I’m happy to announce the release of Blueburst’s debut single Vanish. Blueburst is the project of sessioneer/songwriter/singer/guitar player Craig Douglas Miller who lives in Atlanta, Georgia and has kindly invited me to contribute with guitars, production, and ideas. Craig was originally the singer in the band The Reach and made two albums under that name, Closer in 1995 and Lift in 2003. This belting, melodic indie guitar-driven track is getting some good reviews from those in the know, haha. You can listen on Bandcamp and read the reviews on the links.

Today was the day we went into Bristol to find the secret to Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s bridges (all songwriters need to have a good bridge). We drove down Gloucester Road towards the city and visited Plastic Wax Records where I found some archive classics, both old and new, contemporary as well as sixties and seventies (thanks Dave for the discount). I even found a nineties album (Bang by World Party), not the easiest to find on vinyl, this being a North American limited edition version with a different cover, and according to Discogs, complete with misprints. Who remembers the days of attention to detail?

We walked from there down towards the centre and past Crofters Rights where we will be playing next Thursday. We needed to go to the music store because I had broken one of the pegs on one of my 12-strings when I was putting new strings on it. I also bought a music stand, a reading light, and a colourful guitar lead that I can’t quite figure out if it’s blue or green. They were nice in the shop and they took one of our posters to put on the wall. We walked from there to Rough Trade to hand them a poster, Boydie lost his bearings and we went via Weston-super-Mare. When we got there the poster wall was full. I asked if they had any information about the latest 22-Pistepirkko album, Kind Hearts Have A Run Run (2022), a resounding no. Do I have to go to Finland to find this album in a record store? Or am I faced with buying it online with crazy shipping prices?

From there we went to Wanted Records where I found a hard-to-find record that I’ll make the album of the day tomorrow. I spoke to John and Ian, John (Stapleton) used to be in The Blue Aeroplanes from Bristol – the ex-band toured with them in the US many moons ago. They had another record in the store that I wanted, The Archive would have been so happy, it was Welsh band Blonde on Blonde – Reflections On A Life (1971) on Ember Records, an original copy in great condition, £120. I did see one on Discogs for £70, but still. Also a King Crimson – In The Court Of The Crimson King for £70 for the wall of faces, too much for the pleasure (or pain) of the cover art.

Next, another music store where I bought a DI box and another lead that was a colour I could name and was actually what I was looking for, the other store had been out of stock. In between all this, we went into a store that was a DJ/electronics store to ask them about Olivia’s violin mic signal path, haha. They were very helpful, everyone was today.

We took the bus home, loaded with heavy bags. At the bus station, I used the loo, in the loo bowl, foil from a heroin encounter. On the bus, we sat on the top deck at the front amongst the discarded sandwich packets and general rubbish left behind without a care. Into the night we ran through songs for the tour, wondering what to play.

Music today has been Blueburst for you to investigate.

Music Of The Daze