NEWS FROM THE BLUE HOUSE
UPDATED 27/04/11
THE MOST UP TO DATE NEWS IS ON
JOLLY OLD FACEBOOK THESE DAYS, HERE
'IV' NEWS - PLAY THE VIDEO:
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Here's a rough and ready peek at some of the songs on the new album (and a wobbly cover version), lovingly recorded by Dave Butcher at BBC Suffolk last month. We weren't, it has to be said, at the top of our game for this session, but it's pretty good.
Radio Session Nov 2010 by Songs from the Blue House
All SftBH albums can now be easily downloaded here, via those lovely people at Bandcamp. You can download in various formats, from conveniently small mp3s right up to lossless formats for audiophiles. Best of all, your money goes to us, not a 3rd party whom neither of us really know.
http://songsfromthebluehouse.bandcamp.com
Hey! Shane's new book is out and this time he's spilling the beans on SftBH...
Buy it here - lulu.com
A video of new song 'Rolling & Tumbling' with hardly any mistakes from a great gig at 'Acoustic Routes' in Cambridge the other evening...
Video courtesy of splendid organiser Bernard Hoskin.
An established and entirely worthy Blue House tradition of niece-related performances was maintained in the presence of His Majesty Turny Winn, King of the Banjo people, at a garden party on Saturday in Posh North Essex.
Emma and Orlaith, diminutive nieces of Slim Shaney and Mr. Gibbon respectively, added a harmonious chorus to ‘Her’, one of many striking performances by an almost full-strength SftBH team featuring as it did Nick Zala on the pedal steel, who managed to expand the accepted boundaries of the instrument by performing a cello part on it at one point during a fairly relaxed session of around an hour’s duration.
The addition of some other children to whom none of us were related (as far as we’re aware) pushed the onstage head count as far as a respectable thirteen at one point, which although not a personal best is certainly a very creditable showing.
Next stop, the Chappel Rail Museum on Thursday September 10th. A beer festival, you say? How delightful!
Oh this is terrible, we
haven't kept in touch at all...naughty Songs from the Blue House.
Well frankly we did what
we normally do over winter and hibernated...although there is new material
slowly being worked up and getting the odd live airing. There's even more stuff
awaiting further attention on James' PC. He rather likes them as instrumentals
so heaven knows if he or Helen will ever actually get to sing anything on them!
We have had some rather
good fortune since last we mailed, a really quite enormous chunk of 'Beartown
Road' from the 'Tree' album has been used in an American film called 'Coyote
County Loser', which will not only deliver to writers Shane and James a fistful
of dollars (quite a small fist) by way of royalties, it actually looks like a
good movie....more here - www.coyotecountyloser.com.
Our thanks to High Barn Records and Heyday Media for making that happen.
We had a great gig in
Saffron Walden last week, played a blinder and then Helen got to see a punch-up
in the car park, which she very demurely didn't enjoy at all.
We have procured some live employment in the coming weeks as follows, with a return to the Maverick Festival which we so enjoyed last summer. See the 'live' page for details.
Up to Big L's number 3 now...the it went to number 2 and slithered down gracefully. Ahem.
Number 14 at The Big L this week. Lawks!
'(Don't Fear) The Reaper' now at number 16 in the Big L Fab 40. It's a fab smasheroonie.
Still climbing up the Fab 40 - number 20 now! Phew!
Up to number 25 in the 'Fab 40' at Big L this week - we're getting fabberer.
'REAPER' IN WITH A BULLET AT THE BIG L
'(Don't Fear) The Reaper' has nestled comfortably in at no. 33 in Big L's 'Fab 40' this week. Big L is in some ways a reincarnation of pirate station Radio London, which broadcasted happily from the North Sea some decades ago. Its staff includes such legends of the airwaves as Mike Read, David Hamilton, Adrian John and Emperor Rosko, and by jiminy we've made it into their purely subjective, meritocracy-based chart. On Friday, Mike Read was heard to declare our efforts 'Good' and point people at where they may purchase it. We're quite, quite dizzy (and fab) with it all. Thanks Big L!
'REAPER' EDITED SINGLE VERSION - OUT NOW!
The edited version of '(Dont Fear) The Reaper' is now available to download at all sorts of places, but to make it easy here's a few links:
Rhapsody (U.S. customers only)
Amazon.com (U.S. customers only)
FREE DOWNLOAD UNTIL 1st JANUARY
Well, we've gone all
Christmassy and are pleased to offer you a free download of 'Twinkly Lights', an
out-take from the 'Tree' sessions.
Please step forward Mark Coyle at 'Woven Wheat Whispers', who has kindly hosted
the file for us free of charge.
The download will only be available until 1st January 2008, at the following
link -
http://www.wovenwheatwhispers.co.uk/folk_community/pc/viewContent.asp?idpage=22.
There's a bit there about the song and who played what, etc.
All the very best to you all for the silly season and wishing you peace and
achievement in the New Year
Sunday 25th November - Live Webcast:
We're on at about 6.30pm, watch it here or go to www.sundaycellar.com
DANG! - CANCELLED! Due to hosts' illness...get well soon folks.
'TREE' - New Album
Out now! Click here to go to the shop.
Here's what it looks like, having been lovingly handled by Wendy Meldrum at The High Barn -
OFF
We had an absolute blast at Oxford Folk Festival, once we'd all managed to get to the Town Hall via the slightly car-unfriendly Oxford road system. A massive sell-out main hall concert saw us play to 800 souls on the Friday night, in support of The Ukulele Orchestra Of Great Britain. This was followed by a slightly more restrained lunchtime set at noon on Saturday to 50-odd brave early-risers. Thanks to all involved.
First Two Albums Available Via Download 23/02/07
The first two SftBH albums are now available to download in mp3 format via the lovely people at 'Woven Wheat Whispers' here. You don't get the bonus tracks, but hey, they wouldn't be 'bonus' on the CDs if you got them everywhere! Obviously it's a bit cheaper to download them than get them through the mail (especially if you are not UK-based), and quicker too!
Bargains galore in the SftBH Shop! 16/02/07
Well, what with the recording of the new CD 'Tree' very nearly finished, we have reduced our older CDs in price in the time-honoured tradition. The first album is now just £6.00, and 'Too' a mere £7.00. So, if we haven't tempted you so far, maybe this'll help. Cheers!
'Tree' line-up 16/02/07
So with most of the actual recording bits done, like the last one the new album features a multitude of people doing various things after being cajoled and (occasionally) paid. The pretty much usual crew of James Partridge (guitar, vocals, backing vocals), Shane Kirk (guitar, vocals, backing vocals, bouzouki) , Richard Hammond (bass, backing vocals), Helen Mulley (vocals, backing vocals), Richard Lockwood (fiddle), Tony Winn (banjo), Russell Barnes (mandolin, dobro) were joined by:
Paul Read (drums/percussion)
Nick Zala (pedal steel/guitar)
Tony Turrell (piano/keyboards) www.myspace.com/tonyturrell
Liz Townsend (cello/backing vocals) www.aloneme.com
James Munson (drums/percussion/backing vocals)
Paul Moseley (1 x lead vocal/backing vocals) www.myspace.com/paulmosley
Judy Dyble (1 x lead vocal/backing vocals) www.myspace.com/judydyble
Steven Mears (guitar/backing vocals/writing credits) www.myspace.com/picturehouse
Stephen Constable (backing vocals) www.myspace.com/picturehouse
David Booth (backing vocals) www.aloneme.com
Sarah Springett (backing vocals) www.aloneme.com
Cara Winter (backing vocals) www.carawinter.com
It was wonderful to have such major contributions from Paul Read, Nick Zala, Tony Turrell, Liz Townsend, Paul Moseley and Judy Dyble - all performers whose work we admire very very much, and who have all added some really fabulous stuff to what has become an absolute monster of an album. Most of the time we sat back wide-eyed and wondered why on earth people like this had agreed to come and play on our songs with the vaguest of guidance; but we did know why we'd asked them alright - it was because they are all people who have enough vision and musical common sense to interpret the tunes and know exactly what to add. We will be forever grateful to all of the contributors.
More Stuff - 19/10/06
After a rousing East Anglian tour of Colchester and Ipswich, we have now settled down to finishing the new album, which should be out in time for the New Year rush...<ahem>... Recent contributions to the recording have come from Judy Dyble (www.judydyble.com) and Paul Mosley out've Moses (www.mosesband.com), all of which has been a surprise to, and a delight for us. Rather than being thoroughly fed up with it, which is what normally happens about now during the making of a new album, we are thoroughly engaged and energized by the recordings, which hopefully bodes well. A lot of this enthusiasm is down to the folks at The High Barn, where we are recording it. Their patience, encouragement and backing continues to be a source of great joy. Thanks folks.
Stuff - 27/09/06
There is a new video on our Myspace site here - it features a couple of songs from the Cornbury Festival in July 2006, videoed by our chum Nick from Oxford.
Work on the new album recommences in October, after we've had the pleasure of backing Judy Dyble in a bit of a one-off at The High Barn on 29th September.
Nice to have a few gigs to do in the autumn, see the 'Live' page for details.
We had a fabulous time at the inaugural Acorn Fayre in Higham Ferrers, and saw off quite a bit of 'Summer Lightning' too. The Acorn Fayre was a success in every respect, we're told and there will be more, which is great news.
Cheers, all.
Not asleep, just ruminatin' and creatin'...(part two) 28/07/06
We had a fabulous time at Cornbury Festival this month, performing with a nice big sound in a nice big field on a nice big stage in front of a nice big audience. We were introduced on stage by Mark Ellen from 'The Word' magazine (www.wordmagazine.co.uk) and very well looked after by stage manager Glen Smith. We hope to have picked up a couple of bookings out of the gig, and will also get a feature in The Word next issue. All of which is very helpful. Many thanks to all who helped us up onto the Cornbury stage, by whatever means. Particular thanks to Simon and James from The High Barn who came and did our sound for no reward other than the sheer fun of it.
The BBC Suffolk stage at Ipswich Music Day let us have a go at their live broadcast earlier on in July as well - we were rather troubled by not being able to hear much via the monitors, but it made for an auspicious live debut for drummer Paul Read, which he grabbed with both hands and proceeded to beat the living daylights out of. :-) Even Tony Turrell played some keyboards in the first of his three performances around the various stages that day. The day was blisteringly hot and topped off nicely by Jimi Love's fantastic Prince tribute 'Purple Rain' (www.princetribute.co.uk) . Splendid.
We also had fun at The Swan in Little Totham's beer festival and just about managed 2 hours facing the sun! Since Cornbury we have mostly stayed in the shade both literally and metaphorically...however....
....there has been more movement in the studio on the recording of third album 'Tree', Nick Zala came and played some excellent pedal steel stuff as well as adding a guitar part in a moment of blinding clarity. Engineering duties have mostly shifted from Simon Allen to James Munson, who also knows how to hit things rythmically, so he's done a bit of percussion too.
We have also lined up a couple of guest vocalists for two songs, just because we felt like it really, and because we thought they'd probably do a better job of it than us. You'll just have to wait and see who they are! Suffice to say they're good mates and include at least one living legend!
Not asleep, just ruminatin' and creatin'...29/06/06
There has been a bit of progress with 'Tree' these last few days, with Paul Read hitting some drums and percussion, and Tony Turrell putting down some marvellous piano and hammond organ. Tony Winn is in on Wednesday doing some banjo, then on June 6th Tony Turrell will be back with some string arrangements. Phew!
I think it's fair to say that the thing has turned into somewhat of a monster, for instance we spent over an hour on Monday trying desperately to find exactly the right 'tabla' sounds for 'Incredible' before giving up and putting tom-toms, triangle, and then a kettle drum and a gong on it. Paul also spent a while triple-tracking various combinations of cutlery which we probably won't even use...it was that sort of day. Many, many thanks to Paul for putting up with us and our ridiculous insistence on putting drums on halfway through the recording process rather than at the beginning so he can keep everyone in line.
Warm glow moment - the engineer Simon Allen turns to us and says "This is going to be a very good album." :-)
Radio Radio
Week 35 saw a SftBH ensemble ensembling outside BBC Suffolk, who had invited us to spend half an hour of quality drive time radio with them, chatting and playing songs on our acoustical instrumentation.
Host Stephen Foster had put in a request for "Reaper", but we were pretty much left to our own devices after that and managed to perform lush-sounding live versions of 'Big Dipper', 'Antibike' and a left-field late entry in 'Happy Day' in between discussing such matters as Ipswich Town's recent form (during which James remembered, seconds too late, that the pre-match music he'd been unfavourably reflecting on had been produced by our host), looking back on the sound of the first album, our forthcoming Beatles revisioning at The High Barn, and a remarkably bluff and succinct quote from Fiddly along the lines that by performing original music we were creating the traditional music of tomorrow, which had James and Myself in an appreciatively synchronised eyebrow-lift.
La Mulley debuted her lead bouzouki skills, Banjo Barnes performed rather well on the mandolin despite his recent wrist injury (make up your own jokes if you will, but he actually fell off a ladder) and Gibbon remained enigmatically silent. Full marks for a swift wiring, sound-checking and live broadcast in record time to our chums behind the scenes in sound engineering at BBC Central. Always a pleasure.