Last Saturday, I spent a pleasant morning shooting some pictures of Miss Foxglove’s latest accessories collection, in the Castle Gardens, Wallingford.
You can see the pics in Miss Foxglove’s gallery section, and on the homepage!
In association with guitarist Simon Nelson, a new guitar rhythm trainer app, 8Strummer, has been launched on the iPhone App Store.
Based on the principle of having many configurations of strum and rest strokes in an eighth-note pattern, 8Strummer allows a guitarist to practice rhythm patterns alongside a guide track of variable tempo. It also functions as a great songwriting tool, since random patterns can be generated. Your favourite patterns can be stored to a list of favourites.
Click here to find the app on the App Store.
(Non-iPhone users fear not: an Android version will follow in due course!)
I’m honoured to be on bass duties for The Organ Grinders at the Ashburton Blues Festival in Devon this weekend, supporting none other than Muddy Waters Jr., son of the blues legend himself.
Be there for the Saturday evening session (28th May 2011 from 6pm) to catch this awesome band in full swing (and funk, and latin, and blues)…
I am very pleased that I’ll be playing bass with Band of Hope at Wood Festival this year, on Saturday May 21st at 1pm. Wood is a great festival with strong green credentials – running as it does entirely from renewable energy. In addition to all the great music there are workshops, discussions and places to eat and drink. Day tickets are available, as well as weekend tickets allowing camping in the lovely surroundings of Braziers Park.
According to Wood Festival’s own news blog: “Festival regulars Band of Hope open up the Wood stage on Saturday with beautiful pastoral folk-rock…”. So there…!
Performing with me in The Invisible Few were Maff Potts (keyboards), Tom Crook (guitar) and Mark McKee (drums). See below for a video of one of our tunes, “Two”.
Mark and myself also appeared as a two-piece incarnation of The Invisible Few the following afternoon, for Thrive’s Trunkwell Gardens, near Reading, open for the NGS.
See also the ReverbNation link on the right hand side of every page here! >>
Yes, phone cameras are generally rubbish, in terms of quality. But, since we seem to carry them wherever we go, there is always an opportunity to snap. I spotted this picture and had only seconds to act before my cat, Mitten, resumed his cleaning duties, or the sunshine faded.
Photo by Ben Smith
I will be joining Gordon Buss as we take on the Ugly Dog Poetry persona on Sunday 17th April at around 8pm. Gordon’s intricate, mesmerising, hard-hitting and thought-provoking poetry will be on the menu, while I will be providing a improvised double bass accompaniment.
The venue is the Blagrave Arms, Reading (RG1 1PW), where a new series of live music and poetry events is beginning on Saturday and Sunday evenings.