Name: I'm Ready To Go by James Macdonald
Duration: 4 min
Description: I'm ready to go! But where is the question? Maybe on the way to an old fashioned double album.

Castlemaine perhaps? But yes, make it a double album, double gatefold and all!

Recipe for a sunny day. 
Grab a chair, get your favourite book, 
mix a drink, sit in the sun. 
 

Sitting in the Sun

I'm ready to go! But where is the question? Maybe on the way to an old fashioned double album.

I'm Ready To Go

This is a suite (yes, very fancy!) of songs that is a fairly complete demo of the first side of an orchestral pop album I've been tinkering with for about 5 years. It started with the melody that you hear first, which I heard first in the middle of a bad nights sleep. And when I say heard, I really did think that someone was playing a radio somewhere. I walked around the house listening but soon realised it was in my head! I'll put it down to the fact that I was deep in study at Uni at the time for my music degree and was pretty much drowning in music. Anyway, I sang it into my phone and for once it sounded interesting the next morning (they rarely do). I developed the classical bit first but the rest just kind of grew organically, using the end of a piece to suggest the next piece. It's meant to be like a series of dreams that run together. I really enjoyed the process, hope you enjoy the results.

Requiem for the Night

More pop fun. Played this song in my first band in the mid/late 70's. Great fun revisiting it.

'JazzFluteSpaceMan' (or JFSM if you like) started as a tongue in cheek name for one of the recitals I did when I went back to College to study the flute. It kind of stuck, and Michael Ingvarson and myself are using it as a name for a project we're developing at the moment. Working out of Mike's 'Big Hand' studio and utilising his studio/keyboard expertise we are pushing each other to make the songs as rhythmically and sonically interesting as we can.
Marrying acoustic instruments with loops and electronica and of course some 70's jazz flute stylings, we are hoping to capture a 'Retro Futuristic' sound that raps around some (hopefully) good pop tunes. 

Great news! The 'jazzflutespaceman' album is now complete and available on CD Baby, iTunes and various other streaming apps.

The other, 'trampoline' set of songs is an album that I have done at home in my own, more limited studio. This album was designed to be a musical autobiography, with the songs tracking through childhood, to the present, and beyond. I loved the early albums of The Moody Blues, ('Days of Future Past' and 'In Search of the lost Chord' in particular) and I've borrowed from them the feeling of the concept album within the group of songs. 

The Trampoline album is now available on Bandcamp under the name 'The Woodshedder'. A bit confusing I know but I've been trying to find the right name for my solo stuff for a while now and the 'The Woodshedders' was an original band I started in the early 90's. From now on however I think all my solo stuff will be under the name 'James M' which I'm using for my latest collection of tunes (see below). 

Lastly I'm currently working on a new set of songs under the title 'The Lost 70's Double Album'. The title says it all, this is the album I would have made if I could have in the early 1970's.  I've taken inspiration from one of my favourite albums, Todd Rundgrens 'Something/Anything'. He described the first side as a "bouquet of ear catching melodies" and thats what I'm aspiring towards. 

P.S. Mike and I will also eventually get around to a new 'jazzflutespaceman' recording. You can check out some initial explorations on our Facebook page.

I'm Ready To Go

James Macdonald

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