I’ve got blisters on my fingers

A good weekend. On Sunday I played a short set at the Apollo Sessions (aka The Bleeding Horse Sessions). With Tuesday being a holiday in Ireland (St.Patrick’s Day) I took Monday off and decided to leave the car at home and enjoy the gig.

I think Fiach and John have found a great venue (The Bleeding Horse pub on Dublin’s Camden Street).

As far as I can tell the pub was an old house and has a myriad of staircases and balconies. In the backroom they setup a small PA and light which was just perfect for the room. In between pre-booked acts (of which I was one) it is an open-mic setup so anyone can wander in and play a couple of songs.

With it being that weekend it was no surprise to find plenty of tourists. Transient is how I would describe the audience. The same folk at the start of the night were not there when I did my set. I performed 4 songs (‘Holding On’, ‘What Do I Know?’, ‘Be Alright’ and ‘Devil & The Deep Blue Sea’).   I guess they went down well – are people just being polite when they applaud? Singer-songwriter insecurities like this do my head in ! I need to name and shame those SSIs whenever they appear. I think that’ll be the trick.

To me, these songs are old. Some are almost 2 years old. I have to remind myself that to the audience they are brand new. Not that I am in the same league as Ron Sexsmith but I’m sure he thinks ‘Secret Heart’ is old as the trees and feels like a cover version when he’s performing it.  I’d feel short changed if I went to see Ron live and he didn’t play songs like ‘Secret Heart’ and ‘Lebanon Tennessee’.

Fiach said something very complimentary after my set (along the lines of not being able to get one of my songs out of his head – see I told you it was a compliment !). John asked if I’d be back next week. I’d love to. Of course I would. But will I be overstaying my welcome ? There I go again with the SSI . . .

Inspired by the gig on Sunday I took some time on Monday to write a new song. ‘Bed For Sale’ was inspired by something Chris Difford said in the Songbook show. He met his song writing partner Glenn Tilbrook having read a note posted in a shop window “among the beds for sale”. That got me thinking about the story behind a bed for sale. What happened that the bed was for sale – and so on. I’m always looking for a story to build a song on.

Tuesday was a national holiday so of course I spent it in my studio…

I’ve decided to pause working on my album for a couple of weeks. I’m going to get 4 acoustic songs onto an EP so that I can have something out there. Since I have the facility to duplicate & print CD-Rs and the cost of printing a simple envelope is not much it leaves me with no excuse !

Today my fingers are sore. No blisters (yet) but damn they’re sore. It’s been a while since I played guitar for so long. At the end of the day two things bugged me: my voice was warmed up but I could barely play guitar (usually it’s the other way around) and secondly I was disappointed at the quality of my performance. I know I can do better. I was trying to do it ‘live’ in the style of a radio session. It sounds like a demo. That’s not what I want. I’m going to have to do it like a recording: get the guitar down and then overdub the vocal.

Guess what I’ll be doing for the next couple of evenings ?