musings

it’s been cold up here, below zero (celsius, 32f) most every evening and to me, it brings a nice, introspective feel. I just wish I had more time to transfer some of these feelings onto tape while the iron’s hot, er, so to speak.

the jamm for genes has been taking up a huge amount of my time, deservedly so as it’s a great cause that I believe in, but it can easily derail an otherwise creative moment. it’ll all be over - well, the main event anyway - soon enough and hopefully I can get some tracks finished before the spring thaw changes the mood.

we’ve pushed back reopening the cafe for a couple weeks, mainly due to lack of money. we need to restock and rejig the whole coffee roasting side, do some much needed maintenance to the room and get new signage etc. we’re also waiting for some nice 2nd hand goodies, such as antique furniture, books and an old piano, which may be another week or more away.

this week’s the final deadline for submissions to some of the major folk & blues festivals here, and I haven’t had the chance to update my press kit as I’d wanted to. newer photos and recordings have been the holdup, again, lack of time, money and help. or, if I were to take the more zen approach, perhaps I’m not meant to worry about the local market, such that it is. the euro festivals are looking much more attractive and worthwhile. and I really wish I could make this year’s americana fest in nashville. always enjoyed them immensely, great vibes and people.

congrats to amanda and simon on the birth of baby joey. there’s been far too many birthdays to mention, now that I’ve got that facebook birthday widget thing.

for the past few years. I’ve been far too preoccupied with helping run someone else’s pub, venue, kitchen, store, business or band. for nearly a year, I’ve been living in a spectacularly gorgeous location, most of which I haven’t yet explored. all that needs to change.

I know it may sound obvious to many how easy it is to take time out and prioritise one’s own needs. but for me, that’s been difficult, for many reasons. but I’m forcing myself to take those steps again. today, instead of just running lunch over to the girls at the day-care house, I’ll then take a walk down to the cliffside. later, when I drive to katoomba for shopping, I won’t race to get back to the phones, the mail, the computers - I’ll wander down to the three sisters and explore a new track that I don’t know yet exists.

then I’ll come back and resume work on this new song.

it’s called ’stones’, and so far has been a work-in-progress for three weeks. usually, my ‘better’ songs come very quickly, often if I’m spending far too much time on a piece, I abandon it and file away for some future dissection. but this one feels good, I’m just struggling to get it to say what I want it to say in a listenable fashion. I’ve always admired the way that some writers have a wonderful economy with words, like tom petty who seems to get a paragraph’s worth of imagery and emotion into six words. maybe I’m just out of ‘writing shape’, in the sense that athletes fall out of tone and peak.

but it’ll hopefully be another cornerstone (no pun intended, much) in this new work, which I’m hoping will be a complete album, in the classic sense. I read yet another article about the supposed death of the traditional album as a unit, in favour of single tracks. while that’s likely true for pop, hip-hop and other disposable music styles, I’m confident that real music fans will still want to hear a collection of pieces intended to compliment one another.

and hopefully, I’ll have another of my own soon.

slowly moving towards refocusing on music. and reading back on that sentence, it does look ridiculous. to need to put so much effort into ‘refocusing’ on the one thing that has been the center of my life since I was a teen seems on the surface, ludicrous.

but it’s a long, slow journey, and one that I need to take in small steps. everything’s easier when one is younger, although we always thought it was much harder at the time. but now, the pull of bills, mortgages, work, children, family, friends, social obligations and other so-called “mid-life responsibilities” is very strong.

so this week, in spite of struggling with a resurfaced flu bug, I’ve managed to update my press kit, assemble a new bio for gigs and compiled a list of aussie music festivals to apply to. I’m also looking at possible uk gigs for next year and trying to put together a master plan for 2010. I always seem to find excuses to not finish a new album, this time I figure if I start lining up tours, I’ll have no choice, eh?

and we’ve closed the cafe, well closed as far as the actual ‘cafe’ side goes. we’re hoping to reopen in a few weeks as a coffeehouse / roaster / wholesaler, with the doors open to the public on weekends. kind of like what wineries do with their cellar doors. it may bring in a little cash, and I don’t need to be pulling the long, sweaty, stressful hours in the kitchen. I wonder what it’s like, not having cuts and burns on my arms and fingers…

rehearsal tonight, my monthly gig at the local pub tomorrow. in august I’ll be kicking off a sunday session there similar to the one I used to run in balmain.

happy b-day to kim (my co-cordinator for this year’s jamm for genes bash), journo luke, radio rob, anne ‘mrs hank’ cooper, and kacy.