Rehearsing today or more looking at songs we can play for the MOAT campaign internet concert shows. Requests have been coming in and it’s a mixture of things, songs I haven’t played before that I can try, old ex-band songs that I didn’t sing but played on that I could try plus my own songs from the years past. I’ve never been asked to sing It’s No Reason, Almost With You, and A Month Of Sundays before. Russian Autumn Heart and Destination are pretty hard to play with acoustic 12 string and violin from your front room. Two Places At Once is another odd request for obvious reasons but I’ve played Into My Hands and Milky Way before and they are certainly doable. Songs from solo records, She’s King, Water, Melody Of The Rain, Will I Start To Bleed, You Whisper, are all possible in this format but Scandinavian Stare kinda needs effects. Velvet Fuselage I’ve tried once before with a small band, might work acoustic with a new arrangement. Songs with riffs that go through them rather than chords can be tricky too like Sanctuary or Reptile. 10,000 Miles and Spark might be a bit rowdy for the front room, Lullaby For The Lonely a bit too springy, but Hey There should work and as for the request for Field Of Mars – might just work against all odds.

So having been part of so many albums in more than one band, the repertoire might be quite extensive but what is it with all these religious connections to my musical past, All About Eve, The Saints, the church. I’m not a religious person at all. They sometimes call music a religious experience but perhaps you need to know what experience of religion is to know if you’re having a musical religious experience. I was watching the inauguration today, Biden is a very religious man and as he leads the new administration in America there’s a feeling of relief in the whole world because despite what you think of him you get the feeling that he might be a good man – first woman Vice Pres can’t be bad either. This doesn’t mean that the world will suddenly become a utopia but if it’s one step closer to a feeling of acceptance and a movement towards living in a multi-cultural society, where at least gender, race, and sexual orientation are treated equally – then I’m in. The other million problems in the world we’ll just have to work on (and he’s got a big job) but just respecting people who live both inside and outside the norm (musicians included), might be a good start.

This rehearsing lark takes it out of you. I’ve been trying to figure out some of these songs, having Olivia play violin lines and staying in all day to do it. It was stormy outside, flushes of rain that roared out of the sky and then melted away leaving a blanket of cloud till the next wave. The heater sparked and blew another bar today, yep, the heater that we replaced but it was too wet to bother taking back – again. Plus we said we would rehearse today, so we did. It’s not usually the playing, it’s remembering the words. Have you ever thought about all those Shakespearean actors that remember long complicated soliloquies? How do they do it? Not only are they massive talents but they must have massive brains to remember it all.

Music today has been me rehearsing with Olivia so I thought today we would post that crazy song from Noctorum’s The Afterlife, Head On. It’s not the kind of song you write on an acoustic guitar or have a vision of from beginning to end. Some songs come to you in bits and ideas parachute in. Having Olivia sing it as a duet, the crazy progressive end, these ideas came after the initial writing of the song with Dare in the studio. Some songs come all at once with all their arms and legs, they arrive fully formed, others reveal themselves as you go along, whichever it is it’s always an exciting process and I’m very happy to be able to have been involved in so many musical creations both collaborating and on my own. Looking forward to the next one.

Song Of The Daze