Spontaneous music making in the living room

Hello friends,

Staying at Henk's pad has meant that live inspired original music flows like wine in an alcoholics wet dream. It's a place where singer songwriters share their wares, not in competition with each other, but in support of each others talents.

The sun was shining bright and although I still had illness in my bones I needed to get out in that sunshine and soak up some vitamin D. Beauty and I had been tasked with doing some gardening, and this was the perfect opportunity to get hands dirty and weeds rooted out. So we took to the garden and started de-rooting.

From up on Henk's balcony, we started to hear voices, which was quickly changed to music, sweet music. Henk was playing guitar with Monique (another great singer/songwriter from Utrecht), and the kids were playing percussion. We went up to join them, and after a quick shower to get all the mud off, we were in and joining in the musical explosion. I would put up a video of our work, but I haven't got approvals to do that so I wont.

Shortly after that came to end, Roy Schneider and Kim Mayfield arrived. They are amazing musicians from Florida, only visiting Utrecht for a day and night before going to play a gig in Den Haag. They had to go and see Utrecht (it would be a crime not to), but they were around for the evening. We decided to have an impromptu singer songwriter circle round at Sylvia's house.

So, Roy, Kim, Henk and myself (later joined by Herijo and Sylvia) sat in a weirdly shaped circle and started to play songs to each other, one by one, going around the circle, with improvised backing for each song by the other members of the circle. I recorded most of the evening on my laptop, and once I've cut it up I might release some of it as a podcast. It's been a long time since I've done a proper podcast (since Products of Monkey Love fizzled out last year), so, if I can get it all together properly then there will be a Singer Songwriter circle from Utrecht podcast coming soon...watch this space (not literally though, this space is just a blog on the internet and it will unlikely change unless the thought police force me to change it, but if that happens they would demand I remove the bit about the thought police, so only this pointless aside would be removed).

With the recent loss of Steve Jobs, my macbook has been feeling sad, so it has been harder to get my musical works done. My ambition often exceeds my grasp, but, I guess that's what keeps me driving forward, even if hardly anyone listens to my music, or reads my blog, or gives two flying shits if I was to live or die. Just so you know, I love you, and a big thanks to you for actually reading this, you have a skill that few seem to possess and you should cherish it. Most people have the ability to hear, but very few ever actually listen.

Me at Trippers Corner back in April

Peace and infinite love

Andy x