I had a lovely email today from a lady called ‘Joelle’, the assistant producer of a daytime music show called ‘Radio Paradiso‘ on RSR La 1ère which appears to be Switzerland’s equivalent of BBC Radio 1.
It seems they have been playing my music a bit and are wondering if I might pop by to play for them on their show next time I come to play in Switzerland.
Wow.
Anyone got any thoughts on venues to play in Switzerland?!?
I love The Forest. A lot. A lot a lot.
On a number of occasions over the last ten years ago being able to go and hide there whilst freaking out in Edinburgh during the festival has kept me on the rails; and it still makes the best veggie/vegan burrito I have tasted.
It has grown a lot over the last ten years; once a small cafe tucked away off the Grassmarket, it is now occupies pretty big premises just by the student union and is a hub of all things I cherish. I have had the privilege of playing there many times as bassist with The Jonny Berliner Band, performed solo once and recently took my lovely band there.
I am truly honoured to have a track on it’s tenth birthday compilation ‘forest-records-presents-x’ and over the moon that they have chosen ‘Roses From Africa’.
More info here – http://forestrecords.org/forest-records-releases/forest-records-presents-x/ or have a listen below:
I have got back from spending the most divine three days with the band in an enchanted music studio tucked inside a mill in deepest sunniest norfolk. You can see the studio’s site here but it really does not do justice to the place.
Here is a little live take of us all singing the Ballad Of Hawkwood
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There are loads of photos knocking about which I will post as they land in my inbox.
Barbara took this one of me emerging from the gimp-like vocal booth after the last take of the sessions and was able to email it to me straight away from her hi tech new phone so I thought I would post it up now.
A few years ago I uploaded my first album ‘Only The Missile’ to a load of different websites connected with the Creative Commons movement.
The simple plan was, any website which was forward thinking enough to know what creative commons licenses were seemed like a good place to have my music.
Fast forward a few years and I am still very happy to have all my music released using the cc license ‘BY-NC-SA‘ and have had some lovely little moments such as today when I discovered that I have reached the top of the pile on Audiofarm.
‘These Days’ is featured in their most popular tunes by month and day despite my having added the song nearly two years ago which had led to a few new faces finding out about my music – welcome to you!
Screenshot of Audiofarm taken today featuring three of my songs.
Whilst it is nice to get to the top of the pile in this pretty democratic way it is worth mentioning that I am definately in the minority as a male folk artist singing in english using creative commons licenses for my music – so it is quite a small pile to get to the top of! (… so much cc licensed music seems to be electronica or kraut rock!)
‘These Days’ is on Jamendo’s playlist of the week – http://blog.jamendo.com/2010/05/28/playlist-of-the-week-10/ – happy days
A lovely recent review of ‘strangers with shoes’ here – http://commonfolkmeadow.wordpress.com/.
BBS radio in California have selected a few of my tunes in a recent playlist – http://bbsradio.com/ as have ‘Baie des anges’ in France – http://baiedesangesradio.eg2.fr/ – as has ‘The social media podcast’ in Austrailia – http://socialmediapod.squarespace.com/ and there was a podcast from Germany too but I’ll be buggered if I can remember what it was!
Lastly a big shout out to ‘Fresh Air‘, the Edinburgh student radio station for being the first UK station to playlist me. Happy days and good luck with your dissertation Chris!
…this made me smile…
On Friday 12th March 2010, Robin Grey and The Looking Glass Band present an evening of music featuring the talents of
Barbara Bartz on violin
Iain Macleod on banjo
Amy Bowles on bass
Joe Allen on percussion
Ben Oliver on keys
with support from Theo Bard
…think candles, cake and acoustic music.
Tea by Pukka and Yogi Chai, Banana Cake by Whole Foods and Vegan Truffles by Booja Booja
Facebook page is here.
Unit C, 25 Belfast Road, Stoke Newington, N16 6UN – from 8pm
Tree design by Caitlin Hinshelwood
It is with sadness that I learnt of the death of Mark Linkous today – some of the music he recorded as ‘Sparklehorse’ provided much inspiration for me.
Below is a cover of one of his songs ‘Happy Man’ I recorded a few years ago with Iain Macleod on banjo. Aplogise for the slight american twang in my delivery, I was still finding my voice back then!
http://pitchfork.com/news/38114-rip-sparklehorses-mark-linkous/
organic nation have my music on their latest videocast. happy days.
