I WAKE in a panic thinking the XS-Fest in south Wales is this weekend…it’s not, it’s next weekend.Phew!
Makes me realise I won’t be around for next Sunday’s Dave Arcari’s Deep Blues on Rock.Scot – so as well as all the prep for this week’s show, I need to prep and pre-record next week’s show…and I have a busy week coming up. I hit the studio.
The rest of the morning is spent gathering potential tracks for Sunday – going through my own music collection and listening through all the submissions. Most of the submissions are good stuff, but only a tiny percentage fits with the kinda stuff I play on my show.
I’m not sure if folks submit music without even looking to see what I play…or whether their music is more mainstream than they think. Or maybe they know it’s not a good fit but think “he might play it anyway”…!
The new song idea that I’ve been messing around with for ages – the guitar bit, not lyrics – gets some attention. The stumbling block has been getting any kind of top line melody to fit around a one-chard repetitive, full country-style guitar part. Any chord changes ruin he hypnotic, droning feel I’m looking for and while a sung melody is gonna be pretty simple and sparse it’s hard coming up something to fit. From a melodic rather than a lyrical viewpoint.
I persevere and make a little progress then go for a wander up the lochside.
