Golden Music & Then Silence

Before today, I haven't sat still since in or around the 10th July. This year so it's no heroic feat but I'm talking 7-day weeks here. Of course, I do actually love being busy, especially if the work is invigorating, challenging and productive which the last month's stuff has certainly been.

There's stuff about the US trip in the last blog. The second half of the trip was very enjoyable too. I didn't continue the story because I had expended so much energy telling that much that I was left wanting when trying to decide how to follow it up. Saturday was the hotspot for the trip - literally. We went to Duardes (I think that's what it was called) where it got to 102 degrees F which really was way too hot for me and when the trip to the beautiful Getty Museum was spoiled for me by the fact that it was SO hot and SO bright (which led to me being barely able to open my eyes for the day), I realised that it was definitely time to go home. The trip home was very successful. I put on my shorts and headed with Hedda to drop the keyboard back to the rental place, drop the car back to the rental place and partake in the great rigmarole that is US Airport security. Many hours later and we were back on Plane 1 of 3. The I-Pod was a welcome friend.

I managed to make all connections this time and arrived back in rainy Ireland still in my shorts but certainly not cold the following morning. I seem to escape jetlag and this was no exception. Home for a 70th birthday party for my aunt (in fact 2 over 2 nights) - it was a terrific week but great to be home. Sometimes when you get tired of your family and your home, all it takes is a little time away and some perspective to realise how real their love is for you and how much you need them there.

As soon as the weekend of parties was over, I was off on my next project - this time to the house of the same aunt who had just had the party. My aunt Lorna is an extraordinary woman who has sculpted the most amazing garden out of the woodlands around her house. Since her husband died, she has built a second, smaller house further into the garden, designed to look like a glorified tree-house. Which leaves the first house empty for large chunks of time, punctuated by shorter periods where family come to visit or, since 2006, I bring groups of friends to rehearse, record, retreat and generally have a groovy time.

For the last week, a group of friends and I started work on the next Josh Johnston CD. I always like to have a working title - the next CD will most likely be called The Art Of Saving Lives and the drums and bass parts are now recorded, along with piano and guitar tracks which may be bettered or, if not, may be the final tracks. All of the songs are finished musically but quite a lot of them are not finished lyrically so I sang first verses and la-la-la'ed melodies to give the other musicians an idea of where the singer was going and then we worked up parts for everybody, rehearsed them and then put down tracks for 13 songs in 5 days. That's quite a feat and it was a whirlwind of work from Day 1. We worked from 10 to about 7, ate well, played cards in the evening and got some class of a holiday out of it too. A residential recording studio without the expense. I do feel blessed to have got the opportunity. The project is well and truly off the ground.

One final bowed cymbal and then it was back to Dublin on Saturday after a marathon tidy session in the evening. On Sunday, I was off to play piano for Stewart Agnew in Dundalk. Revitalised now and ready to put as much expertise as I have into Ronan Swift's marketing campaign for his debut CD which comes out September 17th. A few quieter days and then it's back up that hill with Peadar King next week. It's mad, exhausting and completely exhilarating. Oh God let me never be idle. Our lives are too short.