Brittany Guitar Workshop 2018 - STOP PRESS!

Hi folks!

I'm delighted to announce that next August 22-25, 2018, I will be returning to the beautiful village of La Fontenelle in Brittany to host my annual acoustic guitar workshop.

The general format is that we look at guitar techniques and study pieces during the daytimes and go to the local restaurant in the evenings, or drive out to Cancale for seafood and chilled vin blanc! We usually finish the four-day course with an informal soiree on the final evening.

It's a lot of fun, but places are limited to just eight participants, however guests are welcome to bring non-participating partners if they wish. Please visit the logistics page of the Brittany Music Workshops website for more details such as accommodation and travel.

For the past two years, my good friend, Will McNicol has been leading these residential workshops in my stead as other commitments prevented me from being there. I want to thank Will sincerely for holding the fort (and also for giving me his blessing to resume the mantle - honestly, I thought I was going to have wrestle him for it back!).

Anyway, stay tuned for updates and feel free to get in touch if you have any questions!

Daria Kulesh

Feeling like it was about time I explored new musical projects and through a fortuitous set of circumstances, I recently started working with renowned Russian folk singer, Daria Kulesh as her accompanist. Daria is a rare talent as a singer, songwriter, artist and interpreter of traditional material which draws on her Russian and Ingush roots. She has enjoyed a fair bit of airplay by the likes of Mike Harding and Mark Radcliffe. Tonight is our first gig as a duo - we're playing at The Mermaid in St. Albans as a kind of warm-up to future shows. Click here to jump to Daria's website

The Morgan Rattler

I recently asked the online community to suggest cool tunes to arrange, and this was suggested so I set to it - quite pleased with the results. It's a lovely 48 bar jig that I want to play again and again.

Brittany Guitar Workshop 2015

This August 19-22, I'll be hosting my annual acoustic guitar workshop in La Fontenelle, Brittany.

I'll be looking at Celtic, blues and fingerstyle techniques and tunes in the wonderful French countryside. We normal head out for nice food and a glass of three of vin rouge in the evenings, and have a great time making music, which culminates in a wee gig for the locals at the end of the week. It's low pressure, though, I promise!

The course It caters for a variety of abilities, but to get the most out of the experience, I recommend you have a sound grasp of the basics.

More details including accommodation and logistics are to be found at the Brittany Music Workshops website.

Is it really October already???

Can't believe it's already October and the Autumn seems to have arrived all at once. It's high time I updated my rather neglected blog with some news. It's not as if I've been lazy - quite the opposite - much has happened since the last posting.

Firstly, back in August I ran the first of my Brittany Guitar Workshops residencies, which was a joyous experience, with a lovely group of students who'd made the trip over from England to stay in the lovely village of La Fontenelle, Brittany. It was hosted by Brenda Dean of Brittany Music Workshops, who looked after us beautifully, and even sang a song with us at the end-of-week concert.

We worked on a variety of pieces from blues to Celtic to pop arrangements, leading up to the aforementioned concert, which was attended by about 30 of the locals. Thanks to Brenda for translating all the stage gossip!

I must give a special plug to the hugely talented Kitty Macfarlane, an up-and-coming singer-songwriter, who was one of my students. She bewitched the lot of us with her voice, guitar playing and all round charm.

Anyway, we're already planning next year's workshop and the dates are looking like August 13-16 inclusive, so if you're interested in coming, put those in the diary!

Secondly, I've just received the new Abi Moore record, Amoeba & Stone. Abi is a dear friend of mine, and this record has been a long time in the making, so I'm really chuffed it's finally out there. There are a few session contributions from me on there, too.

Finally, I've just returned from the 14th Ullapool Guitar Festival in the northwest Highlands of Scotland. This festival has gained a legendary status as the one everyone wants to play at, such is the quality and atmosphere on show. It's quite simply THE place to be for guitar enthusiasts in early October. I feel blessed to have now played at 10 of the last 11 festivals, and I'm already counting down until the 15th festival in 2014.

Highlights included jamming with Clive Carroll and John Smith, playing an epic pool tournament with friends, and of course, performing and teaching!

At one point I found myself playing a brief private banjo recital to Elliott Randall from Steely Dan, Carl Verheyen from Supertramp and Jerry Donahue of, well, everyone. Surreal. Here's Mr. Verheyen having a play on my guitar:

Oh, and speaking of banjos, upon arriving at the festival, Roger Bucknall of Fylde Guitars presented me with my brand new open backed frailing banjo. The hoop is made from 48 separate blocks of Claro Walnut and capped on either side with African Blackwood. It sounds amazing and I'm totally delighted with it:

Well, that brings us more or less up to date, so I'll sign off for now, and promise not to leave it too long before the next installment!

Ireland

I've just returned from the Emerald Isle, where Jackie and I had the very great privilege of taking part in a project called 'Song Sisters' at the Eargail Arts Festival in Letterkenny, Donegal. The project was set up by Irish singing legend, Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh from one of my all-time favourite bands, Altan. The show consisted of representatives from Ireland (Mairéad), Scotland (Eddi Reader), Wales (Julie Murphy) and England (Jackie), all accompanied by their backing musicians of choice. These were Boo Hewerdine, Ciarán Curran, Martin Tourish, Cery Rhys Matthews and me. Here we all are in soundcheck (well, with one empty seat, as I took this picture!).

Each singer offered a song for collaboration with the group, which were rehearsed during the day prior to the concert, and also took turns to perform duos and small ensemble arrangements. It was a real joy to work with such inspiring people, and lovely to hear some of the music for the very first time whilst actually on stage! Despite the sold-out auditorium, the best seats in the house were surely ours.

Christopher Jenkins

Evenin' all...

For the last couple of days, I've been busy in the studio recording guitar and banjo parts for the new solo album by my dear friend, the singer/songwriter, Christopher Jenkins. Chris has been asked to compose the soundtrack to the forthcoming UK movie entitled Maynard, due in cinemas in 2015, and I'm excited to be playing on songs that may feature in the film as well as on his album. Early days, sure, but watch this space.

Chris is a mate from the Academy of Contemporary Music, in Guildford, where we both teach (he is a Music Production lecturer as well as a marketing dude).

More album news as it transpires...