WELCOME TO 2020

As we recover from Christmas myths and find ourselves careering towards the reality of January, it seems like not much has changed since last year. The tragedy of the Australian fires and the toll on people, communities, whole towns destroyed and the desecration of wild life. The climate crisis seems to be melting its truth on everyone except those in power. Trump is up to his old tricks, war with Iran a possibility, the downing of commercial airlines, the murder of the innocents. Hong Kong still in turmoil, knife crime in London and then all those terrible things that are happening everywhere that seem to be forgotten after the initial burst of outrage. We don’t seem to have heard about the Kurds for a while, the Palestine/Israel conflict, Syria. Imagine all the tragedies that don’t make the news.

In my head I wonder about my own world and try to keep my attention on music, the different projects, the writing, the singing, the playing, the touring, the online sessions, the In Deep Music Archive and I mourn the loss of others who dedicated their life to musical endeavours. In 2019 we lost Ginger Baker, Ric Ocasek, Hal Blaine, Eddie Money, Peter Tork, Dr. John, Paul Whaley from Blue Cheer, Ted McKenna from The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter, Mark Hollis, Keith Flint, Dick Dale, Bernie Tormé, Scott Walker, Paul Raymond from UFO, Leon Redbone, Roky Ericsson, Art Neville, Canned Heat’s bass player Larry Taylor, Neil Casal, Larry Wallis, Paul Barrere from Little Feat, George Chambers from The Chambers Brothers, Neil Innes and many many more whose records I may not have owned. In the last couple of days we lost Neil Peart.

All this death and destruction but we have to carry on and deal with the loss of our heroes and as we get older the reality of losing our friends or family becomes inevitable. Hopefully new life will spring up, the causers of harm will see the error of their ways and the future will still be there. The legacy of those that have gone before us endures. My year is already jam packed with adventure and positivity and Olivia and I will be sending out all kinds of colourful messages, drawing attention to what we are up to. The year begins with a European tour (dates below), everything else that’s happening we’ll post in the coming weeks and months.

Thanks to everyone for constant support and encouragement, see you out there with our violins and our 12 string guitars, our songs and our lyrics, our melodies and our anecdotes – can’t wait.

MWP