Album anniversary, band projects and gallivanting

Busking at a 'busk stop' at
Wimborne Minster Folk Festival 

It’s hard to believe that this week marks two years since the release of my album ‘In the Emptiness.’ One kind reviewer described it as a collection of “highly original songs and atmospheric instrumentals that captivate listeners with their unique charm...” (SLAP Magazine.) I had intended to release a follow-up album by now. I certainly have enough songs and tunes to fill another album but I seem to have got side-tracked. One challenge has been that I invested in a new digital interface to help with the recording process and familiarising myself with this seems, paradoxically,  to have slowed me down. But I’ve also become distracted by being much busier with solo performances and rehearsing with not one but two bands that I’ve joined in the past year.

First, there's Bullo Pill - a dark, experimental folk-rock collective based around Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire. We’ve been practicing regularly and did our first gig in February as part of the Gloucester Folk Trail. Then, there's the other band, Brandy for the Parson, based around North Worcestershire, with a vibe similar to the folk-rock bands of the late 60s/early 70s, (bands like Pentangle, The Strawbs and Fairport Convention.)

In between band practices and local solo gigs, I’ve been gallivanting to Newcastle (for a dulcimer-players’ ‘Spring Fling’), to Edinburgh (for some impromptu playing in some of the old town’s best pubs), to Somerset (for Dulcimers at Halsway Manor – the National Centre for Folk Arts) and, last weekend, to Dorset,  busking at various ‘busk stops’ at Wimborne Minster Folk Festival.

There are a few more gigs – and a few more festivals – before the summer’s out*, and then I’ve promised myself in the autumn I will make a concerted effort to record the tracks for the next album. You heard it here first!

* For up-to-date information on my gigs check my Facebook page or my website www.tonygillam.co.uk