instagram, though I’m beginning to conclude that social media probably is better tackled en-masse with more automated tools. I didn’t want to succumb to the ‘bots’ just yet, and wanted to try and engage with my audience, which with IG has been quite successful, I think.

Anyway, with my upper arm injury taking a while to heal properly, I’ve had to kerb the gigging for a while and it felt better therefore to concentrate on recording songs. This is something I can do in short bursts, and I can rest the arm if it’s beginning to cause problems.

Just this last week or so I have been recording a new song, called Whispers of Home. It’s a bit of a homecoming song, with my guitar tuned to a weird drop C ‘Joni-style’ with some lovely ‘sus’ chords I haven’t the brain to figure out yet (!!). I’ve enlisted the services of Emily Dolan Davies again, who’s come back to me with a really superb set of drum stems…. 46 in all… including layers of percussion with every shaker she could find, tambourines, and some over-dubbed brush snare parts too! Fantastic work, and I can’t wait to get this one out there. I’m still looking for a bass player for this, and will keep you posted on when this happens.

Toodle-pip. Stay creative, folks!

8Nov2018Video

Sound Screen

Westy

Throwback Thursday… it’s been a year since I planned and built what I now call the Sound-Screen. Around that time, I made an attempt to do some kind of explanatory video, but suffer – as many people do – from the dreaded “erms”… you’ll see from the amount of dialogue cuts in this clip. Anyway… here’s a slicker edit of that epic fail, and here’s hoping it’ll inspire someone hoping to build a home studio on a budget…

Sound Screen

11Sep2018Blog, News

Pickles Fest

Westy

This was a long standing invite from old friends \’Red\’ and Heather Pryce, for their Annual festival in Cenarth, near Cardigan, in West Wales. Because of the overly hot summer, this had been cancelled from it\’s original July date, because fire-risk (and lack of water supplies in case of fire) had prevented the Festival from going ahead.

Anyway, on the back of my successful gig at Electric Cabaret, Claire and I planned to do the five hour drive South West-wards, plus dog Sophie, as we were going to stay with Pat and Chris, Heather\’s parents, afterwards. I\’d planned for an early start, as this would give us plenty of time for stops, dog walks, and chance to stop at Pat and Chris\’s, freshen-up, and upload some of the gear from the car. At least, that was the plan…

First of all, as I went to fill up the car, I noticed we had a puncture. \”No worries,\” I thought, as there\’s a tyre repair station in our village. Luckily, it opens at 8am, and it was just 8:02. Anyway, within just over half an hour, I was filling up with fuel, but also, having to re-pressurise my tyres, as the repairers had more-than over-inflated my newly fixed tyre…

It was now 9am. I get home to find Sophie has diarrhoea, and won\’t eat. We have a ritual where I give her dog treats to encourage her to eat something, and then, after her stomach settles, she\’ll eat something. Today it wasn\’t going to work. So, by 9:45, we decide to set off, wondering if we were due for \’doggie accidents\’ on the way. Fortunately for us, she settled.

Driving rain for most of the journey made this trip arduous, as well as slow. We find out after ringing Chris, that my set has been brought forward to 15:50, and I\’m first on stage. We finally arrived at 15:25. Enough time for me to carry gear to the stage, to do a quick sound check, and then start playing.

Again I kept my set short, and though I could have had 45 minutes I ended at 35. My arm had had enough, what with all of the driving as well. Lovely to catch up with our friends and watch the other acts, some very talented performers, including Big Joe Bone, and of course Red\’s own band: Red and the Hogweeds.

2Sep2018Blog

Electric Cabaret

Westy

Despite the injury, the physiotherapy is helping enough for me to continue to do short sets like the 30 minute one at Electric Cabaret at the Old School House, Barnsley, an extension of ‘Cabaret Doonican’, run by the enigmatic Scott Doonican of the Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican. Usually, the night is split to allow four acts to perform a half hour set each, and a donations box provided fro the audience to contribute towards their appreciation of the acts performing, which is divided up at the end.

All I can say is, I’m pleased the set wasn’t any longer. By the end of the last song, my upper arm was extremely painful and stiffening up. But enough moaning… I’m happy I can still play at all!

Very grateful to those who turned up to support me, including my wife Claire, who took some video (coming soon), and Dave Wilde of Wilde Sammon, and grateful too for all the help and encouragement with my set, including Scott, and Marcus, who really does a great job behind the mixing desk, making everyone sound as good as can be, plus a shout out to Amanda (Scott’s other half) for divvying-up the proceeds at the end.

Hope to do another one soon!

9Aug2018Blog, News

Arm Injury

Westy

With Cabaret Doonican next on my schedule, and an invite to Pickles Fest in Cardigan, Wales, soon after, I go and injure my right arm…

Caused (I think) by my overexcited Old English Sheepdog, Sophie, tugging a bit too hard on the lead one day, the arm has steadily been getting worse and worse. Just pain and stiffness in the arm and shoulder, especially at night. So, interrupted sleep, and just the general fatigue that goes with any lingering pain or injury.

It’s now so bad, I’ve had to not play guitar at one concert, where instead I just sang over some backing tracks, and though this went down pretty well, I’m now concerned about how long I will need to rest the arm in order to heal properly.

My GP says it’s classic ‘tennis elbow’, which I had four years ago, and gave me some basic tennis elbow exercises. They worked to a point. However, to me, this is different. Most of my pain is in the upper arm, and not just on and below the elbow joint like before. This has been extremely aggravated by my ‘percussive’ style of strumming, together with the tendon-strain of fingerpicking.

Anyway, after suffering with this for three weeks, I’ve booked some private physiotherapy sessions to try and sort the problem. I’ve seen my new physio coach, Shane, and he’s given me some exercises for the muscles and tendons to perform that will hopefully sort this out. Day three now and it’s already eased it enough for me to get a good night’s sleep.

I’ll keep you posted.