Orkney Blues Festival: End of the ferry tour, 2007

So, the 2007 Ferry Tour is over. Ireland, Shetland, Orkney. Three great festivals, all required ferry trips. Odd how that all came about, but there you go.

As always I had a great time in Orkney. All kidding about seasickness aside, I love getting to the ferry terminal and the natural conversations that happen with people getting set to make the crossing. And once there, it's so much like being home for me that I find myself just relaxing in ways I'd forgotten about.

The festival was a great time. Two gigs, one at the Stromness Hotel and the other at the Ferry Inn. It was a chance to try out all the new material from my solo CD and check reactions. Also had a chance to hang out with Gerry Jablonski and Kate, Dave Amos and the tribe and a raft of other old friends.

Gerry, in particular, was in killer form. I think the gig of his at the Standing Stones was one of the best I've seen. Got a chance to see a couple of other bands as well- BlueBelly, Mean Business. Great weekend of music, sad to leave. Thanks to Walter, Graham and all the organizers for all the hard work in making this happen. If you see them, pat 'em on the back because they sure do deserve it.

Oh, on an odd note- take a couple of aging die-hard guitar players like Gerry and I and put them together over beer, and what do we talk about? Women? Wild Parties? Nope. We talked for a long time about how heavy our PA's are. If that's not a sign of the times, I don't know what is. I'm still laughing......

Joey Fender take 2

Blues for my Brother, Anchorage Alaska November 10, 2007?

Yeah, Joey is up for this. It's a huge party now. Better start banking sleep!


Note added: Man, I woke up laughing this morning. I spent way too much time on the phone with Joey last night getting caught up. It's like talking to my kid brother, with tatoos and profanity. This is really going to be a great gig, you sure don't want to miss this one!

Orkney Blues Weekend

Everything you need to know is right here

So great to see this festival back on-line again! I have a feeling it's going to be fun. Check out the schedule and come by and see me!

3 SONGS A WEEK

That's my goal.


Three songs a week between now and November. I already have a bunch of new stuff for the band to work through (and the problem is time right now), but you can't ever have enough. Plus, there's always these ideas kicking around that need to be put on paper. Is it an arbitrary exercise, or a recognition that this is probably the number of throw-away songs that happen in the course of a day, and what I'm after is capturing at least a little more of it.

Stay tuned. I did write two songs this weekend, and I'm off to write down the 3rd. So it can be done, and it's only Sunday...

re-thinking my pa

OK, I'm tired of all the heavy lifting. Time for the heavy speakers to go, the only thing they ever amplify is my voice and an acoustic guitar. for most of the rooms where I need a PA I can make do with something really tiny. And light, light weight is the key.

So, the agony of not having any place to try this stuff in Aberdeen. It's not like you can just order off the web and be happy. I need to amplify my lap acoustic, but retain all the detail and clarity that I hear in the guitar. It's no small task. Great sound, light weight.

All I know is this- I need to get this worked out because my wife is sick to death of hearing me drone on and on about cabinets and power amps....

Final BFMB Line-Up

It's all settled now, here's who'll be there, the Saturday of Veterans Day Weekend in November:

Headliner: Bob Hall, amazing boogie-woogie keyboard player, one of the best in the business in fact. Played with everyone. It's going to be a great non-stop dance till you drop thing.

Melissa Bledsoe Fisher and the band. What can I say here? She's a favorite of mine, a great blues player and she brings that ultra-hip jazzy edge to things.

Lulu Small and the Aquanets. The best all-grrrl band in the business, killer harmonies, great playing and style baby. Brace yourselves.

Monica Lettner and the band- a partial reprise of the golden days of Killer Rabbit, Moni has grown to be an international headliner on her own, just back from a headline tour of Italy.

Bob Parsons- smooth, cool Bob opens things up with some solo jazzy blues guitar.

There may be a rare appearance by Joey Fender? Will wonders never cease?

Oh, yeah, I'll have my trio there too. All new material you guys haven't heard yet, all solid dance stuff. So, once again, it'll be a great night of dancin, drinkin, and singin.

And, as always, the big monster jam at the end.

Tickets go on sale soon....

As if we didn't have enough wrong in the world...

Southwest Airlines has declared war on attractive women passengers. Here's a picture of Kyla ebbert, dressed EXACTLY the way she was dressed the day Southwest Airlines attempted to get her off a flight because f the way she was dressed. They don't seem too worried about beating the living crap out of my luggage, or on-time departures. They don't seem to care about much these days. But they did make a mess of poor Kyla's trip.

For my money, she doesn't dress any differently than any college girl or young woman travelling on other airlines. Hang your head in shame, Southwest. Worry about getting your planes out of the gate on-time and getting my suitcases to me and having your gate-agents behave like members of the human race.

Until then, I'm not flying with you guys anymore. Take that!

Getting ready for Orkney

Man, do I ever love the Islands here. First Shetland, now back home to Orkney in a couple of weeks.

My friend Chris Simmonds described Orkney as a magical place several years ago, and he couldn't be more correct in my book. From the Stenis Stones to the Historical sites and the Twatt church, I love goin to Orkney.

Expect some new songs, including one or three that I wrote on the Shetland Ferry- really new songs. Some stories to tell, some friends to get caught up with.

Ahhh, what a great life. And the weather? A little rain is great with me. I'm an Alaskan, and if you need some persoective on my definition of bad weather, go read 'To Build a Fire' by Jack London

But I digress- looking forward to seeing some old friends, playing some music and drinking some beer and sitting in at the jam. See y'all soon...

why I love my life.....

I know lots of cool people
I go to great places
I'm from Alaska, so I'm ready for everything.
I can hold my alcohol
Seasick? Me?

And, for some reason, I have an amazing wife that puts up with me.

Some Shetland Jam Photos

These just in from Dave Arcari, Saturday jam action photos.....

Shetland Blues Festival

Man, just off the boat back from Shetland from the blues fetival, what a great time had by all!

Jimmy and Steve met all the travelling bands at the Ferry terminal on Thursday night to escort us on the boat (and make sure none of the sea-sick prone muso's could bail at the last minute). It was a great ride up, about 12 hours on the ferry and a smooth crossing. As you might guess, the bands closed down the bars on the ship.

I didn't get too much of a chance to touch base with the other guys till the ride home, playing 4 gigs in 3 days to crowds of great people in different rooms all over the island. Weather was kicking, just like being back in Alaska again for the summer. I think the others would have described it as cold and wet. I was looking for the sunscreen.

Had a great jam on saturday afternoon with Sandy Tweedale and Dave Arcari in the Lounge in Lerwick, a real relaxed time with beer and tunes. Nice folks there too.

Hmm, the one thing I was glad I had, well, two things? A mobile phone and a GPS to navigate with. Tools of the trade in this day and age. Lots of unmarked roads. Good phone coverage, however.

Couldn't have had a better time. Shoot, one of the organisers even moved back in with his mother so my wife and I could have the run of his house. Is that awesome or what?

Phew. Back to the big city and the crowds and congestion. I can see why people live there. Thanks guys! Let's do it again!

Bellrock blues, Day 2

Life is like one of those animal shows on discovery channel. Sometimes you ride the rhino, and sometimes you get your jeep knocked around. Sunday the jeep took a beating.

I'm not sure what the deal was, but it all started to go sour with a broken string on my lap steel on the first song. From there, the rest of the first set was dogged by PA problems, and even after completely rewiring the cables it was still dodgy. So, I dod the only thing I could think of, and that was point the monitor out at the folks in the bar (it was the one working speaker) and carry on.

For some reason it all cleared up for the second set. And I touched nothing to make that hapen, just switched everything on again, and off we went.

Oh well. I got a chance to try out some new songs, a couple of odd guitars. All fine. So, thanks t those of you that stuck with us through all this! Great weekend all in all, and the fish-n-chips in Arbroath is worth the drive alone.

Bellrok Blues Festival, Day 1

Well, we're one day into the Bellrock Blues festival. Thought I'd write a bit before heading back to Arbroath for my last solo slot.

It's been an interesting festival. It's a different feel from the former Smokie Blues, and I can't quite put my finger on it. But that said, it was an odd experience being on my way to a gig for an 11 am downbeat. I think we playwed well,. Mike Oxley, covering for Dino, in particular, did a stellar job, and it was a great chance to try some new stoff on the fly.

From there we packed up, finishing at 1 and me scrambling over to the Newgate bar to get set up for a 2 pm gig. Talk about a panic- lots of traffic, impossible parkin situation and one-way streets. Wasn't sure that I'd make it. But Mike, sensing the stress level, volunteered to help me get there and settled before heading for home. Talk about a friend, someone that will sacrifice a sunny day to help you move gear. What can I say but thanks Mike!

Newgate was a great time, once the football match was over. Nice to get a chance to play a solo show that's more than one set long! It was also the first time I've been able to play lots of the new solo stuff for y'all in a sitation where the acoustics and the PA were up to the task. I ended up in the sidewalk for about a half-hour playing and warming up, talking to the smokers, while we all wated for the football to end.

And then off to the Station Bar for a second 2-hour show. I like that little pub, it's hard to set up there, but you jam 100 blues lovers in there and it's a rockin good time. That show was over before I knew it.

So, 3 down and one to go. As promised I'll play some different stuff at the Newgate this afternoon, more of the new solo stuff. Grab a bottle of sun tan lotion and head on over! I'm starting at 1 pm, and there will be pleanty of time to enjoy a cold beer and some warm sunshine.

OK, gotta run!

some Larne images....

Some photos from the Chaine Music web site. What a great time!

some Larne images....

Some photos from the Chaine Music web site. What a great time!

Blues Hall of Fame

Well, this is cool. Got this in the mail today, here's the key details, but the rub is that I'm now a blues hall of fame'r. Today is one of those days where it's good to be me!

Thanks for the honor guys...

-------------------------

Hello Son Henry,

This is Johnny Mannion Blues Hall Of Fame® Ambassador at Large.

It is with great pleasure that I inform you that you have been inducted into the Blues Hall Of Fame® as Ambassador to Alaska.

We welcome you to the BHF family and invite you to become involved in the BHF. You were nominated for Ambassador and your nomination went before the BHF Ambassador Board of Directors. You received the unanimous yes vote required for ambassadorship. Congratulations.

Congrats,


Johnny Mannion

Big time in Larne

First Chaine Folk and Blues Festival is now just an aftershock after the big rumble. What a great shakin time it was, and never mind the weather.......

So, we left town Friday night and drove to a hotel close to the ferry terminal to be ready to catch an early ferry the next morning to Ireland. Picture a van with an Alaskan, and Englishman and a Scotsman all unsure of the need for a passport when getting off the ferry. Talk about an interesting conversation, it was like that millionaire game show where your last lifeline is phoning a friend. We did finally get the answer, it's a little embarassing how many people we needed to call to get a definitive one!

But, be that as it may, we made it. Plenty of time, ferry crossing was a snap and it was a short hop to the venue and the hotel.

Thanks to all of you that came to my workshop on slide guitar. I hope that you goet something of value from it. I know I enjoyed hanging out with you all and talking guitars and slide technique.

The gig? Great fun, and we did over-run the curfew by a *bit* I supose. But hey, what were they going to do, arrest all of us that were making too much noise?


See y'all next year. In the meantime, keep in touch!

Goin Back to Alaska!

Yeah, it's true, but only for a visit!

Plans are coming together for this years Blues for my Brother benefit for the Brother Francis Shelter. The show will be November 10, starting around 7. I'm not giving anything away at this point, but it sure is going to be a good show. Spread the word!

Ireland, here we come!

Off to the Chaine Folk and Blues festival in Larne real soon. It's our first trip to Ireland, and I've always wanted to go there. Am I excited about this? Yeah!

The Festival Web Site is here: http://www.chainemusic.com/index.cfm

As part of the festival I'll be doing a lap steel and slide guitar workshop at 2:30 on Saturday the 18th. Check the festival web site for the location. For all you guitar players it'll be a change to pull apart some of the the basics of electric slide guitar, in the styles of Elmore James right through to Duane Allman.

See ya'll there, be sure and say hi!

No bike blues

image sez it all......

Blues Matters Burnley Review

From the June/July issue of Blues Matters Magazine, one of our favorites, a review of the set we played at the Burnley National Blues Festival:

We headed upstairs to the auditorium in time for the main stage program, which began with the Son Henry Band. Son heralds from Alaska and is now living in Scotland from where he has recruited a powerful rhythm section. Together they have formed a unique sound, mainly down to Son's first choice of instrument; the lap steel guitar. The Blues they played were authentic stomping down and dirty and the slide threw in a different dynamic, at times having the force of a sledgehammer and at others a melodic subtlety. A couple of highlights were Muddy Waters 'I can't be satisfied' and a stunning rendition of 'Voodoo Chile'. We must get to see them again

Thanks Tony and Sue! Glad you enjoyed the set, and we'll cross paths again real soon....

in mid compostion.....

Ever wonder what it looks like? This is the look of intense creativity that you get in mid-song. Strange face, no?

Blues for my Brother, Nov, 2007

My annual benefit for the Brother Francis Shelter in Anchorage Alaska is going to happen this year. There were some doubts and concerns, but I think we have it nailed. As you might guess, Alaska is a hard place to be homeless. This is a worthy cause, and this year we'll be gathering a collection of local and international people to the same stage for a couple of great nights of music!

It's going to be a big blow-out, partially to make up for last year, but mostly because we can. The Saturday of Veteran's Day weekend will be the main show, with a smaller acoustic show at the Marsten Theater on Friday night.

So far, Bob Hall the brittish piano legend has agreed to headline. More bands and performers to be announced. Stay tuned there. And if you're interested in performing, drop me a line!

Big show, really big show....

airport blues

There's nothing like a long plane trip to make running into unexpected security hassles seem worse. So, this will serve as a warning that if you're flying to Atlanta with a guitar you need to either plan on entering the US somewhere else, or be sure your guitar goes as carry-on luggage.

I have ma acoustic guitar with me, it rides around in a really serious hard shell case. Indestructible. That means I can check the guitar and know that if I see it on the baggage trolley I'm ok. Until, that is, landing in Atlanta.

In Atlanta when you come through the International Terminal from suspect places like Paris or London, you need to collect your bags, go through customs like normal. When you leave customs, however, you need to put your bags back on the trolley to collect them at the FAR end of the airport in an un-secured area open to the public. Yeah, I understand it's a safety thing, and I'm ok with that.

Here's the snag: Guitars go on the oversized baggage trolley, suitcases go on the normal one. So, right off you have 2 different places in the airport to collect things. OK, fine, in the interest of security I can hang with that. What they don't tell you is that the oversized bag trolley goes through the part of the airport where all the boxes and other cargo is processed. Suitcases? They were there when we arrived, waiting for us. Not a problem. The guitar took 6 hours to make it to the same area. SIX hours. And that's normal, BTW.

People were leaving their golf clubs, etc, and coming the next day to collect them. But this is where all the kids car seats, guitars and other essentials of life go. Can you imagine? Six hours to collect your kids car seat after a 9-hour flight?

If this is the world we now live in, making parents wait that long for a car seat to take a tired infant home from the airport, it's hard not to feel like the terrorists are winning. Either that, or they've changed jobs and are now designing all the draconian proceedures we need to live by at airports.

Really, I'm totally fine with the extra security, and always thank the TSA people for what they do. But this is a little extreme, no?

more about junk mail

I must have hit a nerve here, I've had 3-dozen emails about junk mail. At least I'm getting email from people I know for a change. And we're talking about Viagra, and other slightly off-color topics. Odd, no?

A SHORT HISTORY OF THE LAP STEEL

1. Man buys a really poor quality guitar
2. Neck warps.
3. Too lazy to buy a new one, he lays it down and plays it on lao, also uses it as a TV-tray for beer.
4. Everyone lived happily ever after, until he realized he could plug it in.....

the junk mail blues

enlarger pumps
and cut-rate viagra pills
free credit card offers
to cut my telephone bills
i get nothing but junk mail
every time I turn my computer on
wonder where these people
got my address from?

nuf said. quit sending me this crap. I mean it.

Bellrock Blues Festival, Arbroath

Just in from the folks organizing the Bellrock Blues Festival in Arbroath. Here's our schedule so far-

1. 11am sat 25 Aug in the Central- da band
2. 2pm sat 25 Aug in the Newgate- solo
3. 8pm sat 25 Aug in the Station- solo
4. 1pm sun 26 Aug in the Newgate- solo

Should be fun, I love Arbroath, foods great, people are fantastic and the band is hot these days...

I want to try this too.....

BEND, Oregon (AP) -- Last weekend, Kent Couch settled down in his lawn chair with some snacks -- and a parachute. Attached to his lawn chair were 105 large helium balloons.

With instruments to measure his altitude and speed, a global positioning system device in his pocket, and about four plastic bags holding five gallons of water each to act as ballast -- he could turn a spigot, release water and rise -- Couch headed into the Oregon sky.

Nearly nine hours later, the 47-year-old gas station owner came back to earth in a farmer's field near Union, short of Idaho but about 193 miles from home.

"When you're a little kid and you're holding a helium balloon, it has to cross your mind," Couch told the Bend Bulletin.

"When you're laying in the grass on a summer day, and you see the clouds, you wish you could jump on them," he said. "This is as close as you can come to jumping on them. It's just like that."


--------

Yeah, a parachute is a good idea. But a GPS? That's a little high-tech for me...

Moorings Bar, Saturday Night

What can I say, there's a certain type of bar or pub that I really like.

A little on the edge, dodgy part of town. Reputation for being a little on the rough or wild side. I'm there. Perfect place to play blues.

And that's what we did again last night at the Moorings Bar in Aberdeen. It has everything I like in a pub, and on our second trip through the Moorings we kicked it pretty hard. Great to play for an enthusiastic crowd, a room full of SHB regulars and new faces. Oh, and some really loud lap steel, played with a steel overhead door and a bucket load of feedback. Some blues too.

If you're new to the band, you should get on my mailing list by clicking the link about (to sign up) and I'll send you stuff so you can catch us again!

So where is Joey Fender?

Any ideas? Joey, are you still out there?

Website is down, and he's gone with out a trace. The Alaskan Rockabilly-blues king, vanished. Odd.

If you know where Joey is or how to get in touch with him, send me an email ok?

Boss FDR-1 Pedal

It's supposed to be a Fender Deluxe Reverb in a box. So, how's it stand up to the hype?

I tested it two ways, the first was through my amp, a Fender Pro Reverb. I set it so it was clean sounding, the EQ was flat and the reverb was off. The pedal was set so that the volume was a little louder when the pedal active and the gain set around 6. I set the tone controls to be fairly flat as well. So, when played hard and driving the the amp pretty hard it's not a bad tone. Is it a clone of a Deluxe Reverb? Not quite. The pedal does have a gritty-ness in the mids that's typical of these COSM-type devices. The PODS have it too, to my ears. No matter, is it usable as an extension of my signal chain? Yeah, I think it has a place to that Derek O'Briend tone, a little louder and still clean but with a bit of hair and bite to it. I'll use it at a gig for sure.

The real reason that I bought this was to be able to plug my lap steel straight into a PA and not need to drag an amp to a solo gig. It's actually a respectable tone, again, it's not perfect and sounds a little processed. But it means that I can get on a train with an acoustic guitar and a steel guitar and play solo gigs on the road.

Over-hyped? For sure. Useful, once you strip all that away? Yeah, I think so. I'll take it to my gig at the Moorings Bar tonight and see if I can get a better tone out of the big bad-ass Marshall stacks they have for the back line.

Bottom line? My wife liked the sound and actualy commented on it as I was testing it this morning. That hardly ever happens....

Moorings Bar

Some Dundee Snaps....

Dundee Blues Bonanza (phew)

Another one come and gone. Seems like I spend all year in anticipation of thie great festival, and then it's over before I know it. Was it a good one? Nope, it was flat out amazing.

Our involvement started on Thursday with a warm-up party at Cafe Drummonds in Aberdeen. Late night, and a great chance to run through the material we're taking to the festival. Out the door around 1 a.m., and then up early to start getting organized.

4 hours sleep.

Friday night Tim Aves arrived from London. His flight was running late so we dropped his things at the airport and immediately left for a rehearsal. It was a good chance to meet, run through his songs and talk logistics for the weekend. I think we quit around 11, back at my place around 12, and stayed up late talking. New guitar strings on my strat. Up the next day a 6 a.m. to start packing the truck, printing maps and working out the logistics of moving 5 people and a ton of gear.

4 hours sleep again.

OK, now the fun starts. Tim and I hit the road around 11:30 and met the guys we were staying with at our block of self catering flats. Dr. Bendix, the Lyndon Anderson Band and a couple of others were all staying there to. Lots of gear being moved up a narrow flight of stairs. By 1:30 we have the gear shifted, our guitars in the truck, stage clothes on and we were off to the Bond for the first of Tim's gigs, as the Jalepenos.

The Bond is a great room, kinda small and at the south end of the Marketgait area. It was empty, echo empty as we were setting up. Dino, Tim and I ran off to get a quick to-go meal and by the time we were back, it was jammed with bodies. We had to be well over fire-code capacity. Tim kicked it off with a Howlin Wolf tune, 'Riding in the Monlight' and the room was instantly jumping. Tim's a great front person, real energetic and a solid guitarist and harp player (nice guy too, go figure). 45 minutes later, it was 'smoke 'em if ya got em' time to take a break and hang outside with the smokers-in-exile and cool off. Most of the conversation revolved around my snakeskin cowboy boots and how rattlesnake really does taste like chicken.

Our second set was better than the first, and played for an even larger crowd. When we ended with Tim's son 'Wageslave', it was 5 pm, time to break down the gear, pack the truck and run off to the Abode for our solo gigs.

I was supposed to start at 6:30. It wasn't hard to find the club. Parking was miserable. So I double-parked in a taxi rank and we forced our way through a standing-room only crowd to get the guitars up to the small area reserved for the solo performers. Oh, I had to park about 1/2 mile away.

As it turned out I started bang on time. I had my acoustic lap steel with me and played all the new songs on my acoustic CD, and one or two standards on an electric guitar. It's magic playing for an audience that knows you and looks forward to seeing the new material that you bring to a show like this. Intimate isn't really the right word, but it was singing in close quarters for sure, and a wonderful room full of friends, both old and new. Interestingly enough, 12 people asked me where Louise was, why didn't I bring the national with me? Simple, no room in the truck. Next year, I missed that guitar as much as y'all did.

I was done at 8 pm and Tim took over. I could only stay long enough to get him settled and then I had to walk back to the truck and head back to the flat so Dino and I could load up the PA. 3 flights of stairs, I might add. And then we were off to the Old Bank Bar to follow the GrooveCats for a 10 pm show.

The Old Bank Bar is huge, and by the time we started there were easily 500 people there. Easily. Our soundcheck song was 'Love my little baby' a jumping west-coast shuffle. I'd thought to make a quick one just to check levels, but the room just burst into dancing and so we finished the song and went straight into that Bo Diddley-style version of 'Who do you love', slightly Cajun-ized. The rest of the set was a blur. Band was as solid as ever. Great to see Paul from Glasgow, Anna, Eric, Lovat, Marion, Alan and the rest of you trouble-makers!

We were suposed to quit at 12, but by the time we were finished playing encores it was much closer to 1 am. Last song? A really swinging version of 'Reconsider Baby'. What a great time. Phew. Time to shift the gear again, up 3 flights of stairs and finally get something for dinner. Nothing like a late-night Kebab and a beer. Off to bed around 3 am. Dino snores. Dave does too. No curtains on the window, so the sunlight hits early too. Up at 6.

3 hours sleep.

Spent most of the morning watching the news about the Glasgow airport. Puts everything in perspective. At noon we all shuffled off for a breakfast for members of the Blindman's Blues forum. 16 of us in all from all over the world. Great people, all good friends. Known some of them for years and still meeting them for the first time.

Back to the gear shuffle. Tim had another gig at Satchmoes. I know the PA and the Parking situation there so it was much less stressful. Leon Hunter and the gang always take good care of us there. True to form, 5 minutes before we start the room fills up. It's a room full of faces that we've seen at every gig. How great is that? Good gig, by now I'm starting to get a little tired. Slamming Red Bulls in pairs to keep moving. 2 hours later (5 pm) it's time for more gear moving and a quick run over to Alleycats for my last gig.

OK, by now I really am wiped out. It was supposed to be a low-volume acoustic gig with Billy Allardyce and Davey Blair on drums and bass. As it turns out I was in the zone and wantedto play lots of lap steel. So, with Tim sitting in on the harp, we played our first set to a small crowd of folks that had followed us over. Small because we had our start time changed from 7 to 6, so low pressure out of the gate. By 6:45 the room was filling up and by the time I started at 7 it was standing room only. we ran through the solo CD material again, and then I brought Tim, Dave and Billy up for a lap-steel romp through some originals, old blues covers and some odd stuff too.

There's something that happens when you get that tired. It's as though the creative barriers all melt away and you tap into a reservoir of energy and creativity that wasn't there before. It was euphoric, the guys did a great job tagging along, and we took turns pushing each other. Although we were supposed to finish at 8, we played later, much later in fact.

Ok, blah blah blah. More gear to move after cleaning out the flat. Home around midnight, in bed by 1am and then up a 6 to get everyone ready for school and work.

5 hours sleep, finally.

This afternoon I fell asleep on a city bus, and the bus driver woke me up at my stop. I'm still dead on my feet. But I wouldn't trade weekends like that with so many friends for a bag of money. Dundee is how I mark my anniversary of living in Scotland, where I go to recharge my creative batteries and reconnect with all my friends.

See you next year!

On this day in history....

I bowled my life-time highest score today: 193.

I took my little boys bowling and got myself a pair of shoes so I could be out on the lanes to coach them. Wasn't going to bowl at all, in fact, just hang out with them and have a burger. My yongest decided that he didn't want to bowl after a few frames and so I played out the last few of the first game and then bowled his second game with a chipped 14 lb ball and a large group of REALLY obnoxious people in the next lane that kept standing in our lane to take pictures.

What kind of score do you need to go pro? I mean, after years of playing blues in bars I have MORE than enough bowling shirts.....

Dundee Schedule!

The official schedule is on the bonanza web site: Click here to go there.

Here's how we fit in:

1. Saturday, 3-5 with Tim Aves at the Bond.
2. Saturday, 6:30-7:30, Son playing solo at the Abode
3. Saturday 10-12, Son Henry Band at the Old Bank Bar, with special guest Tim Aves on harp
4. Sunday 3-5, with Tim Aves at Satchmoes
5. Sunday 6-8, Son playing an electric/acoustic gig at Alleycats.

Also there's a Blind Man's Blues Forum meet-up at Dexters on Sunday at 11:30 for a late breakfast.

So. lots of chances to catch the new lap-steel solo songs, the new band stuff, my buddy Tim Aves and a bizarre new electro-acoustic thing as well. Pretty divers, no? See you somewhere in Dundee next weekend.

well that was an odd one.......

Sometimes you just need to roll with it.......


We were asked to play a couple of short sets at the Wellgate Center in Dundee as a part of a promo for the Dundee Blues Bonanza, sponsored by the mall. Hey, the Blues Bonanza folks are always great to us, so no problem at all, we were glad to help. It was an odd gig though. Been a long time since I've played in a food court, in fact this was a first. It was a little off in a way, but if you're at all into performance art, this was really a chance to take art to the people in a surprising environment. The guys, pros that they are, played great as always. So the music was fine, and the people in line at Subway were digging it. Some even dancing. We'll consider that positive feedback!

Also had a chance to hang out with Robin and Hennie and get all caught up. Always good to see those two!

OK, Cafe Drummonds on Thursday and then off to Dundee for the Bonanza next weekend.

Oh, about that new CD

All the guitar parts are done, I'm about half-way through singing it. I'd be finishing it this week, but after the gig friday night I'm going to rest my voice instead, it's trashed from a bad monitor mix and an excessive stage volume. So, instead I'll probably end up finishing the new songs I'm writing.

Which is a good thing, because I've sketched out the next band record as well, or at least I think I have. So many of you have told me how much you like the 'Glenn Highway Blues' disk, that there's something special about the vibe of that CD. I guess I'd be lying if I told you I didn't feel the same way. And, as it turns out, the new songs are much like that disk- open tunings, gritty chord changes and some reral strong thumpy-juke-joint dance grooves. Not sure when I'll get around to finishing this one (or starting it for that matter). But I do need to get the sketches to the guys in the band and start working them up so we can rotate out some of the songs I'm really tired of.

Change is good. I wish there wasa faster way to go from song idea to performable tune. The songs always need time to settle in, both for me to be convinced that they're worth taking to a gig and ultimately recording, and for the guys in the band to get comfortable with the material as well so they get performed with confidence.

The ultimate will be to get rid of this arbitrary boundary between songs that I write for a solo performance and for a gig with the band. One set of songs would be a novelty.

New Blues CD's

Seems like my MP3 player has been idle lately, and the CD player in the truck has had the same old Southern Culture on the Skids and Boneshakers CD's in it for a long time now. Time for a change- here's what's come out lately that I've been enjoying-

Seasick Steve and the Level Devils (Cheap)- great CD, my diddley-bow inspiration these days.
Kelly Joe Phelps (Tunesmith Retrofit)- mellow stuff, great acoustic player.
Amos Lee- both his new ones are great, and he's been blessed with a really amazing voice, especially in the upper ranges.
Rance Allen- Big Mitch turned me on to this guy years ago, and he's where I always go to find something for the car to sing along with. Singing with Rance is like taking batting practice with Hank Aaron.

That's it for me. The normal sacred steel and electric blues CD's are staying in the jewel cases these days, seems like there's a lot of material available but not much that's really inspiring or exciting listening these days. Not really much for the blues-rock stuff at all, and the acoustic stuff that I've been finding on line seems to be yet another re-tread of the Robert Johnson catalog.

Anything new and original out there you know about? Let me know about it!

High Gas Price Blues?

All I gotta say is that you guys state-side otta try buying gas over here. 3$ a gallon sounds like a deal from here, in the UK it works out to be around 8$ a gallon. Feel better yet? It would cost around 300$ to fill up the gas tank in my old Suburban at that rate. Now that's the blues. Wonder if Chevy will ever make a Suburban Hybrid?

I'm on a tear about volume

I'm really tired of waking up the morning after a gig with a sore throat. Of having to whisper, drink tea and nurse my voice for a couple of days. Yeah, I know, you're thinking something like "wait, we've seen the rig of doom with the 50 watt Marshall and the old Fender, are you for real?". And the answer is yes.

I have all my amps running on power-soaks so I can control them, reducing the volume to a level that's easier to manage. I've been keeping my stage volume down. Way down in fact. when we started at the Tunnels the other night we had our volume under control and Les was able to use bundle-sticks at a gig for the first time. See? It's possible. It just didn't last the night.

It's the rest of the world that now needs to adapt. Soundguys that won't turn the monitors on, or keep turning my mic off (like Friday night), or stare at you with a puzzled look on their faces when you're cupping your ear because you can't hear otherwise. It's not just sound guys too.

I'm going to be difficult about this. I'm tired of coming home from work injured, which is what this is, plain and simple- a work-related injury that's avoidable. Time for this to change.

The Lemon Tree

I had a chance to try out some of the new material that I've been writing at the Lemon Tree on Friday afternoon. If you've been there you know that the lunch-time audience is really there for lunch with background music. I think they like the music, but it's the food-music combination that works and fills the seats. And you compete with the coffee grinder and lots of ambient noise. On the good end, the acoustics are good, the PA is top-notch, and all my friends seem to cut out of work and sit and listen to me sing over a cup of java. So, there I was on Friday, sick as a dog, and playing new songs.

Something about being down with this horrible cold puts you into an alternatvie head-space. The cold medicine gives me the shakes. Hate that. But, enough complaining. It was a good set of music, and I've heard that from my most honest, insightful and brutal critics. Oh, by the way, they're also good friends, and I love them for their honesty.

I'd warned everyone that this was going to be a little folky, rather than a straight blues set. I stuck to that. The folks there heard me do songs like 'Ball and Chain', 'Hole in my shoe', 'Man in the mirror', 'Sackcloth' and one or two others that have never been performed for an audience before. They all worked. I'll take them with me to Dundee where I'm doing two acoustic sets and planning on recording them both for release on SnoCap, MySpace and as downloads for the people on my email list.

OK, need sleep. Be well, see you soon!

Making a Diddley-Bow: Getting Started

Just a shot of good whiskey and a one-string diddley-bow
(Jake Matson)


The one thing I dont have these days is a Diddley-Bow. And today when I was helping my oldest repair his guitar we ended up with a tuning machine to spare. I had an extra guitar pickup so what to do? Well, make a diddley-bow, of course!

My goal was to get to the local DIY store and spend under 10£ for the remaining materials. And so, we bought a bit of framing lumber and some angle-iron and we were out the door for £7.40




Here are the boys holding the wood we'll use for the body.



And in the next picture here's the peghead. I used a hand-saw to cut a large notch that I could use for mounting the tuning peg. It's a little rough, but it'll work.



The bridge, nut and tail piece are made form the ange iron. Drill a couple of mounting holes and cut to length. It's screwed down with some left-over wood screws that came from lord-knows-where. Some old honey-doo probably.

Making a Diddley-Bow: Mounting the electronics

I had an old pickup that I wasn't using, and I planned on top-mounting it to the wood. Not really all that hard. To prep the wires I wrapped the part coming out of the pickup in heat-shrink tubing so that it was really strong, as this tends to be a really vulnerable spot on most pickups. No good having a dead one. To mount it, as to can see in the first picture I drilled a small hole with a brace and bit to feed the wire through. It's small enough diameter that the pickup will cover the hole.




To mount the jack, I flipped it over on it's side and drilled four larger holes with the brace and bit again, and used a hand chisel to clean up a bit. My plan wasn't to make a museum piece, rather to finish this before the kids got bored with the project and wandered off to play football. Cavity is large enough, we're finished here.




Ok, this old BIll Lawrence pickup is perfect for this- there are no pole-pieces to worry about, so no concerns about how the string passes over the pickup. And I simply enlarged the holes and screwed it down on to the wood, passing the wires through the hole in the cavity.



And, then finally, scavenged an odd bit of plastic and mounted the jack to the plate. Here's what it looked like when it was finished.

Making a Diddley-Bow: Stringing up

OK, here's a picture of the string running through the tail piece. I drilled an extra hole on a diagonal to run the string through it. Works great.






And here you can see I made a diagonal cut across the peg head to mount the tuner in the middle of the neck, so it pulls the string straight. I also added a small notch in both the bridge and the nut to hold the string in place.

Making a diddley-bow: all done

And here's the final product, with Noah giving it a road test. He's obviously a slide player from the Lowell George and Bonnie Raitt school- he preferes to play with a socket wrench. Me? I'll drain a bottle of Corona and use that.

How's it sound? Totally awesome. Really raunchy. Dog hates it. It's a winner.

In an inspired couple of days...

All the guitar parts to several songs are done. Finished. Re-recorded and perfected. There's a lot of work left to turn this into a finished CD, more singing and mixing. But the foundation is one I'm happy with now. That's what was eating at me with the earlier versions of things, there were just too many little nuances that I didn't like. After obsessing about this and working it to death, we not have a solid base to build up from. The songs that survived are:

Cold Falling Rain
Deeper and Deeper
Man in the Mirror
Sackcloth and Ashes
Stranger Blues
Worrying Stone
Water Rising Blues
Ball and Chain
One foot in front

I know you'll as about the breakdown of the guitars used here, so the official count is:

Regular Guitar? 1, but in an open tuning.
National? 1
Electric Lap Steel? 1
Lap Steel (Acoustic)? 6

Not one guitar in standard tuning anywhere to be found. Not from lack of material, mind you, those songs just have been left behind for a bit while things settle in. The survivors all hang together well. Not to worry, you'll hear all of them in Dundee.

All in all it's been an interesting process thus far, focusing on this with this kind of intensity. Three weeks to get a few guitar parts together seems like a whole lot of effort. But the reality is that I needed to get inside the songs and push them around a bit. Hit back. Songs are bullys, they like to force you in a direction that may not be right. I needed to push back, put some in time-out and reward the cooperative ones.

Phew. It'll be worth it in the end, I'm sure.

Seasick Steve?

TIme for some blues, this one will change your life. Thank the maker for YouTube.

Click here, and thank me later.

No really. This is a blues blog, and we haven't been talking about the music enough lately. So, trust me and head over to youtube and check this link out. I wouldn't waste your time and mine putting this here if it was crap. Come on, do you have any idea how long my honey-do list is? I'm lucky to get time to be on the computer at all, as long as my chore list is around the house these days.

So click the link.

And as an update: My amp is still trashed from the flood, I'm still recording, The band is playing next week at the Tunnels in Aberdeen and the Dundee Blues Bonanza is right around the corner.

Phew. All's well with the world. So see? You can click the link.

Air Travel and Security.....

My friend Gene sent me this, I have not a clue where it came from. Only shade for miles, and there's your flight home, ready to depart. Wonder if you could make it?


Kinda puts all those new TSA proceedures in perspective, no?

I google'd my name

And it turns out that I'm either a porn star, or someone using my EXACT name is one. That's a little odd, no? I mean, what are the odds of that. I thought all porn stars were named things like 'Long John' , and 'Thunder' and 'Lace'. This is really, really strange.

I hope my mother doesn't read this. If you do, it's really not me.

Dundee Blues Bonanza!

Hey all, just a couple of weeks till the Dundee Blues Bonanza.

Mark your calendars, we're playing with Time Aves on Saturday the 30th, and again

This week's special....

Want to book the band? Book us between now and the end of the month of June, and we'll throw in a workshop of your choice! Lap Steel, Slide Guitar- I have several 1 hour prepared workshopes ready to go that you can use as an extra marketing tool, or a chance to raise a little extra money.

But you need to move quickly. Operators are standing by. Email me at info@sonhenry.com

This is my kind of site

"Isn't it time people stopped fighting and learned to play 12 bar blues shuffles instead?"

That's a quote from the home page for BluesForPeace. Guitar lessons and videos, and a great idea- turning swords into Stratocasters. Bless yer hearts, guys. It's a great idea.

Here's the link-

http://www.bluesforpeace.com/

I love the airport. The Anchorage airport is still one of the few airports around where you can get close to the end of the runway and watch the planes land and take-off. Just like when I was a kid. It's a rush watching these big things head out or land with a screech.

Great picture, no? OK, it's not blues. Still cool, though.

Is it true? Starting from scratch?

Sort of.

I cleaned up and mixed down about 6 songs today. They're good, I'm not sure they're something that I want to turn into a formal CD release. So, a little more clean up this evening and I'll wrap them up and give copies to some friends and family.

And then start on the blues CD in the morning.

I suppose I had to get all this out of my system. The songs are good, but a little too autobiographical for comfort. Sorry, we're going back to country blues again. As much as I feel like I'm walking the same ground over and over again, I think I owe it to everyone to take a craftsman-like approach to the next CD, rather than spit them out like watermelon seeds simply because I can.

Sounds like a bad car commercial.....

I lied about mixing. I'm still recording.

Yeah, I know. I'm picky.

But there's a few songs I'm going to try this week and then mix on Friday. Going to keep working and then take the best of the songs and distill them down into a well-mixed compilation.

It won't be ready by the Blues Bonanza at this rate. Sorry. I'd rather you wait for something good than start thinking that I'm only creating quantity instead of quality. It'll be worth the wait. The votes from here from my sharpest critics are that this is shaping up to be a real solid release that'll open a door or two.

TIme to re-pot the National

Oh....

the pickups in my National Dynamic are microphonic. Time to pot them in wax. Normal wear and tear, these were not meant to be layed this loud, after all.

more rig adjustments.....

Spent more time tweeking the rig this weekend. It's a keeper.

I'm running a Weber 100 watt attenuator on the Marshall, which is one of the ones that works with resistors, and I think it's a good backup but I'm going to swap it for one of the ones that uses the reactive load in the form of an old speaker motor. According to a buddy of mine that has one, they're more natural sounding, and that's really my issue with the one I have, it's fine but it acts like a brick wall. So the upper dynamic range gets squashed.

But it's a minor point.

The reality is that the bulk of the tone is coming from the Pro Reverb, I'm a die-hard fender cat. But it's nice to have that extra something beefy to add to the mix. That Marshall is the thing. I know my blues-purist buddies are cringing. But hey, Jimmy Reed recorded with borrowed gear, so take a cleansing breath and trust me, it sounds like the bees knees.

And it's god because my old 100 watt Super Lead was wiped out in a flood a couple of weeks ago. Did I post about that? I can't remember. Oh, well, we had a plumbing fitting burst in my flat and it ran water into the back of my other amp. It's toasted. It's repairable, I suppose, once it dries out. Actually, I'm in no great hurry to plug it in after bailing almost a litre of water our of it. And in fairness, would you plug it in? We'll leave that for the folks at the Marshall Service Center.

the lap steel rig of doom

I had a chance to road test my new lap steel rig last night at Cafe Drummonds. Here's a photo to show you the new set up. On the right it's my trusty old Fender Pro Reverb, it's one that I've had forever. On the left is a 50 watt Marshall 2x12 combo. It's the old Lead/Bass model, and insane amp in it's own right. Yes, they're both on at the same time, sometimes.

What makes it work is the Radial ABY switcher that I added to my floor board, so I can jump between the two amps.

And, to keep the sound people happy, and keep a lid on the volume, I'm running a Weber (www.tedweber.com) attenuator on the Marshall, and a speaker silencer on the Pro, which knocks the power down to 20-25 watts each.

How's it sound? Like chocolate cake, nice and tasty....

Mixing tomorrow

It's true. I'm mixing what I have tomorrow.

Phew. Recording is hard work.

For no other reason than we need a photo here for a change. Too many words.


On of my favorite festivals of all time is the Talkeetna Blue Grass festival, a weekend in the mud camping hippy style, with basically non-stop music. About time for this one back home too. And just so we have a photo, here's one I found while cleaning up my computer- this one is me and my buddy John on-stage in Talkeetna at the Bluegrass Festival.

It's a great festival. And the best part is that there's a musicians camping area behind the stage where everyone hangs out (families too) for the weekend. It's a big communal bar-b-que and always a great chance to meet up with old friends, have a jam in the parking lot and a few beers.

Our last time there we closed the festival with a 1 am time slot. From that slot, we hold the record for noise complaints- 11 MILES away. Great combination of athmospheric conditions and a really honkng PA. It wasn't just me.

Ok, here's a shout out to all the friends back home- see you all in November for the benefit, OK?

That Muse again

I'm a real believer in following things to their natural conclusion, letting songs lead the way. And I've been writing and recording like a mad man for the last couple of weeks. What a surprise to hear all the songs together for the first time and realize what a diverse group of songs this collection is. We're covering the roadmap musically, in ways that reflect some of the travelling I've done. There's a tango, some old country blues, some really mellow old country and folk style songs.

Ok, for better or worse we're almost done. A few more things to clean up and we'll be ready to mix this bad boy.

It's funny, but I'm giving this one to some people I trust FIRST, so I can get a read on the range being too broad, or too mellow or too something. Not sure what that might be, but it's different.

I'm not having a crisis, by the way. I love all these songs. So there.

If life wasn't complicated enough

I bought a new amp today, it arrives on Thursday just in time to check the valves and head off to Cafe Drummonds for a gig.

What can I say? I love the tone of an old National Lap Steel through a Marshall, and now I own an old 50 watt model. Otta be a killa' me thinks, this new wee bit o' kit.

Festival Review from Blues in Britian Magazine

19th Burnley National Blues Festival
Easter Weekend, April 7th-9th, 207


Friday night roared to life with the Son Henry Band at the wheel- a prime example of bar band blues with Son's lap steel really ringing out on "Can't be Satisfied", "Anywhere she lays her head (That's my home)", and (deep breath) Voodoo Chile which featured some blistering slide playing with a great distorted tone. What really lingered though was a great version of Sam Cooke's "A change is gonna come" where the rhythm section dropped down a gear to allow more space for the sounds Son coaxed out of his lap steel. His version put me in mind of guitar players usually associated with the British folk tradition, Martin Carthy or John Renborn, say. Bringing it back home, indeed. Go see them, they'll get your motor runnin'.

Some reflections on the Globe Gig.

I've noticed that the more we rock out, the more CD's we sell. Hmmmm, so much for being a 'pure' blues band I guess. That extra bit of energy seems to play well with normal people.

I suppose it could be a bad, if you were a purist-type of guy. I know bands that are stuck in niches like 1955 jump blues, and that's great. After turning this around in my mind for the last few weeks my take on it is this- I'm a songwriter first, a performer second and a guitar player third. I can't force the songs to come out in a certain specific style, they come into this world fully-formed. Since that's what we take to a gig, well, that's what seems to define the sound. And so we're not an archivist or historical preservation society. It's modern blues, roots music if you prefer, that's a reflection of my life and the times we live in.

Sound like I've been thinking about this? I have. Carrying the label of a 'blues' musician means that I feel honor-bound to be playing blues, and as close to the bone as possible. Truth in advertising. With the new material we're headed off to be more like the 'Glenn Highway Blues' version of the band- more slide, more country blues style stuff and a little less of the lumpy shiffles.

At the end, it'll be what it will. Always follow the muse. Are we a pure blues band? Well, I'll let you decide what you think about that. With this post, I've officially beaten this one to death here.

The songs keep coming

Lord, help me, I'm never going to finish this disk.....

I've been playing with a latin-blues riff in G minor the last few days, and it turned into a full-blown song yesterday. I really like it, and that's a problem, because I want it on the new solo disk. What's a guy to do? Well, record it I guess. We are working against a deadline, because if I want this done by the Dundee Blues Bonanza I need to finish it up and have it ready to ship by Friday.

It'll be a horse-race.

Four songs are complete and I'm happy with them (Solitary Blues, Sackcloth and Ashes, Ball and Chain, Hole in my shoe). There's still a couple that I need to finish singing once my voice recovers from last night's gig at the Globe. And then there is that new one. All together it's a total of 15 songs, 4 done, and the best of the remaining ones will make it on the disk. We're sitting right at 16 minutes of material, and once we have about 35 solid minutes of music we'll be ina position to call it done. My goal is to finish them all and pick the best, and then make the rest of the songs available to the folks on my email list. I'l put them out on my MySpace page too.

We have 4 days to go at this, full-time, next week. We'll make it.

I must be mellowing in my old age...

I played some of the rough mixes for my toughest critic, yeah, my wife. She's always honest and usually right. She's a tough one though. Her comments? I'm getting mellower, that the songs I played for her were more folk than blues.

Well, that's ok, I didn't play all of it for her. Heh, heh, heh.

There's lots of blues, no worries. But, the songs in question are the ones I get asked about at my solo gigs these days. You guys like the blues stuff fine, I know. But that's not the ones that get requested at the CD table after the show is over.

It'll all end well. A couple more days of cleaning up the audio and then we'll finish the mixing and it's off to duplication before Dundee. Sleep? Later.

Finishing that solo record this week

Well, I spent the morning working on the final guitar tracks for a couple of the songs that go on the solo record. Tomorrow I'm off to the studio to sing a few parts, play one or two bits on the lap steel and then mix it all down. I'm working to get it ready in time for Dundee. Thought I'd have it by mid-June, but it's looking like it may slide a bit longer.

So, here's my question- would you rather have an EP, say, 20 minutes in length that you could bet cheap (something like 5 pounds), or a full length CD (more like 40-50 minutes) that would run you a full 10 pounds?

Just curious. Email or comments welcome.

Turning Comments back on

OK, we'll try this again. You can comment on posts again. Please feel free!

Last time it ended badly, people posting links for viagra and Malaysian time-shares, that 'My Dad as an oil minister and I need to move 20 million dollars, can I trust you?" email scam that is an insult to everyone's intelligence. Don't do any of that, you'll spoil it for the others.

And while we're on the subject: Don't run with scissors, never post drunk, don't make that face or it'll freeze like that, what part of 'NO' don't you understand?

There. I think that covers all the bases. Sorry about the rant, I feel better. And now you can comment about it! See? It's all for the best.

On the fine art of band directions

I'm tired, bored and under-challenged. Alienated, disgruntled (was I ever gruntled to begin with?) and feeling underwhelmed with all things music these days. And so I write more songs as a cure.

Had a great rehearsal last week where we started assembling some new songs. It's great to throw things at the guys cold because they either *click* and become band songs or the fall face down on the canvas and become solo-set songs. A couple of tunes took a dive last Wednesday, but one or two kept swinging. And now they're in chute to join the set list. Let's face it, they're not all good, some need to fade out. The keepers are *keepers*.

And hey, as much as I love playing in some of the more rock clubs in town, it's not good for our blues playing. They have a natural gravitational pull that takes us away from roots playing, towards that sticky patch of the road with a blues-rock lay-by. Lots of over-the-top stuff. I miss the hip, understated feel of a good blues gig, with all the space. Yeah, there I said it, the loud guy likes silence. After all, it's the spaces that make the groove.

So, today we're looking for a whole new shows worth of funky, swampy tunes with great grooves and hip changes, and insightful lyrics that tell life like it is. Gotta run, time to get away from the computer and get back to work!

New CDs

I ended up with a few new CDs this week. G'vt Mule, Ben Harper, Amos Lee and they're all interesting. But my favorite of the pile is the "Boomer's Story" by Ry Cooder. Monster guitar playing, lots of inspiration on that disk.

They're all good disks, but that Ry Cooder one is insanely good. And I guess I need to face up to the fact that I'm not very good at listening to Blues/Rock music.

back when I had shorter hair

What can I say? The boys all take after me.....

a blues singer's wife gets her turn...

Click here to read the whole story...

a blues singer's wife gets her turn...

Click here to read the whole story...

About the book

I have the next 2 weeks off to write. And write, and write.....

Since it's my birthday today.....

Yep, it's today.

I really don't want presents. I have lots of things, so I don't need more things. If you want to get something for me, how about this instead? Just do something nice for someone else, doesn't matter who it is or what you choose to do. That's what I want this year.

It's actually the second time that I've flipped this number on my calendar. I *thought* I had this birthday last year too. As it turned out I did the math wrong last year, and I didn't realize it until about a month ago- I woke up one morning like a shot after realizing that I'd slipped a digit. I broke in on my wife in the shower and asked here "HOW OLD AM I?". She had the number wrong too. So it's like getting a whole year to have over again, and I didn't need to be visited by 3 ghosts to do it either! So, take 2 on this year of my life. How cool is that? See? I really don't need a thing, I get a do-over!

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me. To my creator who''s kind enough to allow me to continue being here for another birthday, thanks! To my mother that had the courage to bring me into this world all those years ago, thanks! And to my dog that let me sleep in to almost 6:30 am on my birthday, well, we need to work on that a little.

Now, off to play with my kids.....

And then there's this one on the Dundee Blues Bonanza site, which means it's ALMOST BLUES BONANZA TIME! Yipee..

Forgot about this one. Do I really have such bony elbows?

Shetland Blues Festival

That's me then, all sorted for the Shetland Blues Festival this fall. See you there!

At that fork in the road....

At a fork in the road
just south of Mobile
standing in the shade
by an old cotton field
the signs on the road point east and south
but the signs on the road won't help me out
when I'm standing
standing by that fork in the road

it's not indecision that's holding me back
it's a fear of all the information that I lack
to make a proper choice when the road is unclear
in the absence of knowing I'll just stand right here
standing at the fork in the road

Copyright Son Henry, 2007, all rights reserved


So, obviously someone I know has a hard time with big decisions......

On this day....

It's getting obvious that I'm facing major changes in life this week, I think.

It's interesting that, for me, my self awareness comes from looking back at the music I'm writing. Since I've been focused on the 'solo' record lately and writing and recording like a man posessed, the songs are pretty personal. At a subconscious level that's probably because I don't need to run them through the filter of a band, get the tacit approval of other people that's required when a 'me' song becomes a 'band' song. The band songs tend to be pretty non-specific, impersonal ones about not-quite-true or embellished events.

The solo ones are a mirror.

What's interesting to me is that if I'm not aware of what's going on internally, all I need to do is look at the songs and I can find out. So if you were to ask me things like "Am I stressed out about X?" it's likely that I'd have a hard time giving you an honest answer. But, take a look through the song journal these days and I must be stressed out about change, leaving people behind, about the uncertain world we live in, and be looking for some kind of sense of continuity and security. It's all there in the songs this morning.

In otherwords, I'm my normal, deeply moody self. Except that I'm writing songs, lots of them. Most of them you won't ever hear, they're too personal. But some will escape from this prison of modesty if there's something universal in them.

No, I don't need a shrink. I have two- a black book of lyrics and an old six-string guitar. And so, off we go this week to record a few more songs, one or two of which may also make it onto the new record.

But don't worry. It's not a collection of depressing songs. Some of them are actually in major keys.

Hanging with Ray

I had a chance to spend some time with Ray Bonneville this week (www.raybonneville.com). Some of you in Aberdeen remember that Ray blew the roof off the music hall 2 years ago as Robert Cray's opener. He's a solo player with a really killer sense of rhythm- foot board, percussive guitar style, great harmonica playing; he's the whole package.

He's also a great guy and a certified road dog. I helped Ray load gear in to the Lemon Tree on Friday morning and then had a chance to sit and talk music for an hour or so. He was really a great help breaking down his guitar style for me (and it's still Chinese math for me), and some equipment. But it was his insights into songwriting that I really enjoyed. If you've heard his songs, you know that he can really put ideas together in a way that's like a painting, very Dylan-esque.

What can I say? A couple of great shows, and a chance to talk shop with a guy like that? Great weekend. Validates why I do this.

Solo CD update

Sang all Thursday morning. 8 songs ready to mix. A couple more to go, and then we're off to duplicate!

This says's it all

Flood waters risin up to my door.....

Arrrgh-

Had a plumber doing some work on the house yesterday for my landlord. He managed to drill a hole through a pipe and it leaked all night and day RIGHT DOWN THE BACK OF MY '73 MARSHALL SUPER LEAD. Its ruined.

It's not a drink-spill caliber flood. I drained 3 cups of water out of the amp this morning. 3 cups, and it was still dripping while I dried it off with a hair dryer. Speakers in the cabinet are soaked too.

Yeah, I know, it's not like I lost a finger, it's a 'thing' and it can be replaced. But I was really attached to that thing.

I need a hug. And a new amp. In that order.

New CD available at CdBaby

Finally, the new CD is available through CDbaby. It's a great place to check out the sound clips. Wann go listen? click here and then let me know what you think!

Spikedrivers at the Blue Lamp last night

Another great gig last night, thanks to Chris Simmonds!

My first time to see the Spikedrivers, and I'll go see them again. Interesting instrumentation, great originals and lots of stage presence. All in all a really enjoyable night. I'll post more later.....

Campbell Brothers on YouTube!

What can I say, sometimes you get something really great on youtube. Check out the Campbell Brother clip, these guys are awesome (and I'm not saying that case I'm from their neck of the woods)

Click Here!
And Here!