Nice to catch up with Jane and Angus over dinner 🙂
ANOTHER early start to get the custom gifts order finished, packed and ready to be collected later.
The album launch event is tomorrow (Wednesday) and I need to confirm the guest list ASAP so there’s lots of chasing and stuff to be done! Typically the folks who said they coming and haven’t yet RSVP’d to the eventbrite link are the ones who are now unable to come 😉
Anyway, I want to concentrate on those who ARE coming.
I still need to get the lyrics for some of the new songs into my head…and run through my set list for the launch.
Having seen the photos from the guitar shop it’s clear I need a haircut. Luckily I’m able to sort a late appointment this evening with Alison at the hairdresser in the village.
In the kitchen I do some prep and marinade some flank steak for the grill later – our pals Jane and Angus are coming for dinner.
I’d somehow forgotten that all my guitars need re-strung for tomorrow and the subsequent tour dates. I get part way through, go for my haircut, then finish off just as Jane and Angus arrive…
UP early – bread’s in the oven..and out again. While it cools I get busy finishing off some of the stuff for a special custom Christmas gift order.
After breakfast I do some work on the album launch guest list then have my first guitar student of the day on Zoom.
With the album launch on Wednesday and tour dates right after I really need to learn some of the songs form the new album! I run through a few. Playing ’em is easy enough…remembering the words is the hard part!
Another box of Jiffy bags arrives and I get the rest of the pre-order CDs ready for the post in the morning.
There’s still some press/media stuff to be done for a few of the shows and The Cluny in Newcastle has asked for a video to help promote the show. I make up square and vertical promo videos for each show.
I have another Zoom guitar student at 7pm…then it’s straight into my Wildcats’ livestream at 8pm.
Margaret has dinner ready then it’s back into the office ’til midnight.
LOTS of work still to be done on a special order of Christmas gifts…so while Margaret goes to the village hall to hold a Q&A on local place plans, I stay in the office.
There’s a load of CD pre-orders to be labelled up to go in the post first thing tomorrow.
Once I’ve caught up with myself a bit I pull on my boots and take a walk to the hall to catch the send of the session and get a lift back.
I’m in the studio when Catriona and the kids rock up. I join them for a quick coffee then get back to it. There’s a load of work to be done on the album launch event, the gigs and the album release…let alone all the other stuff going on.
In between times I take a break to make some sourdough bread dough….then mix and bottle a batch of my ‘ultimate beard oil’ ready for the merch table next week.
It’s well after 8pm when I get back to the house and fire up the pizza oven. We eat outside then watch our pal Bill’s monthly livestream concert from Florida…
A full house for my session on the live stage at Glasgow Guitar Show…
A BIT of a panic getting everything ready and all the gear sorted for my parts at the Glasgow Guitar Show.
Doors open at 11am and I open the live stage at 11.30am…and I;m doing a masterclass at 1.20pm. The masterclass, apparently, has been over subscribed three-fold!
We get to the Pearce Institute just before 11am and load in through a side door. The sound engineer is great and I’m set up and ready to in plenty of time. It’s a full house…I’m surprised at the turnout given it’s early doors.
We have quick coffee then set up our merch spot in the main exhibition hall…then it’s time for me to run my masterclass. Another full house with folks waiting outside 🙂
The rest of the event is spent chatting to folks in the exhibition hall then we pack up and drop in to see our pals Sheena and Paul.
Next stop is JonZip and Maggi where we run through plans for JonZip’s guest slot on the upcoming Scottish shows.
We pick up some shopping for Betty then head for home, stopping to drop off Betty’s stuff and having a quick drink with her, Shona and Kirsty. We pop in to say hello to Joe although he’s asleep.
Arthur places a wreath on behalf of the local community trust…piper Willie Little plays at the Rowardennan war memorial
UP BEFORE 7am to get on the chat with TSO Host to see what’s gone wrong with all my websites…and all our email accounts.
I start at number 29 in the queue. While I’m waiting I call the eye hospital and manage to make an emergency appointment for this afternoon. Feels like something’s not quite right with my right eye.
It takes ’til about 9.30am to get to ‘chat’ with someone and have things sorted out. Appears that the .htaccess files for all the websites had a ‘forbidden’ rule in them., Well, it wasn’t me…and they suggest it might be the security software I use…but I only use that on some of the websites. They can’t see anything amiss with the email accounts.
I can’t be certain, but I have my suspicions that it’s connected in some what to the company’s deprecation of the old gridhost technology.
Anyway, the websites are all up and running and I set about resetting and reinstalling email accounts across all our computers and devices which seems to clear the email issues.
A phone call tells me our pal Rab Noakes – who’s been in hospital for what everyone expected to be a fairly routine op, – has taken a turn for the worse overnight. He’s in a coma and it’s not looking good. Jeez.
I have to go to Rowardennan and take some pix of the local community trust’s wreath laying at the war memorial. When I get back I haven’t much time to post the images online and then get the bus, then train, into Glasgow for my eye hospital appointment.
In a way it’s worked out quite well as I have a meal with some of the guitar show folks later and it means Margaret doesn’t;t have to drive me in.
I’m en route when I get another call to tell me Rab has gone. It’s quite a shock. I call a few others who are close to him let them know the sad news before it starts getting out on the internet.
The consultant at the eye hospital confirms that the uveitis is back in my right eye. Damn. Back on steroids and a follow up appointment in about six weeks.
I make my way slowly to the venue for our meal and have a great night with the guitar show folks and some other guests including my pal Tom Russell. Margaret picks me up soon after 11pm.
I TRY and get some merch packed up before my guitar student rocks up.
She’s been on holiday for a couple weeks but doing pretty good.
After our session I have to head to a school in Balloch where I’ve few hours helping sort some gear out and planning some music stuff with a magic wee bunch of folk.
Back home I go out for a walk before dark..then find out my website – and emails – are down. Jeez.
I go to a community drop-in about local road repairs with Margaret then set about trying to sort then web and email hosting debacle….mmm…meantime, I sous vide a piece of flank steak for dinner.
I really don’t need this shit with social ads linking to my – currently down – website…and an imminent album release, launch and tour dates.
….I wait four hours in an online chat queue with my web host ’til well after midnight…then the online chat service shuts down,. Fuck.
ANOTHER day of heavy press/media promo for the album and subsequent tour dates.
A welcome break for a Zoom session with a guitar student then it’s back on the hussle.
I make up some social posts for the upcoming shows, rehearse some of the new material – words which still escape me – then have a new student coming to the house. Phew.
UP EARLY again – need to get a load of stuff done and out the way before James from Maramedia comes to do some filming.
He’s grabbing some content to pitch for a possible TV programme about people and businesses around Loch Lomond.
We have a coffee and then James shadows me for the rest of the day and shoots some informal interview kinda stuff as we go. During the day I have a Zoom meeting with Smokehead about next week’s media/industry album launch and I make up some teaser videos for Walk the Walk from the album.
Once James is done there’s time for a quick walk. I drop in and see Betty and Joe then go back to the studio to make another couple of videos for Walk the Walk – a vertical version for reels/stories on my socials, a Spotify canvas and another version for TikTok.
I’m finished in time to go to the village hall for a meeting. It’s well after 9pm when we het back…and after 10pm before dinner’s ready….
UP at the crack of dawn – loads to get through today.
Once the bread’s out the oven and cooling on a rack I get egg bites in the Instant Pot and do some epoxy prep in the office…there’s a bunch of inlays to be done on chopping boards I engraved yesterday. There’s also some wood and epoxy earring orders needing made up.
I print postage and customs labels for all the overseas CD pre-orders. Keen everyone gets their CD by or before the release date of 18 November…and some of the orders contain other merch items too. Not so much pressure to get the UK orders out.
After my first Zoom guitar student of the day I get back onto the PR/media stuff for the album release tour then follow up on the invites to the private media/industry launch event on 16 November.
I also need to check the PA system and mixer. Something weird was going on with the rig at the garden concert and then again when I took it to Cashel for the Cashel Bash festival. We don’t use it often, but I need to get things straightened out before it goes away otherwise I;ll forget and be hit with problems next time it comes out.
Seems to be some kind of issue with the mixer. I can’t see nay weird settings or out/routing errors, so I reset the whole damn thing …and all works. Just means the whole mix will need to be set up form scratch next time we use it.
Suddenly the day’s gone and it’s time for another session with a Zoom guitar student. Then the WIldcats’ livestream.
After dinner I put together an eNewsletter for the local community trust and manage to get myself to bed by midnight.
MARGARET’S woken by Freya at 7.30am…and it’s not long before she comes to papa!
By the time I’m out the shower, Margaret’s given both Freya and Aaron breakfast…I catch up on some work then have something toe at and a coffee.
We take the kids to the ponds to feed the ducks then back home for lunch.
It’s nearly 4pm when Catriona and Will get back. We have a quick chat then hit the road. I’ve a lot of gift orders to I’ve a bunch of personalised gifts to prepare for a customer and there’s an Etsy order to sort out too.
After getting the pork, chorizo and butter bean casserole on the go I make some sourdough and feed the remaining starter before getting on with some more promo for he upcoming shows.
