So!
I have just finished a most enjoyable jaunt around our beautiful springed country.
The green mist in the trees has already given way to fully leaved and blossoming hedgerows and I am reminded of the pleasures of seeing England at its best.
The sun shone as well.
Sometimes.
As I have said many times I love the road and we had some terrific concerts and caught up with many old friends and as a continuing trend spoke with quite a few people who have not been to a concert for as much as forty years. Well, it was great to see them again and I suggested most nights that hopefully they won’t leave it so long before the next show.
This tour was quite short and I nick named it my “Tourette”. Perhaps it might become a regular feature of my touring year and I will develop a “tourette syndrome” (i.e. the need to get out and play a short burst of concerts around the country) I certainly enjoyed being back after eschewing England (apart from Cornwall) on my last Celtic Cousins tour. Finishing up in Wales and being part of Dylan Thomas’s 100th birthday celebration was both an honour and a dream come true.
Autumn
I am delighted to say that I am out and about on a slightly longer tour this Autumn and the confirmed dates are listed below.
All the confirmed dates can be found here.
New Project
I am currently engaged in a project with one of my heroes Wizz Jones and we are hopeful that it might bear fruit in the form of a C.D. before Christmas. This doesn’t mean that my own album of new songs has been deferred, but I seem to take even longer these days with my writing. I am intrigued by the forms that my work takes and a few half finished pieces are redolent of very early American influences sitting incongruously next to quite different subjects. Perhaps it was ever thus and a McTell album seldom has a fixed uniting theme, except that nearly all the tunes emanate from noodling on the guitar. There are one or two pieces urging from my piano, but the guitar is still King.
The Hell Hound
Many of you have asked about my new pup. Well she is called Tulla (rhymes with fuller) and means “pretty girl” in Norwegian I am told. She has been a handful and is quite the most energetic mad creature I have ever had in dogdom. She is getting better and is a tangled knotted racing bundle of energy. She is a cross between a poodle and a spaniel and nicknamed Cocker poo. She has all the bad points from both breeds but of course I am besotted. When in London I jog with her in Richmond park. I jog, she walks.
Yesterday, we were attacked by a young mother in the park!
It was a roe deer who was obviously sensing danger from my hellhound.
She came at us from nowhere at a rate of knots considerably faster than I, or the dog, could manage. After I got over the shock of ambush I frightened her off whilst I put Tulla on the lead and resumed my jog. Within 10 seconds the crazed beast (the deer) charged us from behind hitting us both causing the dog to run in front of me bringing me crashing down on the rock hard, beaten track.
Luckily I broke my fall with my face and sustained minor cuts to my forehead nose and chin. The earth is so hard in the summer, but not as hard as the road on contact. More in anger and loss of dignity I uttered some old anglo saxon words and frightened off the deer. Dripping in blood and sandy soil I thought of Bert Lancaster in “The Last Apache” and searched for a spider’s web to help coagulate the dripping. In the end I used my dark shirt and soon went on my way. Quite a few park goers gave me a wide berth as I must have looked quite frightening by the time I got back to my car. I am pleased to say the battered old phizog doesn’t seem to have suffered any noticeable damage this morning. DVD I have now seen the final cut of our Drury Lane Concert and I am delighted with it. My musicians were superb and there was a lovely happy vibe throughout the whole evening. I hope it will be ready for the Autumn Tour.
Please keep watching the web site as there is about to be a very special announcement from Leola Music.
Hope to see you soon,
Somewhere Down the Road…..
Ralph