I NIP along to the bagel shop a few blocks away and get bagels and a tub of scallion cream cheese and we all have some breakfast and coffee.
Ginny calls the parking place to get the car – her rather nice Genesis (Hyundai’s top end marque) sedan – ready and we take a trip to her place in Port Lookout, Long Island…an amazing beachfront property where we have coffee and hang out a while.
I need to get some stuff in the mail to National Reso-Phonic so we stop at a post office and then the four of us – Margaret, Ginny, Betsy and I – go to J A Heneghan’s for lunch. The food’s great and my brisket, chuck and short rib blend burger is amazing.
Next stop, Melissa and Blake’s a few miles away at Long Beach to hang out and see th kids. We have a grand few hours ending with a game of Monopoly with seven year old Riley who cleans up.
It’s getting late when we get back to Manhattan and we chat over a few drinks before bed.
Margaret gets tickets for the live taping of The Daily Show (Comedy Central)
BETSY – Ginny’s sister and another of my ‘second cousins – has arrived early from the mid-West.
We have coffee and bagels with cream cheese and chat. Margaret, Ginny and Betsy make some plans for coming days and Margaret also manages to book us (free) tickets for the live taping of The Daily Show that goes out later tonight on Comedy Central.
A bus trip down town then a sandwich before we wander across to the studios on the west side where we have an interesting and entertaining time.
Once we’re done at the studios we walk back through Hell’s Kitchen and find a grand wee Mexican place for a beer, tacos and some sides of avocado fries, beans and rice. We continue our walk back to the upper East Side and stop at the Apple Store for a late night gander.
Stephanie Webb at Arlene’s Grocery…part of a fairly random and seemingly uncurated four-act bill
AFTER a good sleep I get up and make coffee….Ginny goes to the dentist and I take a walk to a bagel shop a few blocks away.
Later on we go down to the basement storage and retrieve stuff - National guitar, vinyl, CDs, shirts, a ton of music accessories like guitar stands etc.
We take a walk round the neighborhood and get back into time to head down to Tribeca for a family dinner – great to see everyone…and great food!
Ginny and John go back to the apartment and some of the others drop us off at Arlene’s Grocery where there’s a multi-band line up. We’ve missed the first act….the band on when we get in is OK and followed by Stephanie Webb and her band. An accomplished bunch, good songs but the singer – Stephanie – doesn’t quite work for me. Still good tho’.
The final band is not that great but all in we have a fine time and get the subway back up to Lexington and 63rd then walk the few blocks back to Ginny’s apartment.
OUR plane lands a good half hour early…and we pretty much walk straight through Homeland Security…first time since we started coming to the USA that we haven’t had to queue for hours!
Our bags take a little longer to come onto the carousel, but overall it’s pretty seamless. I message Ginny to let her know where we are and she picks us up and takes up to the apartment. It’s minus seven, but a nice sunny day 🙂
John gets back soon after and we blether over a coffee then Margaret’s and I go for a wee walk along the East River. We’re not out long, though, ‘cos Margaret’s feeling the cold.
Back at the apartment GInny orders a load of sushi and we eat, enjoy a beer then get an early night. We’re puggled.
AFTER the usual early sourdough I hit the studio and start mixing the tracks for the Blind WIllie Johnson EP.
An online session with a guitar student gives me a break from the mixing then I get back to it.
After lunch I have some merch to finish then I edit some video from the Gartmore show to spin into tonight’s Wildcats’ livestream on Facebook.
After listening to the mixes and making a few adjustments I start a simple mastering process then take a break when my late afternoon guitar student arrives.
We’ll be up at 5am tomorrow (Tuesday) to get to Edinburgh airport for our New York flight and there’s a bunch of stuff to get sorted. I also need to get all mastered tracks, metadata and artwork for the new EP off to my digital aggregator for general release on Friday 6 March.
Suddenly it’s livestream time…all goes fine, then dinner and a not so early night.
UP AT a decent time for breakfast and a wee bit of a tidy up before our pals Jake and Ali stop by.
Having visitors is a good way to prompt a tidy up and the place is in good shape when they roll up.
We have a good couple hours catching up over coffee before they head off and I go in to the studio to finish recording the Blind WIllie Johnson tracks for the March EP.
In between takes I get some stuff ready for taking to NYC on Tuesday – I have some gifts and stuff for family as well as some stuff I wanna send to National in California.
A BIT of a mad rush to get out the door and off to Doune…we’re looking after the kids today and need to get there so Catriona and her pal can get off to St Andrews for a girls’ day.
Will’s come off night shift and in bed when we get there and we let Catriona and Lindsay get on their way.
After hanging out for a while we take the kids to McDonalds then to the park in Stirling where they potter about the skatepark on their bike and scooter.
When we get back WIll’s up and getting ready for another night shift. We chat or a while while the kids have dinner then Will heads off…and half-hour later Catriona gets back and we have something to eat before making for home.
BETTY drops by for a coffee and we’re still in bed…not sleeping, I’ve been awake for a few hours, made coffee and busy with some online stuff. Emails, socials, invoices, gig listings and stuff.
We have a coffee with Betty, then a late breakfast before I dump some more video footage into the machine in the studio.
After a ,little more work I head out on the loch for a paddle. It’s not a very nice day, but not too windy and probably the last chance I’ll have before we head of to NYC on Tuesday.
While on the loch I do a quick livestream update then decide to head back to the bay – it’s freezing and I can’t feel my fingers!
Back home a shower than a (very) late lunch before going to get some stuff done in the studio.
EVEN with a long lie I’m feeling completely broken. Everything hurts. I really need to get match fit….although I’m sure most of my aches and pains are down to the gear and set up rather than playing the show!
First job is to unpack the car at the studio and then the office. Next, there’s al the video footage to get off the cameras.
While the video’s downloading I take a wee walk and stop into Betty’s to sort a router issue.
Margaret’s away to get some shopping when I get back and I start importing another load of video. For some reason, though, I had the GoPro on auto exposure which has resulted in pretty much unusable video from that camera. Down to trying to do too much I guess – sound, lighting, soundchecks etc with the cameras on top of it all. I’ll learn one day!
Black Bull, Gartmore – first gig of the year…and sold out 🙂
AFTER breakfast and the usually email/socials/admin stuff I go ton the studio to prep and pack all the gear for tonight’s show in Gartmore which is now sold out 🙂
There’s no PA/sound at the venue and although there’s some stage lighting, it’s kinda cheesy ‘disco roadshow’ stuff, so I need to sort out a couple of lights to take too.
In addition, I wanna try and grab some video of the gig so pack some camera stuff and a field recorder too.
I’ve just finished packing the car when Betty arrives – we’re giving her a lift to (and from) Gartmore and although we’re going early too set up she‘ll hang out with some pals in the village before they come to the show.
Set up all goes fine and once Duncan and Cy – who’re opening the show – are soundchecked we have some dinner and I set up the extra lights, cameras etc.
The night goes grand and the room is packed…more than sold out…not bad for a Wednesday evening in the middle of nowhere!
