a lottery ticket/touring

i applied to play on the danny kyle open stage at celtic connections long before the winter break, and got the call a couple of days ago to say i'd been selected to play. i think that was the only demo/bio i sent out in 2009! i'm not a great biography writer; writing in the third person was something i took up initially in the first days of my myspace account in an effort to appear serious/professional, but self promotion has never been a talent of mine and in the end it all sounded forced so i gave up on it. there have been so many earnest demos sent out over the years. the first few i thought of as lottery tickets, a chance for the BIGTIME if only someone with money to invest would listen, even the appalingly home-recorded cassette tape [no really!] i bid farewell to back in 2001. god help the man i sent that to. i think i begrudged what i saw was the 'begging' aspect, or maybe that's just how i came across in my tone of written voice in whatever blurb went out with the particular recording at the particular time. regardless, they serve as some sort of line in the sand or milestone in the story of my writing. i think i've taken a proud photo of most of them because it was so hard to send them out into the world!

so thanks to the latest lottery ticket, i get to start this year with a bang so the investment was more than worth it. and there is already a small scottish tour booked with my good pal and longtime collaborator caroline kemp for early in the year. it's so nice to play music with someone you aspire to play like! it's all that folky guitar [she's much nicer to her guitar compared with the beating mine gets] and the voice with real character. i'm still working on it. BUT the last few months of quiet study have afforded me the chance to re-learn some strumming technique [i'm working backwards now] which is perking up the new riffs nicely. there's been lots of new writing so once that starts to sound polished there will be a few more... you've guessed it... DEMOS on my various web allotments...

til then

fiona