Each time I do, what price do I pay?

I’m looking forward to a quiet festive season with family. I’ll likely have time to reflect on 2024, unfortunately a large feature has been family health issues. Of course there have been good things,

and many people will have had a worse 2024. Even so, I fear I’ll struggle to find enough positives to outweigh the negatives, but there’s no harm in trying.

From a musical perspective, I’ve continued to enjoy a weekly jam session in a trio throughout the year. In February I had a photo shoot which produced some good new, and much needed, promo photos. In August I released an EP of cover songs. Two of the tracks ‘Imagine’ and ‘I’m a Believer’ are still getting regular plays on social media; also, my version of ‘Jingle Bells’ is doing quite well at the moment. However, my main musical achievement of 2024 has been good progress with my second album.

“Seek deep meaning, but settle for less, each time I do, what price do I pay?” is a line I wrote for one of the songs on the album. I released a medley from the album as a single in March 2022. By then I thought I had all of the album written and arranged, with the bulk of the recording done. I believed I would easily finish it within a few months. As it turned out, I was very wrong.

As I tried to finish the album, I began to realise that many of the tracks were lacking something. Try as I may, I couldn’t pin-point what the problems were. I wasted a lot of time trying changes that didn’t work. I just couldn’t turn those tracks into something I was happy with. Maybe I had some kind of composer’s/arranger’s block. Whatever it was it felt uncomfortable and was frustrating.

About a third of the way through 2023 I decided to take a break from trying to complete the album. I returned to the task in early spring 2024. Almost magically, things ‘started to click’ and I was able to make the changes I felt were needed.

Next, I decided that two of tracks didn’t really fit in well with the rest of the album’. I’m replacing the two tracks with my version of ‘House of the Rising Sun’ and a song that I wrote during 2023. I’m still working on recording these two, but it’s going well. (The two removed songs will feature a later project). I once again believe that the album is nearly complete. I really hope that I’m not being overly optimistic again.

This is a link to a 45 second promo video for my version of Jingle Bells:      https://youtube.com/shorts/mAmqSL4h1Ls?feature=share

I wish you a Merry Xmas and I hope that 2025 is happy and prosperous for you.

Thanks for reading.

Best wishes.

Dave