In 2009 Mish and I became slightly obsessed with the TV Show The Wire (true to form about 18 months after everyone else). Everybody has a favourite version of Tom Wait’s “Way Down in the Hole” (Mine was Season 1 whilst Mish prefered the one for Season 4, which was performed by Baltimore teenagers)

Here’s my homage to the theme tune on the old banjo whilst mucking about with a half slide I found.

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We just got back from the Watch-Night service at church.  My brother Stu and I sang and played in front of the congregation.  I was pretty nervous but Stu kept me right.  You could hear a baby crying right after a moment of silence at the beginning of the song.  How apt!  It was very moving indeed.

Click below to hear a recording…

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I’m so glad that we can finally relax and enjoy a family Christmas.

Peace and love to all.

Best wishes,

Px

We are fast approaching the end of this decade.  How did that happen?  It seems only yesterday that I was permanently wearing plaid shirts and banging on about how Beck was a visionary, Oasis were mince and Mick Foley was “more than just a wrassler”… Oh wait, that was yesterday.

I’ve never really been fashionable and the term “early adopter” is as contrary to my musical taste as “no claims bonus” is to Tiger Woods’ car insurance.  That being said I have sought out and discovered (albeit six months after everyone else) a wealth of music that I have grown to love, cherish, identify with, be protective of and be inspired by.

So taking a leaf out of Nick Hornby’s book and following on from NPR’s All Songs Considered excellent 50 Most Important Recordings of the Decade series I have put together a Best ‘o the Noughties playlist.  I’ve limited myself to 12 tracks and these songs represent either a great album or one of my favourite artists from the last decade. I could ramble on about the merits of each track but I’m sure you have better things to do…

1. The Shy Retirer by The Arab Strap (from Monday at the Hug and Pint)
2. Harder Better Faster Stronger by Daft Punk (from the Discovery album)
3. Old Old Fashioned by Frightened Rabbit (from The Midnight Organ Fight)
4. There’s None of That by King Creosote (from the Bombshell album)
5. Late by Ben Folds (from Songs from Silverman album)
6. Little Drop of Poison by Tom Waits (from the Orphans collection)
7. O Valencia! by The Decemberists (from The Crane Wife album)
8. He Lays in the Reins by Calexico and Irons & Wine (from the In the Reins EP)
9. Romulus by Sufjan Stevens (from the Michigan album)
10. Sugar and Pie by Abigail Washburn (and the Sparrow Quartet)
11. B.O.B. by OutKast (from the Stankonia album)
12. I’m the Man Who Loves You by Wilco (from the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot album)

Click here to listen to the playlist on Spotify.  If you can’t access this and would like an invite to join Spotify then please drop me a note as I have a few going spare.

I would love to hear what your choices would be so please send me your playlists.  One thing becomes clear about these picks.  I have lost the notion to RAWK!  I’m sure there were some balls-out rock songs I have enjoyed over the decade but for the life of me I can’t recall what they were.  I’ll look forward to your suggestions.

I spent the day up to my elbows in Christmas Trees.  I have been volunteering for the Caring Christmas Trees project over the last couple of years and today was my first session. It’s a great project with all the profits going to a winter shelter for homeless people providing hot meals and a safe, warm place to sleep over the winter months.

First job: get out of bed!  A big ask this morning as I was a little ‘tender’ after having a great time with our friends having a Christmas meal and a few wee drinkies.

Then off to the site to unload 127 Normand Fir trees out of a Bedford truck, count them all and set them up for display.  The other volunteers and I greeted a steady stream of folks picking up their trees and we unwrapped and wrapped a bunch for our discerning customers to make sure they were getting what they wanted.  Michelle came along to pick our tree (as I “would have picked the wrong one”) which was generally the story of the day for the gentlemen picking trees.

After my stint I brought our tree home and Michelle and mum helped decorate it.  I love putting up our Christmas tree.  Mish and I have collected a number of ornaments over the years that remind us of our friends, families and the things we love.  We have ornaments ranging from home-made decorations from our first tree that we made out of paper when we were skint to my favourite; Boba Fett.

As I type this Mr Potato Head is surveying the living-room from his perch at the top of our tree.  It’s become a tradition for him to be up there in place of a star or a fairy.

There are some photos over at our flickr site.

My friends Grant and Lan gave me a copy of Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music Vol.4 for my birthday this year. This song, originally sung by Uncle Dave Macon is particularly prescient considering the current economic climate and my line of work. Bah!

Thanks for the CD though guys – its ace!

Mish and I have just returned from our trip to Boston.  We had a great time reconnecting with our friends, seeing our old stomping grounds and even discovering some new ones.

This trip turned into a bit of a musical adventure.  Our friend Bethany had asked me to sing at her wedding (a favour I was happy to be able to repay as she had sung beautifully at ours in 2006).  Bethany is the Contemporary Music Director at Newton Presbyterian Church, where the wedding was to be.  She has assembled a talented bunch of musicians and it was great to be able to play in a band again.   After some rehearsal I managed to get through the song without messing up too much and the backing was great from the guys.

I had also dragged my banjo over the ocean with me. I don’t think I could stand being apart from it for a whole week so it was nice to be asked to sing a wee song at the reception in-between the sets from the Ceilidh band.

Before leaving, I had briefly looked for opportunities to play in Boston.  I had noticed a couple of open-mic nights and sessions but they just didn’t work with our schedule.  Our good friend Lisa, who we were staying with, had suggested we try the Cantab Lounge as it has a very well established open-mic night on Mondays.

By this point in the trip I must confess I was a little knackered.  We had been enjoying a nice dinner in Harvard Square with Lisa and Kelly who was visiting, so I wasn’t too bothered when time got away from us and we were quite late for the start of the open-mic.  I thought at this point it would be way too late to sign up and was actually relieved.

We decided to walk along to the bar anyway and check it out for next time.  On the walk over to Central Square we happened to walk passed a music shop called Sandy’s.  I remember buying guitar strings there when I lived in Boston for a short while in 2004.   I had to make a quick double take when I heard and saw a bunch of banjo, fiddle and cello players crammed in the shop and jamming away.

Unbelievably they were having an Old Time open jam session.  I plucked up the courage to ask if I could join them and they were more than welcoming, so I tuned up to the key of A and away we went.  I kept up with the playing as best as I could whilst Michelle, Lisa and Kelly managed to squeeze in to the shop and find a seat.

I shakily shared a couple of songs with the group and learned a good few more.  It was amazingly serendipitous to happen upon the session like that and I was thrilled to get the chance to  play with other clawhammer and traditional fiddle players.  It was interesting to hear the difference in styles between traditional American and Scottish traditional fiddle playing, particularly the cross-tunings and I learned a lot just by listening to what was going on.  I’ve made a good few mental notes of improvements I can make to my playing for the next time I accidentally come across a jam session.

Jon and Kathy, two of the musicians there,  have set up a nice website called planetbanjo.com where you can hear some soundclips of the type of music we were playing.

Here is a link to Sandy’s Music shop in Cambridge: www.sandysmusic.org You can find out more about their instruments,  services and regular jam sessions.

After a wee while we headed off to the Cantab but I was not overwhelmed by the place so decided to head home, my musical appetite already well and truly sated.

We’re in Boston, MA right now to go to a wedding and catch up with some friends. It’s nice to be back in the city and we’re acting like absolute tourists (we even bought mugs from the fake Cheers).

I’ll post more soon but in the meantime I’ll tweet when I get the chance.

Mucking about in “Double C” tuning after a long, stressful day at work.

After having a really good time playing at a session on Sunday I decided to give it another shot.  The Antiquary pub is within walking distance from our flat and it has a session on a Thursday night.  It’s listed in the Edinburgh Gig Guide as an “informal session” so I thought I’d give it a try.

I packed up my banjo and uke and headed off to the pub and ordered up a pint before sitting down to where I assumed the session would be happening.  I tried to introduce myself and make small talk (which is really hard for me as I’m not very outgoing).  Most folks just kind of ignored me and carried on in their conversations so I sat in silence for for around twenty minutes occasionally nodding to the other “new guy” in the bar who looked equally uncomfortable.  This guy had his wife sitting next to him and she didn’t look best pleased to be there.

Folks start getting their instruments out of bags and next thing an Antipodean woman supervised the lifting of a rather large harp to the corner of the table.  She rudely banished the people who were already sitting at the table who were “not musicians” and then instructed New Guy’s wife to move.  At this point New Guy’s wife storms out of the pub.  New Guy follows behind.  Oh joy!

I start to notice that I am the only person around the table who doesn’t have a beard.  I was the only one not wearing a chunky knit jumper. “It’s like  the effing Wicker Man!” – I thought to myself

After another ten minutes of feeling about as welcome as a lion at a zebra convention,  I decided this wasn’t the place for me. ” Bugger this” – I thought.  I didn’t want to be made to feel crap sharing something I enjoy. I grabbed my bags and snuck out.

Maybe next time I should scope places out first before rocking up to a folk-session.

Still, I’m looking forward to my next adventure.  Gives me more time to practise.

If you’re around the Antiquary on a Thursday night and you start to hear songs about the “Landlord’s daughter” – Get the Hell out of there!

This weekend was pretty manic.  We stayed up all night with the church youth group we volunteer for at their annual Easter Vigil.   Much coffee and chocolate was consumed and we rounded the night off nicely with a wee campfire and S’mores – afterwhich I found myself with severe sugar shock…

…so a couple of hours kip later I decided to head back out to Portobello, near Edinburgh to join a Sunday afternoon folk session. 

I’d been humming and hawing about this for weeks now.  I’m pretty comfortable playing in the bedroom but out in public is a whole other story.  After walking into the Dalriada pub and hearing the quality of the musicians at the table I almost turned heel and walked straight back out the door.  There was a banjo player playing three finger style who may have given Scruggs himself a run for his money, a fiddle player, three guitarist/singers, a lefty switching between guitar and clawhammer banjo and me with my ukulele and trusty banjo.

Me – “Any chance I can sit in?  I’m not that good so please be gentle”
Fiddle Player – “Aye, but y’ell hae tae gie us a song”
Me – “Oh Dear” (actually it was a more profane reply but like I said; I’d been up all night)

So off they went, and I tried to keep up.  And they were relatively gentle.  I have to confess chickening out of a couple of solo breaks after a nod came in my direction and I’ve got a world of stuff to learn but it was such a buzz to be playing with proper musicians who seemed so comfortable as to be part of the furniture. 

I don’t know if it was because it was Easter Sunday or because it was such a lovely day but the place was rammed and it was amazing hearing a hundred-odd folks singing along to the likes of “Whiskey in the Jar” and “I’ll Fly Away” as well as some of the Scottish classics too.  The three hours flew by!

Now I’m going to get my “learn on” and prepare for the next session.  Sorry Mish – Better get some earplugs!