This year, I went to a festival called Greenbelt, volunteering as a site steward. I helped guide cars in the car parks (including the Archbishop of York), I checked wristbands. I had a lot of time to contemplate life, and be inspired by the conversations with complete strangers, and a handful of friends. I danced to infectious Ghanaian music, I marvelled at the profound unassuming nature of Terry Waite.
I also wrote this song It's only a quick demo from my phone (you'll hear when I got a text message)
Silent Stars, they inspire. 

Silent Stars

Hope. It never fails to be there. When things look dark, when things seem to be at an end, Hope shines bright. Beautiful new things can grow out of the dried up cracks of the now. I, for one, will never give up on hope.

Hope

Life. Sometimes it comes like a swirling storm, sweeping everything up in its path, with no place to escape from it.
Then, out of nowhere a place of peace is found. Whether it's from a change of perspective or the words and deeds of a friend or loved one. 
The calm in the storm. Respite to face life.  

The Calm In The Storm

This song harks back from another project of mine, The Enclosed Garden. 
It started off as a one verse lyric, by my co-songwriter Anna Bennett. The music then followed, but no other lyrics could be found. After numerous listening through, it became fairly obvious that it didn't need lyrics. There's a cello part to this too. Got to love a cello!

(And yes, I do that that's a daisy in the picture, I just didn't have one of a rose...)

The White Rose

Re-discovered this one today, buried in my noodlings. It's resonating somewhat. I can't remember the circumstances around it's creation, only that I called it Updating.
It's a rough recording; you'll here pauses where I'm trying to get the right chord, and my infamous tired and concentrating heavy nose breathing.

Updating...

Daniel Lanois. You have a lot to answer for tonight. You worm your fragile delayed distorted tones in my ear, and make me revisit my songs wth that texture. Turns out my parlour acoustic rather liked it, although to save everyones ears, I'll keep the screaming feedback experiments in my living room. (Sorry neighbours...)

Anderby Revisted

Tangled Wood

Boxing Day 2016, 5:15pm. 
A trip to the North Shore beach in Skegness, to reflect, was had. The sky was clear and the stars were out in abundance. The tide was in, and waves were coming in fast and hard. This is a snippet of a much longer time, mainly improvising, playing what came out of my heart. I branched into one of my most precious, to me, songs: Sihle.
The Cold set in, and the fingers weren't quite as responsive towards the end, and the low light lost my bearings on the fingerboard, but that doesn't matter. Capturing a precious moment. That is what it was about.

North Shore, Skegness. Boxing Day 2016

I have a lovely home studio now. A labour of love over the last year. 

During a restful May bank holiday, I wandered in there, and set up my Kasuga Barney Kessel, through my Electro Harmonix Deluxe Memory Boy, and a Marshall Echohead set on a stereo mutitap 

Left channel Yamaha G100 2x12 with Reverb and my Cusack Tap-a-Whirl tremolo.

Right channel Matamp Kingstreet through a Hayden 4x12. 

And my Aston Origin mic capturing the room..

No EQ, and levels completely flat at 0db. 

Only plugin was my limiter. 

Do use earphones, to get the full effect.

A Rested May Delay

My noodlings and demos page,
My 'proper' recordings are on as Joseph Hoare

Hoarasaurus

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