Sunday 16 September 2012

Went to hear Carthy & Swarbrick last night in Milngavie. When Swarb’s playing comes into focus it sparkles in its invention and sheer nerve even now, and songs they first played the year I was born are still sounding fresh and radical. Joy. Swarb played Niel Gow’s Lament for his Second Wife, a bit like Hendrix played The Star Spangled Banner: the tune was in there somewhere if you waited long enough for it to re-appear. When he didn’t get lynched at the end, his surprised comment was ‘think I got away with that!’.  And Martin remains a delight to listen to and watch: what a remarkable musician. I even tuned my guitar to CGCDGA this morning but I don’t have the mental dexterity to play anything sensible on it yet … on Friday night I didn’t make much sense on this in open tunings either.

Meanwhile I’m crawling out from under the weight of funding applications, and the second edit of our Mackintosh album is under way.