Live at the Fox's Den radio show

I had the pleasure of playing live on Bill Horncastle's 'Fox's Den Radio Show', on Friday 4 April. It was the 16th anniversary of their first ever show, which made it doubly special. The show goes out every Friday on Vixen 101.8 and 103.1 FM.

Bill is a huge advocate for playing music by independent artists, and the show is packed with brilliant, weird and wonderful tracks. Over the course of the evening, from 9pm until midnight, Bill's guests play 9 live tracks.

Normally, I only play my own songs, but recently I've been throwing in a couple of covers to my sets that are representative of my influences and musical direction. So in among my original songs, the set list for the show also included 'Girl from the North Country' by Bob Dylan, 'The Highwayman' by Jimmy Webb, and the far more well known 'Knocking on Heaven's Door', also by Bob Dylan.

'House of the Rising Sun' is my favourite. There have been so many different interpretations of this over the decades, and it's another song brought to prominence by Dylan. However, for me it was The Animals version that captured my imagination growing up. I think I was mesmerised from the first time I heard it. Goodness knows how old I was - possibly around 7 or 8 years.

You can watch my live radio version of 'House of the Rising Sun' on this Facebook post: House of the Rising Sun - Live on the Fox's Den Radio Show

Of course, I still love playing my own songs and I've recently been bringing back into my set list some tracks long ignored - slightly different pace, some with a capo for a different key - generally messing about and having some fun with them.

'Let it Rain' from the All My Ghosts album is the most streamed of all my Spotify tracks, at around 13,000. I don't think that's too shabby, although it isn't going to make me enough money to retire on. Below is the Spotify link to the original version:

If you want to listen to a rougher take on Let it Rain, below is the live version played at Fox's Den Radio Show (opens in YouTube). Annoyingly, as I uploaded it as a 'YouTube short', it times out at 3 minutes, missing the last 30 seconds or so.

Anyway, here's to all the independent artists just out there doing their thing. And if you want to share your music more widely, Bill is always on the look out for guests to play live in the Fox's Den studio on a Friday night. You can find out more about the show, who the next live act is and how you can contact Bill, via the web page: Fox's Den Radio Show

Woodstock Music Festival 2023

Time passes quickly and the wonderful moments in our life can quickly become footnotes in our memories, where we can easily question whether something even happened or not. Or, we pine for those moments to come around again, not knowing if they ever will.

And so it is that over a month has passed since I was the opening act at the Woodstock Music Festival, in the Town of Woodstock, Alabama, USA. You can check out a few of the songs I performed live on YouTube - click on the image to get there.

It would be natural for anyone to think that the highlight of my trip was performing to over two thousand people from a big stage in glorious sunshine. Add to that the signing of autographs, photo requests, people wanting to discuss particular songs with you - "I loved House of Fools", "I really understood Starlight, and the grief you talked about, thank you", "Oh, Let it Rain got me right here", as they put a hand to their heart.

From a singer songwriter perspective you feel validated. And that's really nice. I'm sure there were many people there who were indifferent to my music. And that's okay too. Because that's the beauty of music, accepting differences in peoples tastes, likes and dislikes. But what I find you always get from people who like music - particularly those who listen to live music - is that despite those differences, there's an appreciation and acceptance of those differences, which doesn't negatively impact on a relationship.

However, the highlight for me wasn't the bit about me performing, it was about how I was welcomed and looked after. I'm not got going to go into detail. But from being greeted at the airport, fed, hosted, not having to worry about a single thing the whole week...that is what was wonderful about it.

You've probably heard talk of the famous southern hospitality. That's what I got. Now, most of that special looking after came from people I've classed as friends for some time now (since I first performed at the festival in 2019), in the form of Cheryl Dodson, Mayor Jeff Dodson, Kellye and Keefe Burt, without whom I wouldn't have felt completely at home.

But the hospitality and friendliness stretched way beyond that from everyone else. There wasn't a single person who didn't go out of there way to say hello, have a friendly smile, talk, discuss, laugh...and at the end of the night share their moonshine. There were many, many people I was introduced to, and I'm grateful to all of them for their kindness.

They say home is where the heart is and there's definitely a piece of mine in the Town of Woodstock.

The Dead Poet music - 2022 in review

Overall, 2022 has been a year of progress. Little steps. Positive ones. Here’s a snap-shot.

All My Ghosts - released on all streaming platforms

In October I decided to release my album All My Ghosts online, and come the beginning of November 2022 there it was. I’ve got earlier music online in the form of two EP’s, Sirens and Sentinels (2018) and Urbanista (2020).

In the first month All My Ghosts streamed double the amount of all my previous music. Whilst we’re not talking the millions of streams the big stars get, or even the hundreds of thousands other bands get, this is about personal progression and recognising the journey whilst you’re on it.

Since its release online I’ve also seen two songs register 1000+ streams for the first time - ‘House of Fools’ and ‘The Letter’. My monthly listeners is as high as it’s ever been at 58, up from 2 at the end of October.

Streaming figures (Spotify) since 25th January 2023:

• All My Ghosts - 9,484

• Urbanista - 977

• Sirens and Sentinels - 2,605

People have listened in 30 different countries and over 70 different cities.

Get All My Ghosts online - Streaming links here

All My Ghosts - CD and book release

Prior to streaming online, in early May 2022 I released All My Ghosts on CD and with an accompanying book, which includes all the song lyrics and for each song a loosely related short story.

100% of sales revenue goes to Platform 1 crisis mental health charity, based in Huddersfield. Although it hasn’t sold as many copies as I’d have liked, it has generated an amount of money which I’m pleased with and I’ll be making that donation to Platform 1 in Spring 2023.

You can still order a CD and book here - Shop for All My Ghosts

Open-mic nights and live performances

I’ve lost track of the number of open-mic nights and live performances I’ve done this year.

It’s not just the performing live music which has been good, but the number of people you meet along the way. I’ve played Huddersfield, Bradford, Leeds and there are some really good people out there, not only sharing their music but hosting and encouraging new artists. It’s a real community which continues to grow. I’m grateful for this.

Radio plays

I’m also grateful to several local independent radio stations who have played several different tracks multiple times from All My Ghosts, over the past few weeks.

• Smile Radio

• Beverley FM

• West Norfolk Radio

• Kalypso-gold

It’s great that there are independent radio stations prepared to dedicate air time to playing new music from unsigned artists.

Platform 1 live music Christmas fundraiser

I wanted to do more fundraising for Platform 1, so between me and a couple of wonderful people, we collectively organised and performed a live music fundraiser. Together with additional support from the team at Platform 1, we pulled off a really successful event, raising just short of £1,000.

As someone who works full time and doesn't have much spare time to give back outside of work and playing music, this was a way to make a contribution to a charity that does so much great work supporting people in real need.

Coming in 2023

As we approach the end of 2022, I’m already planning for next year.

• New material - I’m writing and practising new material that I hope to record in February.

• New releases - I’ll be taking a look at what new songs I want to release online and get these out in the Spring.

• Live performances - I’m hoping to go back and play the Woodstock Music Festival (Alabama) in May, so I will be doing plenty of live performances in the build-up to that.

After that I’ll be looking to do more gigs and hopefully contribute to people having a good night out.

I hope people will continue to share in my journey. I’m grateful to all those who’ve supported me already, and to those who continue to do so.