I puppy-sat my stepdaughter's puppy 'Lo Ki' earlier this month. I had not been alone with him before. I think he was a little frightened at first and he became a little aggressive. However I managed to calm him and we got on fine. Unfortunately I couldn't get him to do his business in the garden as I was supposed to.
Recently I joined a walking group (short walks 2-3 miles, about 15 people). In May we had peasant walk around two lakes in Greatstone. It was nice to be completely away from traffic - I hadn't realised that the lakes existed until then. This month we did Dungeness. We had a pleasant walk on a unique shingle 'desert' which has lots of wild flowers in June, some rare.
As to my music - 'Keep On Coming-EDM' has continued to receive daily plays on Spotify - more than a year after its release. 'Because We're Ending', has received plays on most days since its release 3 years ago. A few of my other tracks have consistently had at least a few plays each week on Spotify. I'm pleased and gratified that there are people who like my songs enough to keep on playing them.
I took a break from recording during the first few months of 2023, but I did make a few short impromptu live performances at the Cheriton Community Centre. I performed songs including 'I Shall Be Released', 'Girl', 'Hound Dog', 'The First Cut Is the Deepest' 'Because We're Ending', 'So Happy' and 'Tricks of Life Medley'.
I’m now back to recording again. I have two things in the pipeline - some cover songs ( maybe an EP or maybe an album) and an album of original songs/instrumentals entitled 'Tricks of This Life' .
The compositions for 'Tricks of This Life' are complete and the album is partially recorded. I can't put my finger on it but I was not completely happy with it so last year I suspended work on it. I've decided to do some cover songs and then come back to 'Tricks of This Life'. I hope I can get it the way I want it after a break.
I'm working on covers of songs by The Beatles, Bob Dylan, The Kings of Leon, Led Zeppelin, Neil Young, BB King, Eric Clapton, Cream, The Rolling Stones, Buddy Holiday, Billy Ray Cyrus and Robert Johnson, for possible inclusion on my covers release. Most of the songs will have more up-to-date arrangements than the originals.
The majority of candidates for the covers album are songs I love that frequently went down well when I performed them live, I want to record my versions. There are also two or three songs that haven't been part of my usual live repertoire, but that I love, and that I feel I can achieve a worthwhile cover of. I hope that I can complete some of the covers in time to release them later this year.
Thanks for reading my blog.
Dave
