red boots, red guitar

Happy New Year.

I am back in the ‘office’ and raring to go.  

I’ve just tidied up, listening to a programme on radio 4 about internet millionaires… Not dot.com people but the ones that just fill the internet with rubbish like ‘how I lost 12lb in a week’ type ones. I don’t think any of them were in fact millionaires. One had been in prison for growing illegal plants, another had a BMW on HP… and so on.

I’ve got mild lurgy. Nothing serious. Just enough to make me feel a bit sorry for myself and a bit spaced out. It’s dulled my appetite which pleases me a bit. I’ve lost 15lbs. But not because of the lurgy. And not in a week or because I read that woman’s article on the internet. And it’s not a New Year’s resolution or a health kick thing either because none of that works anyway as we all know and who would want to deny themselves of creature comforts when it’s the coldest, darkest, dampest part of the year? Not me. M-o-d-e-r-a-t-i-o-n works sometimes. But not for exercise. Exercise has to be binged on. Half pints and an exercise bike. That’s me nowadays…. Forever actually. 

In my past I’ve been known to do gigs and stuff. I quite liked it but haven’t done much for a bit. I’m not even going to mention the absent thing that I keep apologising for but if you want me to sing in a room near you, you only have to ask. And pay me a bit of course.

I’m going now. I have to post something, pay something, work out how to update my new website, fold and put away some clothes, hoover, take the dog out and wash my hair. 

It’s all go. 

xxx

Good Monday morning to ya. How goes it? Hope you’re all well….

Couple of things. The Leigh Folk club gig is not happening. I was quite looking forward to this one but after poor attendance at other gigs they’ve organised, the people that run the night have decided not to do anymore. Sorry about this – however, I am supporting Eilen Jewell on Saturday night in Chorley which I am very much looking forward to. I opened for Eilen a few years ago in Newcastle and she and her band really are brilliant. Her latest offering Queen of the Minor Key caught my ear when Bob Harris played a track from it on his show a while back. There might be a couple of tickets left here: http://www.mrkite.org/ - and it’s even for a good cause too. Fantastic.

 Now I know I’ve been talking about this forever and a day but the album has been postponed once again. We talked of an October release not that long ago but as it stands the album is still not mastered and there’s no point releasing over Christmas obviously as everyone will be buying Old Spice and Stone Roses tickets off eBay so it looks more like February now. If anyone feels like booking me for a gig to promote the album from February onwards please feel free to get in touch. There will be some bits and bobs appearing soon I hope.Alreet I am off to make a brew and listen to You and Yours as they apparently are going to be talking about some gig/band matching website thing… Could be interesting and will make a change to their usual fuel price whinge or stannah stairlift conman feature. Ever hopeful, me.

Hugs from me and the stinky one.

xxx xxx

Joke by Sarah Taylor (http://www.sarahtaylorart.co.uk)

Q) How do you know somebody has got an iPhone?

A) They tell you

So finally I was able to get a new phone by upgrading online and signing a 72 year contract. I’d left my old phone out in the rain by accident. Let me just tell you I have never ever lost a phone in my life and only ever lost a few umbrellas and a couple of scarves which for a bird that likes to accessorize that’s not bad. I’ve lost my purse once but that was after a rather reckless drinking session in Bolton in my wilderness years which resulted in cadging a lift home in an off duty limo from which I may have taken half a bottle of vodka… Karma is SUCH a bitch….

So when I left the old phone out in the rain ala Macarthur park (karma again – I was smoker at the time) the wifi stopped working on the phone. Given that this was probably my favourite feature of said phone, it rendered it basically shite useless. Them there smart phones with their countless apps are brilliant only if you can access wifi. So now I have wifi again I have a new obsession.

I really quite liked hipstamatic when I first encountered it but couldn’t help think we would all be regretting our obsession with faux vintage filters in a couple of years time when we couldn’t make out the details… Imagine we’ve spent ages waiting for a mobile phone that would give us a camera with decent resolution only to feck it all up with so called ‘filters’. I saw people taking pictures of really precious memories and I panicked on their behalf: ‘you’ll never get that deliberately blurred and over exposed egg and spoon race back my friend!’ These things are ok for being all arty farty but first steps and graduation days are best left clean methinks.

 But anyways, Instagr.am has all the same kind of filter features but also is quite nifty in that it’s kind of like a visual equivalent of twitter in that it does a feed thing so you post pics in real time and can see what everyone else is posting and follow people and like things… If you’re a photographer who needs a kick up the arse, this maybe the thing for you: www.instagr.am and you can see my pics at: http://inkstagram.com/#/users/7127856/photos

 Cooking

Last winter I was home alone and waiting and I stumbled upon Stirrin’ It Up on KRVS. I was waiting to hear a live music broadcast but tuned into this programme just before it and was enchanted. It was a cookery programme unlike so many of the British ones I’ve encountered which seem to be preoccupied with speed, convenience, expensive ingredients and celebrity, this was laid back and revelled in the gorgeousness that is food without trying to over-intellectualise it. The programme is ‘Stirrin’ It Up and the host is Chef John Folse. He is brilliant and I hope that in some small way we can help him realise his dream of taking ‘a taste of Lousiana worldwide’. Cajun food is delicious and 50 people in a village hall in Cumbria this weekend did not disagree. Want to know more? http://jfolse.com/stirrin/index.htm 

Feufollet

Feufollet translates as will o’ the wisp. Mary Chapin Carpenter, Frankie Gavin and De Dannan and Feufollet were the best things at Cambridge.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=451-oUE-3uw&feature=related - Anna Laura Edmiston, possibly the most enchanting front woman around.

So last week I started doing a little mail out thing for anyone who wishes to get a little bit of mail from me. I’m sending out different stuff: mix cds of my favourite songs, my first album, snippets of new stuff, postcards and I even sent someone a twix because I heard them say the wanted one… The only worrying thing is that only one person has said they have received something so far…

Anyway I will be doing this for a couple of weeks just because I think it’s a nice thing to do. I’ve got quite a lot of addresses already but if you want to be considered, there’s still time to email me at: redbootsmusic@yahoo.co.uk - don’t forget to put the subject as: the daily mail just so it goes into the right folder for me.

In other news I am getting on with the new album s-l-o-w-l-y… I am working on the artwork at the moment and Martin is building the big website which should be ready fairly soon. We’re pretty much done with the mixing of the album now too so it’s getting there. I have a couple of gigs lined up too – one that you might be interested in is Bury Met, September 10^th were I will be playing some of the new stuff.

That’s all really.

xx

I went t’ folk festival this weekend in Cambridge. There were a lot of earwigs but no horseflies.

My highlights were Anxo Lorenzo, Frankie Gavin and De Dannan, Feufollet and of course the gorgeous Mary Chapin Carpenter. I really wish that Mary Chapin Carpenter would be my mentor. It would be a dream come true.

You can tell an awful lot about a person by their music collection. The kind of folk that listen to Mary Chapin Carpenter not only know a good tune but they also tend to get ‘it’. They are friends for life.

We bought Feufollet some real ale because I was so shocked to see the drummer drinking a shitty can of Carlsberg.

I got a hug from Mike Galvin from De Dannan. I wanted to give him my Lowden because his had been stolen. He is the best guitarist I have ever seen. The festival couldn’t have ended more perfectly.

This morning as I tried to take a photo of a pig through a gate I got stung on the calf by a horsefly. Again.