Well, I have been hard at it this last week, getting down another 3 songs for entry into the UK Songwriting contestUK Songwriting contest, which has a closing date of end June every year. I really don’t know why I do it, because i am never happy with the results of what I create, or even where i come up in the results . I guess it just provides the pressure I need to get on a finish a few things..

I am a great believer that making songs is 95% about rewrites, and rewrites, and rewrites…. and having the strength to ‘kill your darlings’ - which is how they describe the (necessary) process of whitling down ideas to only the best ones.

Anyhow, the 3 songs I put in this year are : Boomerang (a fun Indie track about how you have to ride your luck, a bit in the Hoosiers area); You Are The Reason (a song about how special someone is to you, particularly your children) [previously titled ‘You Are My Stardust ‘], and Just A Man (well, not my best effort lyrically, but I like playing it on guitar).

I will be posting the songs on my site in the next few days. These are only ever rough demos to get the song heard (and maybe then covered!), and not finished items - because I don’t profess to be able to create any final masterpiece! I figure I am old enough now that I shouldn’t don’t need to be so embarrassed about my (pretty poor) singing and lyric writing any more. All I can say is thank goodness for Melodyne, which is a FANTASTIC piece of software. Without it, I would never post anything that had my singing on it.

Right, back to work doing skins and screenshots for Mixtikl.

I recorded this in 2003, but decided to put it up on my page yesterday. It is by no means perfect, but kind of an example of the kind of guitar material I used to like to create (I am now really trying to focus on songs for while).. It is melodic, but also a bit ambient. It kind of reminds me a bit of one of my all time favourite guitarists, Michael Hedges (check out Aerial Boundaries). However, he is (was, he died a few years back in a car crash) so brilliant that I almost quit playing guitar altogether back in the 1990s. Long Story in no where in his league (by million miles), but I feel honoured to have heard him play live. It is a long story, but I heard him twice. Once was as a support act to Suzanne Vega. He was on first. He was simply so stunning that when he had finished I was in shock - I could hardly speak. Sorry Suzanne, but I had to leave after he had finished as I was wasted, blown away. His passing was a great, great loss.. I have never heard anyone play like him since.