Josh's World

New Year's Revolutions

2011-01-27T14:10:00.000-08:00

My goodness it's been a long time. September 24th of last year and such a lot has happened.

Since then, we've had a lot of various types of weathers, both literal and metaphorical. The country is in a bad way and the whole world knows about it but I do my very best not to listen to the news and that way I can pretend it's all grand most of the time.

I put my CD out in September and got around to thinking about publicising it last week. At the time, I did a few gigs and they went down very well to anyone who was there who was kind enough to give me some feedback. I-Tunes never picked up on CD Baby's nice offer to let them sell it for us but there you go - their loss. You can still get it - a few copies left - from my website or CD Baby and Amazon and all sorts of places on the tinternet.

Lots of stuff got closed down during the big freeze including most gigs I had planned for Christmas 2010 but the Iveagh Singers, the new 9-piece vocal ensemble I direct soldiered on and we did a gallant, some might say heroic first public performance in Dublin to 60 or so equally heroic audience members. We had come a long way and wanted to show off what we had done after all the work so we were grateful to the hardy souls who made it into the city centre on that very cold night in late November to support us. We're trying to organise that the weather might be nicer for the next one but we can't guarantee anything.

Since Christmas my imagination has gone into overdrive. I think it's the year for me to FINALLY enter the property market and buy a flat but I've also begun to think about the CD and I'm working on a bit of an adventure for the summer to take in a number of US states, performing my CD in as many Unitarian churches as will have me and getting a bit of a holiday thrown into the bargain. It's early days in planning yet but it's picking up pace as I go so we should have something to show for it. Finally, I"ll get to see Nashville, something I've been meaning to do for many years. I've also spent some money on a publicity campaign for The Shape Of Things on American radio and print media so we'll see if anything comes from that. After 10 or so years in the business, close-to-unknown UK singer-songwriter Jamie Lawson put a new song onto YouTube on New Years' Day and now it has had 33,000 hits. Last night, having never played a headliner in Dublin, he played to a really solid crowd downstairs in Whelans (capacity 400 or so). Crazy what the internet can do for you. Good song too - it's called I Wasn't Expecting That which is kind of funny too, a little bit like Obama and his Sputnik moments in Wisconsin last week. But my point is that lots of things happen because of these little crazy ideas we have around this time of the year and it can really set you up on the right note for the year. So we'll see what comes of my plans.

I've also become a bit of a recording session musician in the last while, last year recording with Ronan Swift for his forthcoming CD, last week going into the studio with Peadar King to record his second, and next month going to Grouse Lodge to record Stewart Agnew's long but eagerly awaited third CD. I'm like a little child with excitement about the latter, not to mention all the various CDs of excellent Irish music which are going to come out this year (adding to the list already featuring SJ McArdle's CD which looks like it will finally see the light of day in April). We have such a lot of really talented musicians all slightly under the mainstream radar so it's very hard to break out and say "look over here". I do wish people would look out for them.

Looks like it's going to be a great year !!!

Welcomings And Farewells

2010-09-24T04:27:00.000-07:00

It is now just one day till I launch my 3rd solo CD The Shape Of Things with a piano-solo concert at the Unitarian Church in Dublin. I’ll be following this up with three concerts in the South of England in early October 2010. I am incredibly excited. The tourdates are at the bottom of the blog.

The CD itself is a piano-solo CD recorded two days after the end of the big freeze in January 2010 in St. Peters' Church of Ireland in Drogheda, County Louth, Ireland. The cover was designed by Keith Mullins using photographs taken by Will O'Connell. It features 11 original compositions, a new composition by long-time collaborator David MacKenzie and a unique interpretation of The Late Traiin by Roesy. Although there was a composed structure to all of the tracks, various parts of some of the music were improvised in the studio.

The idea of a completely instrumental album had been brewing for a while. I’ve always put instrumentals into my live set as the piano and my piano style are such an important part of my sound and I know that people enjoy that side of my playing. Many people had been suggesting that I should record a purely instrumental piano album but I always resisted. I could always hear other instruments in my arrangements and love working with other musicians.

When I was considering recording a follow-up to Asylum Harbour, I spent a day recording piano with Brian Masterson who I’d worked with before with David MacKenzie and on Asylum Harbour itself. We went to Drogheda to record with no preconceptions, but to record whatever happened.

The sound grew organically from the beginning of the session which took place at the tail-end of the big freeze in the middle of January 2010. By the end of the day we had 13 tracks and that was definitely a CD’s worth so we decided to put it out as it was.

Since last years' Making Overtures course and its highly informative session on social networking, I've been trying to refine my online presence, hence this blog and trying to increase updates of the website. Occasional colleague Colin Morris suggested SoundCloud as a way of presenting samplers of my work and I'm really enjoying it. For the first time with this album, you can hear full tracks directly from my website – www.joshjohnston.com – as well as find out concert dates and more information about the music. You can already pre-order the CD directly from this website too. The CD will also be available from I-Tunes, CDBaby.com and various digital download sites across the world from September 25th or thereabouts.

Aside from the CD, my life is busy and far-reaching. I tried my hand at chamber music over the summer working with a young and extremely talented violinist Liz O'Neill and although the partnership didn't end up working out for us it was a major project for me which I greatly enjoyed the challenge of. I realised that I hadn't really learnt any new classical music in about ten years so getting myself back to the stage where I could tackle that sort of repertoire was a big project but a productive enterprise and we created a good sound. Maybe we can try again in the future. I'm not one for ruling things out.

I had the dubious honour of accompanying Miranda Sings at the Dublin Fringe Festival - great fun really and even more of a hoot when faced with the reaction of a real live theatre audience.

My newest go at directing a choir is a 9-piece vocal ensemble that I'm actually singing in (working title Chambrette Ensemble) and we performed in semi-public for the first time a few weeks back to an invited audience at one of our choristers' houses in South County Dublin. Despite premiere nerves, everybody - choir and audience - seemed to enjoy themselves and we're now deep back into work for our 'real' first performance in Dublin at the end of November. Lots of informal performances are being planned too - a film-shoot next week, Busking in October and carol-singing in December. Lots of enjoyment to be had !!! Watch out for us.

With launches and welcomings come departures. This summer our good family friends Kathleen and Andrew moved their family to Vancouver for work reasons much to the dismay of their respective families and this Sunday, good friend and fantastic musician Martin (who played bass on the Galway 09 sessions - still unreleased but which will eventually see the light of day - once the songs get finished) and enjoyed coffee and lunch meetups with me in Simons on South Great Georges Street on a regular basis, travels to Germany to take up residence and a new job. A lot of other colleagues and friends seem to have moved from Ireland this year - I'm wondering whether it's an adventure I'd like to try myself but haven't built up the courage to do it yet - situation in Ireland making it more tempting as the days go by. Strange sense of sadness to see friends moving on which you suddenly realise was last a regular occurence with the last wave of emigration in the 80's but at least we have the Internet and cheaper phone packages so it just makes it more important to have the Internet and Facebook in particular to stay in touch. Bon voyage Martin. The story will never be over.

Hope to see you at one of the gigs or on the road.

The Shape Of Things Live

Saturday 25th September 2010 @ 8pm
Unitarian Church, St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2
Tickets €10 available on the door or reserved by e-mail from
pigsmayfly@eircom.net
www.the-listening-room.org

Saturday 2nd October 2010 @ 8pm
Unitarian Chapel, New Road, Brighton, BN1 1UF
Tickets £8 available at the door
www.brightonunitarian.org.uk

Sunday 3rd October 2010 @ 7.30pm
Meadrow Chapel, Godalming, Surrey, GU7 3JB
Tickets £7 available at the door
www.unitariangodalming.org.uk

Sunday October 10th 2010 @ 8pm
Unity Unitarian Church, 277a Upper St., Islington,
London, N1 2TZ (next to the fire station)
Tickets £8 available at the door
http://www.new-unity.org

All the best,

Josh

Round Robins On Wednesday Night

2010-05-17T05:43:00.000-07:00

In January, I was phoned up by one of the bookers in Bewleys on Grafton Street in Dublin to say they had had a cancellation and they didn't want to leave the venue empty for a night - did I have any ideas ? Having initially said no to the prospect of trying to drum up a crowd on my own, I remembered a very enjoyable evening I had spent in Roundstone, County Galway listening to a concert presented by the arts festival there and featuring my friend and colleague Roesy, Steve & Joe Wall, Noelie McDonnell and Luka Bloom. They all sat on the stage for the whole concert and took it in turns to sing their own songs. As the gig warmed up, they began to play on each others' songs and each of them truly enjoyed the interaction between them all, and between them and the audience. It was a great night and I wondered if I could organise something like that thereby decreasing pressure on anyone individually to get an audience and on any one person to pay the rent.

I first asked SJ McArdle and Ronan Swift, two fine singer-songwriters and good friends who I have worked with on many occasions and in whose bands I play. Ronan wrote "The Forty Foot" which appears on my CD Asylum Harbour (as sung by him) and Steve co-wrote 3 of the songs on that album too so there was no problem me knowing their songs or them knowing mine. Two days before the gig, Kate McGarrigle died and we played "Mendocino" as a tribute. We finished together with "The Forty Foot" (it only has two chords) and the evening seems to have been thoroughly enjoyed by all.

So much fun that we decided to do it again. It's happening on Wednesday evening (19th May) - again in Bewleys and looks like it's going to be a lot of fun again - this time we've even rehearsed a few covers and taught each other a few of our songs so that we can play on each others' songs with a little less trepidation. We all have new CDs to release in 2010 so there will be a good mix of the old and the new in the setlist and, by the very nature of the evening, the evening will be varied in mood, style and sound giving something for everyone.

The fantastic thing about my life (one of the many fantastic things about my life) is that every morning I get up, I seem to be doing something completely different. Two new beginnings have opened up recently. I have started a 10-piece choir - more a vocal ensemble than anything else. We've settled on the name Chambrette Ensemble after my suggestion (Kitchenette Ensemble - we're smaller than a chamber choir so what was smaller than a chamber ?) was vetoed. We're making baby steps at the moment, just moving from easy stuff to get us singing to more ambitious material but it's a lot of fun - nobody's taking themselves too seriously but entering into the team spirit of the choir with a huge amount of commitment which is very heartening. We're planning on a concert in November which seems like a good timeline to me.

I've also entered the serious learning curve of classical music promotion by working as an assistant to Conor Daly of Nota in bringing the baritone Thomas Hampson to Dublin for a recital at the end of this month. Things are really hotting up now - we're putting the programme to bed and I've never realised that so much went into getting it COMPLETELY right. The whole thing is a big undertaking and we're hoping for a sell-out. It's going to be a great gig.

And my CD is continuing apace. Recorded in January just after the cold snap, the mood of the CD is fitting to that - piano instrumentals, mostly original, somewhat lullaby-like, wintery. I'm very pleased with it. I couldn't release such a wintery album in the summer so it will come out in September (September 24th to be exact) when the days start to get shorter again.

Busy busy me - that's the way I like it.

Last time I wrote here, it was snowing . . . . . . .

2010-04-28T14:00:00.000-07:00

What a weird year it has been so far - and it's only April.

The prime minister of Great Britain has taken to calling his potential voters bigots and we've had four seasons of weather (and quite extreme seasons at that) in four short months. Nobody has any money and everybody seems to want to blame somebody else for that and all their other problems.

Despite still being a penniless musician, I've just moved out of my parents' house for the first time in 15 years which has proved enormously positive and enormously exciting. It's also spurred on all sorts of other opportunities. I initially went even further than I ended up settling on by going over to London for three weeks which I loved except that I had a reality check and realised that I couldn't stay. I would run out of energy and money within about a month of needing the sort of money staying in a place necessitates. Still, it was a lot of fun to catch up with people, play some of my songs, meet old friends and make new ones, go to the theatre and some gigs, and get to travel on lots of trains. I love trains.

I came back rested and having realised that two bands I was in were both timebombs waiting to happen, I realigned my priorities and have worked steadily on a number of other projects since then. I have decided to release my own third solo CD The Shape Of Things in September. It's an album of lullabies, something I discovered whilst trying to decide the order of tracks. Put it this way, they're extremely effective lullabies. Just don't listen to it while you're driving. Apart from the fact that one of the composers of the tracks I didn't write has been left somewhat upset by my level of improvisation on his tune, I've been getting good feedback from people listening to the pieces - I look forward to playing some gigs around the launch.

I'm also playing with Keith Mullins, SJ McArdle and Ronan Swift. These three guys write, sing and play fantastic music. I have a bit of a split personality - I'm a big music fan and a performer. As a fan, there's nothing more inspiring than the fact that we are in an extremely exciting time for new CDs but that's also a bit intimidating as a performer. It's all part of the challenge. My label - Shandon Records - is going to release Ronan's second CD early next year and Ronan and I are working together to start turning the cogs of self-promotion already. SJ, Ronan and I are doing a Round Robin Gig in Bewleys on 19th May - looking forward to that.

And I've taken to music promotion - working with Conor Daly of Nota, an independent classical music promoter who I've known and sung in choirs in for a long time. He's bringing Thomas Hampson to the National Concert Hall to sing American Artsong with his collaborative partner, German pianist Wolfram Rieger. We're in the throes of writing press releases - a new experience but one I'm enjoying immensely.

And I'm also busy playing accompaniments myself in exams for flautists, violinists, singers and recorder players in various schools and music schools around Dublin. It's hectic but good fun and a great opportunity to meet the professional musicians of tomorrow. Keeps you on your toes.

Possibly the most exciting gig of all was last night when I played piano for a staged reading of a fascinating play "On Religion" by AC Grayling and Mick Gordon. It's quite an intense play but really makes you think and pushes you to question spirituality, religion and faith in your own life and in the world, something that in these very dark days we need to do more than ever.

See you,

jj

Sharing The Stage With Friends

2010-01-18T17:14:00.000-08:00

Now that the snow has removed itself from Dublin City, my thoughts have returned to the small matter of playing music and making a living out of it - hopefully.

To this end, I drove up to Drogheda this last Thursday with recording engineer Brian Masterson for a recording session usiing the Steinway Model D Concert Grand Piano in St Peters' Church in the middle of the town. At this session, I managed to stop drooling long enough to re-record the piano tracks for "The Art Of Saving Lives", a band CD which I recorded basic tracks for last August but I also spent a good chunk of the day recording piano solo tracks for a new record of instrumentals which I think will be called "The Shape Of Things". I recorded a wide range of pieces ranging from tunes I wrote at college to tunes composed by me last week to a new David MacKenzie piece composed especially for the session. I think it went very well although I guess I'll know a lot more when I hear the disc of rough mixes that Brian has compiled for me tomorrow. I'd love to put this new collection of tunes out at some stage before the summer although I know better now than to put deadlines on these things. Life has a funny habit of getting in the way.

This Friday on 22nd January, I'm teaming up with regular collaborators SJ McArdle and Ronan Swift to perform a Round Robin concert in Bewleys Cafe Theatre on Grafton Street in Dublin. Regular readers of these missives will know how dear I hold Bewleys Cafe Theatre to my heart but this concert will be very very special - three singer-songwriter musicians on the stage for the whole gig interacting with each other and with the audience, each taking it in turns to sing and play their own songs or personally selected covers. A nice informal gig in the intimate surroundings of one of the nicest places in Dublin to spend an evening. Hope you can make it. If you can't, please feel free to invite other Facebook friends to come on my behalf !!

Then the following week, I'm off to London to have a much-needed break and also to throw some copies of my CD Asylum Harbour around and see if I can earn some new musical or music industry contacts. It's a hard industry to crack but you can't get there if you don't get out there and knock on doors. If you know someone who you think should hear it or have any valuable context or perspective for me, I'd love to hear it before my trip.

In the meantime, Happy New Year - may 2010 bring us all what we wish for and dream of.

All the best,

Josh

Nothing happened this October

2009-11-05T04:49:00.000-08:00

Did anyone else notice how October passed them by this year ? I organised and planned a few things in connection with Ronan Swift's debut CD and played one or two weddings and otherwise tried fairly frantically to find things to do but very little came of it. Hence, very little to blog about and that's why I haven't been kicking about here recently.

I thought maybe it was the recession kicking in to the musicians' world but since November 1st, my life has kicked off again and November look as though they're going to be busy. Calm restored.

I haven't done an awful lot with my own CD this year and I'm rather at a loss about what to do with it. It's not got obvious singles on it and touring possibilities are limited without radio play, particularly for a piano player. Instead, I've been putting the word out to other singer-songwriters and bands that I'm available and interested in playing in their bands and this has resulted in some very exciting opportunities. SJ McArdle (also on Facebook) phoned me early in the year after he co-wrote 3 songs on Asylum Harbour asking if I'd be interested in doing a few gigs with him. Since then, the promotional push for his brilliant forthcoming album Blood And Bones has kicked off in earnest and we've now done a number of gigs in different lineups from full band to duo. He has two singles out already from the album and the second one (in particular) is really super - a cover of Annie Lennox's moving song Why. You can get it from I-Tunes as well as from downloadmusic.ie and you can also see the video on YouTube. I have also been playing with Peadar King both with his own music and his Island Air project (see previous blog) and Stewart Agnew.

When Roesy and I first toured together, we were asked to bring a support act along for a whole tour by the name of Noelie McDonnell. I immediately became a fan and have followed his work since, almost putting a cover of one of his songs (Steal A Rhythm) onto my Asylum Harbour album. He is just about to release his third album on Friday (Come Alive) and it is a great pleasure and honour to be playing keys in his band for the Galway and Dublin launches of the CD. The dates are -
Town Hall Theatre, Galway, Sunday 8th November, Doors 3pm and
Academy 2, Dublin Friday 20th November at 8pm.
The album is also really good.

On that subject, it is astounding to see so many outstanding Irish albums coming out this months and over the last few years and to also see the Irish radio and television media ignore them so consistently. There are pockets but everywhere else, the radio producers seem to be completely guided by what the music pluggers are shoving in their direction and that is generally not Irish independent music. It is so hard to get heard in Ireland and interestingly also really hard to get people to gigs by bands / singers they haven't heard. I'm not complaining. This is the business I'm in and that's the particular challenge our business has at the moment. We just don't have too many friends in the media helping us and the public hear great original Irish music. Anyway, if you haven't heard of them, go seek out some new dynamic music by the likes of Ian Whitty, Armoured Bear, Julie Feeney and keep an eye out over the next few months for new releases by Ronan Swift, SJ McArdle, Noelie McDonnell, Roesy, Keith Mullins, Stewart Agnew.

Oh, and Asylum Harbour is still available too.

Cheers for now,

josh

SJ McArdle - Chin Up - out now on I-Tunes and other digital stores

2009-09-22T07:09:00.000-07:00

http://www.facebook.com/search/?q=sj+mcardle&init=quick#/sjmcardlemusic?ref=search&sid=529611215.1961134906..1

http://www.myspace.com/sjmcardle

Those of you who - like myself - like to read the sleevenotes of CDs to see who's on them will have noticed the rather consistent appearance of SJ McArdle on the Asylum Harbour CD of mine which came out last year. I met him in 2001 at a collaborative songwriting workshop. We wrote the first song on Asylum Harbour - Precious Days Indeed - at that workshop and we became good friends. I also met Roesy the same week. It was a good week.

Since then, I've appeared on two of SJ's CDs and we've sat down on numerous occasions and written together. Many of those songs joined the first song to form Asylum Harbour and others will be on the next CD which is due out next year. I've also been playing keys in various SJ McArdle gigs over the last four months and it looks like that will continue too, something I'm greatly enjoying.

Which is all in all a very long way of telling you that SJ is starting into a promotional campaign for a very long-awaited new CD which he's recorded in Nashville with producer Tim Lauer. it is not a country record but the sleeve-watchers I mentioned at the top will be impressed by the fact that it features Bryan Sutton, Dan Dugmore, Richard Bennett and Rodney Crowell on the various tracks. For work reasons, I've heard it and it's great.The first signs of the new work are audible in the super first single - Chin Up - which is available on 7Digital and I-Tunes as well as various other digital stores. The EP also features a cover of Richard Thompson's "I Misunderstood" which is great.

You can hear Chin Up as well as various other SJ tracks by going to either of the two links at the top of this update.

All the best,josh

Ronan Swift - new name, new CD, gig to launch in Dublin Thursday week

2009-09-07T08:22:00.001-07:00

Hi there,

In 2002, while I was working with Roesy (Birr singer-songwriter now living in Amsterdam and getting ready to release a new CD next year), I got a call from a singer-songwriter and gardener at St. Columba College in Dublin (in that order, although he possibly thought of it the other way round) called Ronan Swift. He had heard my playing on Roesy’s CD “The Spirit Store” and was wondering if I’d do a few gigs with him. We did lots of gigs at the time, sometimes as a duo and sometimes with his band, a group of long-time schoolfriends of his who had all become professional musicians in the intervening period. We recorded a CD in the chapel of St. Columba’s College with sound engineer Giles Packham and then, at some point, it was all forgotten about as Roesy’s work, and Ronan’s ambitions to leave the garden and become a secondary school teacher caught up with us.

Some things really do stay filed as ‘unfinished business’ in your head and finally, when diaries were free-er, I encouraged Ronan to put the band together and we started to gig together again and look seriously at the idea of putting the CD out. The original band was re-assembled two years ago, many of the musicians playing important roles on my own CD last year (indeed, the track "The Forty Foot" - top of my Myspace player is written and sung by Ronan himsefl) and the album that might not have been - Farewell Future Wives - will be launched on Thursday September 17th 2009 at a concert in the Unitarian Church on Stephens Green.

The band will be -

Ronan Swift – Acoustic Guitar, Vocal
Eoin O’Brien – Electric Guitar, Vocal
Josh Johnston – Piano, Wurlitzer, Vocal
Bill Blackmore – Trumpet
Malachy Robinson – Double Bass

Ronan says that the theme of the album is the “old-fashioned business of courtship”. It uses a variety of settings and approaches – musical, lyrical and contextual – to capture the highs and lows of finding a soul mate (or even something less profound) in the first decade of a new ‘minnellium’. From full band tracks to more intimate solo performances, from a Henry Purcell male voice choir to a 10 minute epic set on New Year’s Eve 1999, variety is the spice of this release.

Using different song styles, spoken anecdotes and Ronan’s naturally inviting storytelling lyrics, the listener is introduced to a colourful troupe of protagonists and onlookers. There’s the “west London fop” of You’re Havin’ A Baby, an Italian sweetheart in European Union, the Awful Man on the Tottenham Court Road, a national school mummy (Adulterous Thoughts) and a herd of Fresian cows (Interrupted By Cattle). Ronan is intuitive and versatile in his lyric writing; once wistful and poetic and then direct and bawdy, but always vivid and honest.

You can go and look for him on Facebook.

Tickets cost €10 and signed CDs are available at a special launch-night price of €10. Wine and refreshments will be served after the concert.

Hope you can make it !!! If you can’t, you can buy the disc by going to Shandon Records and clicking on “Shop”. It will be available on CD Baby and I-Tunes worldwide in due course. Feel free to spread the word to anybody you think might be interested in the disc or the concert.

All the best,

Josh

A Blast of Island Air

2009-08-22T11:21:00.000-07:00

One of the wonderful things about my job is that I get to wake up every morning and do stuff I love doing and get paid for it. But another cool thing about the way my career has been panning out is that every gig seems to be completely different from the last - accompanying exams, directing choirs, playing gigs with bands - and this leads to very exciting musical opportunities, something I love and something which keeps my musical life consistently interesting.

I've just come home from a week on the road with a project called Island Air, an exciting show celebrating the musical heritage of Inisbofin, an island off the Connemara coast in County Galway. The brainchild of this show was a young singer-songwriter from the island, Peadar King, who I've started working with as keyboardist in his band. When I started rehearsing with him and the rest of his band in May, there was only one gig booked but promises of more. There was talk of a tour in August with this week earmarked for it. He was applying for a grant from Music Network and, as time went by, he was advised that to add some sort of a conceptual slant to the show would aid his chances in getting the grant and his mind turned to an idea for a show that had been percolating in his head for a while - a mixture of singers from the island of Inisbofin where he lives, maybe concentrating on his music but also bringing in the other singers - Andrew Murray, Dessie O'Halloran, Luke Murray and others - to sing at specific places in the show.

He didn't get the grant but by this time, the show and the plans for it had taken a different turn and an unstoppable momentum had begun. Peadar's band - myself, Cormac Dunne, Tom Portman and Fergal Gallagher - were hired to be less Peadar's band and more a house band while more islanders were drafted in to appear in the show. A small tour heading home towards the island - Galway, Clifden, Inisbofin - was lined up and people nominated songs to sing and trad tunes to play that they were already familiar with.

The itinerary had to be changed due to difficulties with schedules but it worked out very well in that we ended up starting at home - Inisboffin. The feel of the show was that of a session and tunes were alternated with songs to allow for variety throughout the evening. The ages went from 7-year old dancers to Dessie O'Halloran (69, I believe). Peadar, Andrew Murray and his son Luke performed songs with the band and Dessie closed the show with a rousing finale but now young and old performed together, sometimes in small ensembles, sometimes solo, sometimes as part of the Inisbofin Ceili Band. For this first night, everybody who plays music on the island - 25 musicians - was featured and it was incredible to be part of the spectacle, not as an audience member but as someone welcomed into the community to participate in the occasion. Although we had done some rehearsal with Peadar on Tuesday, new songs and tunes were introduced to the band at the soundcheck - chords feverishly scribbled down while the singers sang - and then performed on the night, something I'm able to do but also always adds an extra bump of adrenaline to the proceedings, great fun ensuing when you try to remember a song you've been sung for the first time 2 hours ago and draw a complete blank. However, everybody else was on home turf and so was very comfortable and relaxed with the occasion. The mood was so relaxed in fact that the concert took something over 3 hours to get through and left everyone exhausted. It was a hugely positive bonding experience for band and performers, community and visitors, organisers and audience. After two days of rehearsal, i was tired too but very pleased to be there.

On Thursday, we got the ferry to Cleggan and set up camp in the wonderful Crane Bar in Galway. Some lessons were learnt about the running order (particularly with regard to length) and the list of performers was shortened, partly due to availability, partly due to the size of the stage. The set was sized down to 2 hours !!! Usually a venue that holds sessions, The Crane was perfect for the occasion - up-close and personal for all concerned and everybody absolutely focused on putting everything they had into the music. Dessie, who had very carefully selected songs which Peadar had rehearsed with the band, decided to play a completely different song and everybody mucked in to give him the backing he deserved. The young trad ensemble played their socks off, particularly Liam King who was particularly exciting to watch playing the accordion. The band tipped along occasionally with this music too when we felt we weren't going to be stepping on any toes but everybody was open to musical ideas. I don't consider myself a trad player but I was able to busk the chords too and enjoyed it - John O'Halloran's small-box Dance Of The Honeybees was a particular favourite of mine. The addition of the interval to the proceedings was welcomed and gave everybody a chance to draw breath and grab another pint.

The final night in the Station House Theatre in Cliden had a different feel again - an enthusiastic audience but more of a theatre feel which can often deaden the interaction between the performers and the audience. This gig was good too nevertheless and the crowd came with us finally - everyone onstage comfortable by now with the music and each other's contributions to it. The stage, though not as big as Bofin was bigger than Galway and so some musicians omitted from the Galway list took the ferry to join us for this one too adding to the bonhomie on the stage. By the end, we were ready to sleep but more drinks were had first. The after-show sessions on the first two nights had run quite late - I have no reason to believe the last night was any different. Aware of ongoing commitments, I was in Galway and asleep within a few hours of coming off the stage.

New friendships - both convivial and musical - had been made and I look forward to playing with many of these musicians again. Luke Murray's concert debut as a singer and guitarist in this run of shows was extremely exciting as he bravely and convincingly tackled both Christy Moore's arrangement of As I Roved Out with the band and added his own tasteful and subtle characterisation to Paul Brady's arrangement of Arthur McBride solo. Being a city boy, I was thrilled to be hearing more traditional music in one week than I've probably heard in the last five years, and all magnificently played and sung by people who've been singing it all their lives. Peadar only ended up singing one song each night - I wish he'd sung more. He's an exceptional songwriting talent waiting to be discovered but I guess he felt it was about a lot more than just him by this point - a chance to really treasure the musical heritage of the island as a shared heritage, a community of people working and living together, and a chance to highlight lots of unsung talents alongside more well-known singers such as Dessie and Andrew, and in all that it certainly worked in a very moving way. It was a really beautiful experience for me. I've heard it may happen again. I hope it does. If it does, don't miss it.

Golden Music & Then Silence

2009-08-10T12:16:00.000-07:00

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.

Dublin to Coldwater Canyon

2009-07-24T22:07:00.000-07:00

The last time I spoke, I was expressing great excitement at a forthcoming trip to the USA to play some music in nursing homes in Los Angeles.

I now stand corrected - they are elderly care residences, not nursing homes. Alan will understand this one as I've spent many years correcting him on the exact same thing - a classic case of your own fly coming back to bite you on your own backside. My apologies Hedda.

I'm now here and Hedda and I have played 5 of our 13 shows with a really exciting one scheduled for tomorrow. It's been a roller-coaster.

Never one to allow myself to be idle (some might say rather stupidly), I scheduled in a gig with Peadar King in Galway on Sunday night. Peadar is a great up-and-coming singer-songwriter who put together a worthy debut CD last year but whose newer songs (which he says he plans to record in the Autumn) are way better. I'm in his current band with Cormac Dnnne on drums, Tom Portman on all sorts of six-string instruments and someone called Fergal on bass. He organised himself a low-key gig in Galway the night of the Macnas Parade during the Galway Arts Festival. Unfortunately so low-key that very few people were at it but the gig itself was great fun and nobody let themselves down musically, not even Tom who ate a dodgy chicken sandwich on Friday and was still feeling distinctly the worse for wear.

Aware of my handful of intense travel days ahead, I decided to decline my aunts' kind offer of a bed and head back up to Dublin on the night bus at 1.15 am. Some minor disturbance at the door of the bus meant that the guards had to be caled and so it was 1.45 before the drunken party was broken up (after one arrest). Rather tiresome and I slept most of the way back up.

Heathrow 4, Hatton Cross, Hounslow West & Hounslow East

My journey to America was to be convoluted. Having got home and slept for a short amount of time, I finished packing my sister's Enormocase (tm) and headed off to the airport on the impossibly wonderful Patton Flyer bus. First leg was Dublin to London Heathrow on Monday night to stay with my friend Marcus. Marcus is cool and lets me sleep in his house if I need to be in London for a night or two, or ocasionally three. Marcus and I have mothers who used to make waffles for the Dalkey School Project Saturday market (where I went to primary school, the school, not the market) and so he and I would play together and try and stay out of our mothers' way while they did the important task of keeping the schools' students fed with warm waffles with butter and maple syrup. Tough job but . .. . . . My sisters have taken on the job of performing the task for the current generation and Marcus (and, more recently, his mum) have moved to London. I am conspicuously absent behind the waffle irons but do enjoy eating them.

Ronan Swift, another friend of mine, is just about to release his debut CD but is also in the middle of recording his second album on which he has a song titled "Since The Last Song" which boasts an impossibly catchy chorus which lists the tube stations between Heathrow Airport and Hammersmith. It was with great excitement that I sang these lines to myself (hopefully not out loud but you can never be sure) until we got to the self-same Hounslow East whereupon the train stopped and there we sat for a long time - this will become a motif through this story. Apparently there was a signals failure at Hammersmith. A lot of rounds of that chorus were sung by the time I got out of the train. If it was out loud, you can call it advertising. Ronan, I'll invoice you later.

Marcus was at an audition on Monday night anyway so I knew I wasn't in a rush for time but, having arrived into Heathrow at 8.15, I arrived into Marcus' local tube, Marylebone (why don't they just call it Marleybone ?) at 10. 30. I waited in the station reading my 10p London Daily Standard and drinking Apple & Ginger Tea and eating my melted chocolate bar. I was just glad to have got that far. Happy days.

I had decided to bring my sisters' Enormocase so as not to have to pull two cases but it wasn't easy (London Underground - with its many steps and few esculator - is not designed for Enormocases) and so I was very happy to get back to Heathrow (whereupon I sang Ronan's song backwards - it's now all about selling your soul to the devil for 300 pounds and a Mars Bar) and get rid of the case onto the plane. I met Hedda at the airport so we both knew the other was there but she had already checked in and so we were in different parts of the plane giving both of us a chance to sleep and listen to music without having to feel uncomfortable about being anti-sociable or anything. Very satisfactory.

We are Sailing To Philadelphia

The second leg was London to Philadelphia whereupon we were to go through immigration, re-check our bags and then get onto an internal flight to Los Angeles. The usual waiting around ensued but the plane journey was pleasant apart from the usual 2-year old child who wouldn't stop screaming all the way, all the way while I was awake anyway Not entirely sure what we were going to get in the culinary department (for free, that is), lunchtime was a voyage of discovery in itself. You would have thought that you'd get lunch on a trans-atlantic flight but I'm still a novice at this lark and so it still surprises me when they give you things for free. And it was good - really nice Chicken and rice sort of stuff if I remember rightly. It seems so far away now.

The flight took off 15 minutes late and arrived in 25 minutes late, turning an 1hr 40min turnaround (possibly not long enough anyway) into something very much smaller.

Philadelphia Freedom (dang a dang a dang a . .... . )

Immigration was a big gloopy mess with them taking a long time to get everybody through. It seems nobody actually goes on holiday to Philadelphia - they just all use it as a hub to transfer onto other cities so everybody was connecting which seemed to serve only to slow all the immigration men down. Mindful of Ian Dowse's reminder to me in 2000 that I didn't need to tell the immigration man 'everything' that I was going to do on my trip (as opposed to this blog where it seems imperative that I do tell you everything) I kept my answers brief and, after a long time waiting, being neglected, selected, detected, rejected and selected (not to mention all the other mean, ugly, nasty things that might have been happening to me), I was free to go on my merry way (with my customs form stamped too for good measure). \

Alas, it was not to be my lucky day, or maybe it was. Having been in the air for 8 hours, I was dismayed to learn that the next leg was another 6 hours. Still aware that the first gig was on the next day at 11am, I raced down the corridor, checked in my bag, showed my passport and boarding card to another 20 people and got to gate B29 with loads of time - or so I thought. The fact that nobody was in the hall waiting on the boarding of the plane ??? That might be because they were on the plane taxi-ing out to the runway, Hedda having already done her violent arguing with the air-hostess who finally told her to 'get off the plane or shut up' (or maybe it was sit down). Either way, she did both and off they went without me.

The US Airways staff were much nicer to me. After the first lady anyway who saw me at the metal door to the boarding ramp and told me "sir, step away from the gate" which I did. After that, they were very calm and nice and put me in the Hilton Hotel for the night and gave me meal vouchers and put me on a flight the following morning. A few other people missed different flights too and it seems they were all treated the same way. Hope that's not happening too often or US Airways won't be around too long.

Only problem was that I had no baggage - the Enormocase had gone to a big room somewhere in the airport and would be returned to me tomorrow in Los Angeles. Went and got internet time and e-mailed m uncle Rory who I was due to be staying with and bought a charger so that I could text Hedda (who was also due to be staying with Rory but had never met him). Apart from the fact that I thought the shop had sold me a dud charger and I spent half an hour trying to get back behind airport security to return it before realising that I was being EXCESSIVELY stupid, life was good. Thanks to Brian Houston and Cormac Dunne (both band members with Roesy at the time), I learnt a few years ago to stop getting stressed about the things you can't change. My life is immeasurably better for it and this was one of those situations. It was inconvenient but getting stressed wasn't going to make it better. Once I realised my mistake with the phone charger, I took off on the train and explored Philadelphia for the night.

I was only there for an hour or so (it was already 3am in my head) but what a city !!! Go there, and better still, bring me for a longer holiday. I have a plan for next year to go exploring music cities in the USA. It started with quite a modest number (Seattle, Chilcago, Nashville, Austin, Athens, New York, New Orleans, Memphis) but has now grown to involve Philadelphia and Detroit in the last three days - I'm not sure how practical it is anymore.

When I did get to LA, my uncle very kindly came to the airport and saved me and brought me to the second gig but in fact Hedda had a wrong address for the first one so it's now been re-scheduled and I haven't missed anything. Excellent.

Have now done five gigs in elderly care residences - got it right now. No dementia involved but all completely different audiences, a range of different ethnic backgrounds involved but quite often the same ethnic range wll run across the one residence. For instance, this afternoon was mostly Spanish whereas yesterday morning was mostly Vietnamese. This morning and yesterday afternoon had a lot of Caucasian people with english as their first language. It's a wide range of disciplines we're training in ourselves and there's a lot more variables than we'd have to work with in Dublin so that's good. Tomorrow, I'm playing the grand piano at the Senior Artists' Colony in Burbank. I'm pinching myself here - could yet still be a dream. The residences are beautiful - large buildings (but not high rise) built specifically for active elderly but with a high priority on community within the centre. All the complexes run independently but are managed by EngAge and have an extensive optional events calendar and a 'clubhouse' room to do these in. If our gigs have been anything to go by, these events are well-attended and the staff are kind, caring, creative, and productive.

Perfect Weather To Fly

On Wednesday night, I took my uncle to see Elbow in the Wiltern Theatre. Having been a big fan of KCRW Santa Monica for a long while now, I've always been intrigued about the Wiltern Theatre - it's always seemed to be a cool place where cool bands (to me) played. I was glad to get the chance to go.

Elbow take my breath away every time I see them. As a music fan, they inspire me to believe that good music can get out there despite the rubbish that is getting into the charts. As a musician, they astound me but intimidate me too, such is the standard they're setting the bar for the rest of us. As usual, they blew their support slots out of the water although I did enjoy Jesca Hoop, a girl I didn't realise was British until I saw her Myspace this evening. Jesca was doing a wispy acoustic thing with a female backing singer and the effect was very pleasing to the ear although my uncle asked me why she composed all her songs in the same key, something I couldn't answer but had to concede was true. There were two supports, nearly always a stupid idea. The second support, Mellotron, were neither mellow nor good. Their drummer was interesting in his parts. Their vocalist undid all the good their drummer might have done for them. Elbow were astounding as always. With two ladies playing violin and singing, the effect was to broaden their sound without compromising the familiarity their fans feel to the material. They kept running away for the songs they weren't needed on - I'd have liked to have heard more of them. For the first time ever, I actually saw the concert having always been in the crowd before. This time, I was in the front row of the circle and had my telescope with me. Oh my goodness.

Last night, Hedda and I went to a free gig in LA Pershing Square - Rocco De Luca. One of Hedda's MySpace friends, I enjoyed it but he had a drummer and no bassist which is always something I'm wary of, and was so uncommunicative with the audience that I lay on the grass and eventually nodded off. Might be going to something else with him in it tomorrow night - if the situation improves, I'll let you know. Also have been listening to Angus & Julio Stone's CD which my sister's godson sent her - they're from Australia and it's really good.

The I-Pod is getting good use - am also working my way through the audiobook of Barack Obama's memoirs of trying to get to grips with issues of race and identity, as well as trying to explore the enigma of his father. Incredible book, incredible man. His observations are staying with me as I myself observe America on this holiday on the streets of Los Angeles.

It's a Barnum & Bailey World, Just As Phoney As It Can Be

I haven't come to any definitive conclusions about Los Angeles. In general, I'm not taken by it but there are spots. Hedda and I stood in the Pacific Ocean at Huntingdon Beach yesterday and I let the warm water lap at my legs and the occasional breaker get my shirt. I have never felt sea water so warm and I commented that this might be the environment where I would actually learn to swim. I couldn't realistically live here. The place is a vast expanse of houses categorised into the ethnic groups of the people living in them and downtown is functional to the point of tedium - the Los Angeles River, Road numbers instead of names - it does seem like everyone is putting on an act. It's like they're in a film themselves. We went this evening to Universal World, a theme park that has a large free section without rides but with cinemas, shops, places to eat. The Bubba Gump Shrimp eaterie was a show in itself and, entertaining as it was, it was a relief to get back to the car. Yesterday, I couldn't believe how many people were at the Pershing Square gig but as soon as it was finished, they vanished. Show's over - time to go home. I'm not sure if I'm being very lucid here but it's been a very interesting time for me.

Then, on our way home today (and we only did it because of a wrong turning), we drove up Mulholland Drive and down Laurel Canyon, taking in the 70's houses of all the amazing singer-songwriters I grew up listening to - David Crosby, James Taylor, Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Stephen Stills, Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, they were all neighbours. What incredible parties they must have been. They all ended up moving out to Malibu when David Geffen made them all superstars in the 70's but the houses are beautiful - modest, pretty, houses on the side of a mountain in the shade under trees. Oddly inspiring. Not sure why.

It's been a fascinating week and I'm wrecked. More to write but on another day. Take it easy !!

Key in ignition, chug chug chug (in a font that people can read !!)

2009-07-17T15:38:00.000-07:00

Here's what I wrote - I could read it perfectly but I understand that you all thought I had either gone mad or was being VERY profound !!!
*********

I've always been about ten years behind everyone ("Email, that will never catch on etc") and so it's with some trepidation and embarrassment that I sit down tonight to restart my Twitter account (which I said two nights ago on Facebook that I would never do) and start a blog. The idea of being allowed write all your random thoughts down and that people may even be interested in reading them is hugely novel to me (and they don't even have to rhyme which has always been my problem with lyrics). I may have to end up going on auto-pilot and it will just remain to be seen whether I am interesting or not.

Have spent some time this evening re-jigging my own website so this is why my head is on these things. Always up for a game of a Thursday evening, a good friend had suggested doing it and so we'll see how it goes.

Next week, I go to California. Not for a holiday you understand, but to play and sing music in 16 nursing homes over 10 days. I work occasionally with Serendipity Theatre Group founder Hedda Kaphengst and she has invited me to join her on this trip to bring the show we created for the Bealtaine Festival in May to Hollywood. My fair complexion will make suncream a must but I think I can survive. When I return, I start recording my third CD, a new proposition as this is the first CD I've gone to record that the music isn't composed yet although I guess I still have two weeks. I've always enjoyed the deadlines and I have some stuff we can start on even if the whole thing isn't ready for day 1.

So, a fun couple of weeks ahead. I have one more day of a music business course run by Music Network to complete tomorrow after which I should be ready to conquer the world with my music NOT. But I'm a hecck of a long way further than last Sunday evening.

see ya, josh