Musical self isolation

Hello again,

Not much to report here on the music scene since social distancing and self-isolation is closing most of the venues. I know it's for the greater good, but as many musicians are one man bands, my heart goes out to them, as I do feel that many will have no financial resilience and the government hasn't yet come up with a viable package for the self-employed.

So a big shout out to  Mike Brocken from BBC Radio Merseyside's Folkscene, who reviewed my latest album, Full Moon, and played a track from it, Mad Marion, on the fantastic St Patrick's Day episode. The review comes at around 32 minutes into the programme, but if you're into folk music I highly recommend you listen to the whole hour, as Mike plays some excellent stuff. From household names to young folk starting out, there's a wonderful blend of good listening in every episode. Listen here.


Part of being a folk musician is getting out to hear what others are doing and also making music together whenever we can. Sadly, due to Coronavirus, this is no longer possible, so in these challenging times we need as much music as we can get to lift our spirits. Folkscene is my favourite local folk show, so I was shocked to read on its Twitter feed that yesterday's programme may be the last one for several months. Programmes like Folkscene do a great job and I shall miss my weekly dose.

I've been wanting to find time to explore GarageBand, the Apple app for home recording. Although I'm quite computer savvy and can handle Photoshop, Word, etc, I have a dread of learning this new app. I'm gathering up all the self-motivation I can muster as it's now the only way I can record more tracks. To date I've watched a few basic YouTube videos and I've managed to lay some guitar tracks down, but small things like deleting the metronome are still beyond me. So if any of you can recommend an idiot's guide or have tips on the basics of recording and editing in GarageBand I'd be very interested and grateful to hear them.

Until next time, it would be great to hear from you. Stay safe and well xo


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