Nice to have our pal Don visiting from Traverse City…
OUR pal Don is coming to stay and likely to be with us early afternoon – the new single drops tomorrow, so i need to try and get as much prep done before he arrives.
I set up a new landing page for the website so it can be switched over quickly at midnight, create Facebook covers and get the smart links ready to move from the pre-save campaign to ‘listen now’.
Don arrives just after lunchtime and we spend a few hours catching up over coffee and some snacks before heading to the local pub for a beer…and a dram.
Back home, Margaret’s prepared pinchitos – I get the grill lit outside and start cooking.
We chat and enjoy a few drinks then as midnight approaches I get ready to switch over my website landing page and update the necessary socials then we head off to bed…
FIRST task on today’s to-do list is start pulling together all the info, audio files and images for the Devil May Care album promo link.
I create .mp3 versions of all the tracks, add all the necessary metadata and add them to a Dropbox folder along with cover art and .pdf versions fo the news release and my song-by-song media notes.
In the midst of it all I have a session with one of my Zoom guitar students after which I put some new video teasers round my socials for Meet me in the City which drops Friday.
After a late lunch i carry on building the media resources for the album promo and send my news release of to the folks at Help Musicians for approval. Help Musicians has supported the album project and I want them to be happy with what I’ve said about the organisation in my news release.
I get a quick reply with some very minor changes to my wording and make the necessary updates. i want to have all my ducks in a line ready to start the album PR and promo next week.
We’re taking dinner along to Betty and Joe’s tonight and I decided to make a beef, butternut squash and ancho stew…and want to make sure the beef – and other ingredients – are nice and soft. I prepare it all and give it a good start in the Instant Pot.
Once the grub’s started cooking I have an interview with California magazine Shoutout LA which takes a while but will, hopefully, help me reach some new audiences.
We have a lovely evening with our pals. Haven’t seen them since last week as events kinda overtook me so it’s nice to catch up on stuff 🙂
MY main task today is to put together a song-by-song document to go along with the news release/media pack for the new album…urgency brought about by the need to get a physical CD off the Blues in Britain this morning.
I get a bit distracted when i get to the studio and start messing about animating a character to do some wee promo videos for Friday’s single launch to put round my socials.
When I realise time is tight, I quickly knock up a news release and shove it in a jiffy bag along with a CD and dash to the local postbox to catch last post. I can email all the info later.
When I get back I decide to make some slight adjustments to the Meet me in the City video I edited up yesterday. In my haste to clear out some disk space I accidentally bin – and completely erase – two of the key source movie files I spent hours creating yesterday!
I spend an inordinate amount of time trying to find a free/cheap file recovery tool and despite trying a few that are meant to offer a free trial or limited file size recovery they all seem to require an immediate paid upgrade. Saving grace is that I uploaded the video to YouTube before the clusterfuck, so I can download the file…just means that my proposed tweaking is no longer possible. Ah well – it coulda been worse.
Finally I get started on the song-by-song notes to accompany the Devil May Care news release and finish before it gets too dark to go for a walk up the lochside!
I managed to get the video for Meet me in the City finished and was able to give the Wildcats group a preview in the weekly livestream
UP early to film the performance scenes for the Meet me in the City video. I manage to get the filming finished before my mid-morning guitar session with a Zoom student.
After the guitar lesson I start the edit, take a break to make some chicken ramen for lunch, then back into the edit.There’s a lot of footage and three different green screen shots to make into something useable and it all takes a fair bit longer than I expect.
Most of it’s finished by 7pm when I start a Zoom session with another guitar student then it’s mad panic to finish the video so I can spin it into the Facebook livestream to my Wildcats group…I promised they’d see it first!
IT’S A struggle getting up at the crack o’ dawn to get my gear and a PA system up to Cashel forest for today’s Cashel Bash Autumn Festival but I manage!
Somehow I forgot the iPad I need to control the mixer so I set up what I can then head back home for breakfast, pick up Margaret and Elina and the iPad and get back on site.
We’re there just as the event opens so there’s not too many folks around when I finally soundcheck then we set up a merch table along with a wee display of West Highland Way Gifts stuff.
My first set is at 12.30pm so there’s time to hang out as the site fills up.
There’s quite a few folks we know and Catriona’s brought the kids along too. My second set is at 2pm then we chat with folks and the overall event comes to close.
We get packed up, down the road and I get a bacon-wrapped pork loin on the smoker for dinner before having a kip.
After dinner we sit and chat for a while then have an early night. Margaret’s taking Elina into Glasgow to catch her train first thing in the morning.
STRAIGHT into the office to see what ready-made stuff from West Highland Way Gifts I have kicking around – need to take some bits and bobs to the Cashel Bash Autumn Festival tomorrow.
After breakfast I hit the studio to get some more editing done on the Meet me in the City video. I get quite a lot done then it’s time to go and meet our pal Elina – from Finland, now living in Netherlands. She’s staying a couple of nights as she was in the UK and keen to catch my Cashel Bash gig tomorrow 🙂
Duncan and Irene are coming to dinner tonight too and I vacuum seal the chicken breasts and get them in sous vide so they’ll be ready in time.
We have a grand – if a little later than planned – night…I may be suffering a bit in the morning and I gotta get a PA and all my gear up to Cashel!
I HAVE a bit of scrabble to get some work out the way before JonZip arrives to some work on the track we’ve been recording.
We’d thought two hours might see it finished but in reality it takes a good while longer. That’s OK tho’ – it’s fun and worth taking the time to get it right.
We have an early dinner then head to the village hall for a race night raising funds for the hall. It’s great to see everyone out and we have a grand time.
Nice wee paddle – a year to the day since my first attempt!
AFTER my guitar student is finished and hits the road I get into the studio to do some work before getting ready or a paddle.
It’s quite a nice day – and the last without high winds for a while – so I’ve arranged to meet Fiona and David out on the loch for a paddle. I’m a bit tight for time as I’ve got someone coming to the house for a meeting just after 1pm.
I make it home…and in and out of the shower…in time and have a coffee and chat with Emma from Cashel Native Forest.
I spend the afternoon and well into the evening in the studio pulling together some of the video footage I shot in Glasgow last week. The single drops next Friday so i need to get my skates on and get the video finished!
I make a bunch of badges for the village shop…we’ll see how they go…
AFTER I get the routine stuff out the way i nip down to the village shop with a couple of prototype ‘I climbed Conic Hill’ badges to see if they like them and want to order any.
They do…and order another tub of Balmaha pencils…so I get back to the office and start production!
In between times I go through last week’s video footage for Meet me in the City and discard the duplicate and less exciting shots. There’s about 20 gig of video left.
After lunch i make a meal plan for the next week and send Margaret a shopping list. Looks like our pal Elina is coming to stay Friday and Saturday so I need to decide what we’re gonna be eating.
I spend the afternoon on the merch and deliver it later on then prepare the sous vide chicken to take to Betty and Joe tonight
We have a lovely night with Betty and Joe…Sandy pops in later on… and I get Betty’s new iPhone up and running…
Delighted with my first attempt at making sourdough bread…
UP early to get the oven on and prepare my sourdough loaf. It’s been in the fridge overnight for its final rise.
Once the oven – and dutch oven – is up to temperature i score the dough with a razorblade and get it in the oven for 25 minutes. The the lid comes off the dutch oven and it’s in for another ten or fifteen minutes.
I’m amazed at the result. looks good. Gotta cool for an hour or so before I can cut into it.
By breakfast time it’s cooled enough to cut and..it’s really good! Maybe not quite as ‘airy’ as I’d hoped, but for a first attempt it’s pretty damn good.
In the studio I make a video to promote the t-shirt pre-sales and post it round my socials then it’s back to West Highland Way Gifts production for the village shop order. I’ve got a few other ideas that I wanna prototype too.
The order is finally complete mid-afternoon then I do the paperwork and deliver. Something odd has happened to the laser machine, though, and the camera won’t connect…I fiddle about and can’t sort it…just as well I got the shop order finished.
Margaret’s making an apple and bramble pie tomorrow and asked me to go and collect some brambles…I need some fruit for tomorrow’s breakfast too, so off I go to the wood. The season’s kinda over now and finding decent fruit is a bit of a task but I manage to collect a punnet-full.
While Margaret’s making dinner I spend some time checking the laser in the office. After going through all the troubleshooting it appears I need to replace the camera cable. It’s not an expensive part, but the replacement job looks like a nightmare! i have a look around to see if it’s something I can confidently tackle and must have touched something that was loose and ‘restored’ the connection, It’s back working again!
