I’ve been reflecting recently on many of the brilliant musicians I know who have inspired me to explore musical territory I would never have believed possible. My first band “The Small Change Diaries” was essentially a baptism of fire when I played my first ever live gigs and especially playing Lagoa Guitar festival where I met my good friend Laurent Zeller. Laurent has played on my last Small Change Diaries album and features on the new Caravan of Dreams album “Tales of Dark and Light”
The Lagoa gig was only the seventh live gig I had ever played and only the fourth live full band gig! I was well aware that I was the most inexperienced member of the band and I’ve never worked so hard to make sure I was as ready as possible playing a 45 minute set of original material I had written for the band! My producer Carl always commented “One live gig is worth” eight rehearsals and he’s 100% right. A few years on I’m now pretty comfortable with playing live and its an experience like no other.
The new ensemble “The Caravan of Dreams” is a killer outfit of musicians, and the album “Tales of Dark and Light” features no less than fourteen musicians. This has been a more ambitious project in terms of writing and arrangement. The single biggest game changer for me has been working with vocal coach Agi who also sings brilliantly on the Caravan tracks. I’ve never met anyone with such a brilliant ability to identify and arrange harmonies and fourteen months of 1 – 1 tuition has been like training for the Olympics. She is without doubt an extraordinary technical teacher as well as a brilliant singer who has stretched me in ways I never imagined.
The other Caravan members Fergus Quill, Jed Bevington and longstanding friend Rich Ferdi and like “The E Street Band” a tight brilliant musical unit. Guest musicians including Phil Doleman, John Burr, Dave Bowie Jnr, Adrian Knowles and Chris Smith have helped create a truly amazing set of tracks. These are significantly better musicians that myself and its a joy to play with them.
I have an idea for a new project which will require a huge creative leap and a massive amount of work. I’ll start on this after the Caravan of Dreams album launch May 11 and will be calling on old friends as well as some new musicians. Throughout all these explorations, my good friend Martin Simpson has been invaluable in his encouragement and inspiration. Martin is a brilliant example of never standing still and always pushing forward musically. I have realised that he has been a big influence on my own musical thinking and the attitude of “just going for it!”
I’m super grateful for all those who have supported me in these musical explorations. As Jerry Garcia once said “What a long strange trip its been” and its about to get way stranger with the next project as I leave any semblance of what remains a comfort zone into new musical territory.
